Itunes, VLC, Internet

[fullofcoffee]

MOTU 8 Pre firewire, Windows vista, all updates. Toshiba dual core laptop.
Hi, I've read many of the posts concerning the issues around the motu and audio cracks and pops. etc. I feel like I have the same problem, except that when I am working in Sonar 8, I do not have any issues at all, no drop out, pops, nothing, which is great!. I do however have a problem when trying to watch a movie with VLC player, or listen to I-Tunes. Or web browsing. It seems to digitally distort. It starts with clicks and pops, then everything goes to what I would describe as white noise. Really loud. When working in Sonar I open the motu audio console and set the sample rate to 96000, clock source is internal, samples per buffer 512. I also have checked the use stereo pairs and use WaveRT for windows audio. When not in Sonar, I switch the sample rate to 44100. Everything else stays the same, except the samples per buffer automaticlly change to 2048. When trying to use a "windows" program to play audio I find that the setting on the volume mixer seem to have to be very low to not cause the above mentioned feedback. But even then, its hard to say when it will happen.
Again I have no issues when using Sonar 8 and the Motu 8 pre. Its the rest of the time.

Any thoughts.
Thank-You