Absic,
Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out.
I initially did a lot of searches on the m-audio forums and saw a lot of posts about this issue, without any solid resolution offered. As it turns out M-Audio is basically gone, and its product line sold off to a couple different companies. Plus the audio interface I have is no longer produced and they stopped software support in 2010.
That said I think I may have isolated the issue, I came across a post that stated that the removal of the Nvidia audio driver corrected the issue. I want to use the Realtek offered by the Gigabyte, but it appears as though the nvidia has taken over and become a little gremlin, not allowing me to disable it without disabling all audio. So I am going to contact EVGA and inquire about the issue and maybe do a fresh install minus the nvidia audio drivers. I really hope that cures what ails me.
When I plugged in on my older laptop the M-Audio device took over, which was nice. I think it becomes an issue with "too many cooks in the kitchen" audio driver, and audio enhancer wise. I have a feeling the Nvidia driver is causing my problem.
on a side note, if I needed to buy a new audio interface, that may not be so bad either
Thanks again for your help!