CD audio player problems

[Houptee]

Hi group, I am running XP on a older FIC socket 7 motherboard with a AMD K62-450, 256mb Ram.

The on-board sound would not work properly under XP, I tried flashing Bios, downloading newest drivers etc., no luck, it just sounded like a machine gun. I then disabled the on board chip in the Bios and bought a sound board at the computer show. It is a 4 channel type with a Cmedia chipset CMI8738. Well it works ok now as far as windows sounds, but if I play a audio CD, it sounds all choppy. I tried everything, newest drivers, moving it to diff. PCI slot,etc. no change.

I then noticed something, the thin cable I always assumed was needed to run from the CD to the soundboard doesnt have any effect if unplugged while listening to a audio CD. I tried unplugging that small cable on my other pc that is working fine and it had no effect on music playback.

What is the purpose of that small cable? It says "audio out" on my CD ROM but it must play thru the IDE cable. Anyone have any advice or ideas?
Thanks

 

[linney]

Is your cable for headphones?

 

[Houptee]

No I'm talking about the cable inside the pc that you connect from the CD Rom drive to the sound board. Its a 3 conductor cable red,white,black wires. I always thought that the audio signal passed thru this cable when u listen to music but apparently it does not. What is it for then?