[RandyMcCharles]

Thanks for spending time on this, Roy.
I have tried several different cables. I also occasionally use these cables elsewhere without problems.
I don't use an external drive with my notebook. I can fit my music files with 25% free disk. I can try defragging, though I don't think this is the issue as I don't recycle the disk space much. (I just occasionally add more music files and rebuild the songs database.
I do use an external drive with my desktop system, which is where I import new songs and create songbooks, and I don't have the stutter problem on that system (also XP).