mp3 codec crackling

help pls

I reinstalled XP after my old hdd died and i got a new one.
now i do not seem to have the right codecs or codec configuration. no clue what went wrong.

When I play some AVI files that use the original MP3 codec (fraunhofer, version 1.5somthing) the sound crackles sporadically.
First I ignored it but it's pretty annoying...

other AVI files that use other audio ecoders like AC3 etc do not have this problem...(checked it with GraphEdit the old DX tool and GSpot)

I got an old SB live 5.1.
Tried to update the drivers, loaded every fucking driver and pack fromthe SB live page, but it does not work anymore, it bitches about a wrong driver version on my system....
I got the 01.07.2001 - 5.1.2535.0 version.

now i searched for some alternative mp3 decoder like lame but how do i install it? i know how to set priorities of the audio codec, but i am obviously to dumb to find an installer...

or any other reason the sound is crackling?

i am pretty much desperate

i finally managed to install the latest ffdshow and register it for the audio of movie files with mp3

it got "better" but it still is not perfect.
at least it doesn't crackle that much at all anymore...

damn if i only knew how I did it the 5 years before that it worked... a bit mind-boggling the whole issue

i thought of l3codeca.acm and l3codecp.acm since I fixed that back then for games like NOLF and Freelancer, but ffdshow uses a different library...

maybe I should install the latest Windows Media Player *sigh* aka the Deb1l