Sound problems when downloading files on DP G4s

Two Apple Discussions Board threads cover sound problems that occur mainly when downloading files from the Internet to a dual processor (DP) Power Mac G4. The symptoms appear to mainly affect OS X but may extend to OS 9 as well.

An initial posting in this Apple Discussions Board thread reads: "The speaker on my G4 dual 800 cracks and pops when any sound is being emitted and I am downloading anything from the internet (AirPort). This is also the case when I have headphones or external speakers connected (USB as well)." This may be limited to OS X.

An initial posting in this Apple Discussions Board thread reports a related finding: "I just received a dual 800 (standard config) with 10.1 and sometimes have serious skipping while playing CD's (via iTunes) that seems to be correlated with network loads (connected through cable modem).

Jim Reay suggests "A temporary fix: Do a Top, find the iTunes program, and 'sudo renice –1 <pid of itunes>'. This should stop the popping."

Update: Erik Barzeski replies: "This suggestion doesn't work for me - iTunes is not processor starved; it's network activity of some kind, and it seems to be network activity in Carbon apps only."

A MacFixIt Forums thread (Poor iTunes Playing (Processor Starved?)) covers the same territory.