[linux-audio-user] a question for any Dell Inspiron owners

Greetings: Reading the Macbook discussion leads me to ask this question here. It's probably 'way OT, sorry about that. Ivy (aka the Better Half) has a nice Inspiron that's compromised in two significant respects: It runs Windows XP and it has a major audio annoyance. I know what to do about the OS, but I wondered if anyone else suffers with the same audio problem. There is a persistent echo in the sound, and it's really annying when we're watching a movie on the box. I can't find any control that would disable the effect, I don't even know what chipset's in the machine, and I've not found any mention of this problem on the net. If you're using an Inspiron under Linux or Windows, please let me know if this trouble is unique to Ivy's machine. Suggestions for fixing it would be much appreciated, that echo effect is truly irritating. Best, dp