Thanks, Chiaz. Moving thread back to XP.

With reference to the Bad DirectSound driver, this could be the sound card that Winamp is looking for. You should be able to fix that by selecting Preferences.Plug-ins.Output, double-click on DirectSound output. The available devices will be selectable from the Device tab.

Fixed the sound problem, I guess it was a one off.

I was considering files might be corrupted on the hard drive, would they have shown up in any of the the Pre-Work tests? Or doesn't my problem show symptoms of corrupted files?

Glad to hear the sound fix worked.

Next, access the Properties of your C: drive.
Under Tools tab, click on the Error-checking Check Now... button
Place a check mark in both boxes. Click on the Start button.
You will have to reboot to complete the process.
This will confirm that your C: drive is functioning correctly.
If this doesn't pass, stop and let us know. Otherwise continue.

After the above, place the XP windows install CD in the drive.
Go to Start>Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt
Enter: sfc /scannow
Note: There is a space between the "c" and the "/".
This will confirm that the Windows System Files are intact.

Hopefully both of these test will pass and we can go on from there.

Both tests ran OK (although very slowly).

Anything else to try?

Review according to thread information:
Computer passed Security exam.
C: driver passed HDD check.
System Files passed test.
Device Manger looks good.
Device drivers are up to date.

Next is the memory test. Download and run http://www.hcidesign.com/memtest/ for not less than 24 hours straight. If you get one error, you have a memory problem. In that event, remove one memory strip and test the other strip for 24 hours. Again if you get one error the strip is bad. Now test the other strip. Same conditions. While you're at it, verify that both memory strips have the same manufacturer and model number. Be sure you properly set each strip in its socket.

Good Luck...

Memory is fine. This is beginning to look more and more like a hardware problem, isn't it?

Cheers.

Could be, but let's check on last thing first.
Do you know how to enter your BIOS?
It's usually by pressing the Delete key during initial bootup.
Reset the BIOS to the default settings (even if you've never changed anything).
Then, save on exit.

Good Luck...