If it is in windowed mode, you can run it side-by-side with something like Process Explorer to see if there is some kind of resource spike or something in particular being read at that time that causes it.
Really, stereo only? Laptops are stupid, I hate them. Did you look at HP's website to see if there's some kind of audio deck application that is supposed to run with them? What model is it?
EDIT: Also try to run "sfc /scannow" from an elevated command prompt and see if it finds any errors.