Does a external alternative exist to replace Laptop Sound Card?

[Woodcycl]

If I want better/higher quality sound (primarily thru headset & mic) is there any kind of external device that can be plugged in (via USB I guess) that could be used in place of the internal sound card?

Basically, I have a family member who uses a online website's voip as part of her job and she and the folks she's talking to via voip are both hearing static, dropping out, etc. We've tried better headsets and mics, but they only help marginally. So, I'm thinking if we could bypass the integrated audio, maybe we can resolve the problem.

Thoughts?

Thanks for any advice.

[Midknyte]

I'm assuming you already tried updating the audio and chipset drivers.

You mean something like this?
http://us.store.creative.com/Creativ...B001BS3A3E.htm

http://us.store.creative.com/Creativ...B0044DEDC0.htm

http://us.store.creative.com/Creativ...B0044DEDCA.htm

Never tried em, though.

[Woodcycl]

Definitely updated all the drivers as this was the first thing we tried.

Yeah, something like those. I'll try and find some reviews on them to see if they might feasible to try.

Thanks!

[Train]

Turtle Beach has a couple items.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/...-amigo-ii.aspx

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/...-micro-ii.aspx

Never tried them, but their sound cards are better in my opinion and anything Creative has come up with.