I've had problems with onboard sound before...IIRC I had to switch it off digital and leave it on standard AC-97. That fixed a lot of audio skipping and echo's when using the mike in game.

If your using onboard sound can you tell me what mobo you have so I can look in to it? Maybe I cna find a fix...sure I have it on an old post round here somewhere.

http://forums.fsmod.com/viewtopic.php?id=8059

There it is. I never did get round to adding pics, but hopefully it may help. You might also need to go into bios and switch from realtek hd audio to AC-97.

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!

good stuff guys thanks
i def will check out the saturday mayhem lol
im in NY thats like 2-3 pm here still at work most days
and im sure by 0:00 (7 pm here) its all done and you guys are off to sleep
i like to play after 9pm usually but ill def try earlier from now on
i did notice the DS server was about half full yesterday afternoon (but i was still having issues that that moment)

im using an Asus M2R32-MVP which i do believe has the realteck onboard sound
XP Pro 64bit
ATI 3870 512
2 gigs ram 4-4-4-12
MS sidewinder forcefeedback 2 joystick (old but works great)
force feedback doesnt work in BF games
the only one ive actually had it work correctly is LOMAC (Lock-On - modern air combat)
it was great when youd lose some of your hydraulics and the stick gets all heavy or pulls to one side and you really have to fight it to stay in the air
ive broken the control linkage (in game) in lomac and the stick was just completely loose (like it was off) until i hit the ground
and sure as sht it said my controls were severed lol not an error  (lucky shot from a cpu controlled AA gun)

*EDIT*
wait
my bad
its a soundmax integrated sound card
im gonna try playing for a while more than i got to last night so ill see how it goes with the default settings