I appreciate your reply JScones, unfortunately i have had to play the game with your soundcard suggestion since day 1 so this is not a solution to my problem.
Working with Krugers problem i've had no luck either.
As mentioned before, i've played SHIII (for the past 2 months btw) without changing/modding anything. System wise i have the similar situation.
It just leaves me without any clue on what could've caused this...
and i can't understand it.
I'm not looking forward to reinstalling. Over the long time i had this game i took bits and pieces from various mods to make something i'm really happy with. If possible i'd like to avoid this as i probably don't know anymore which bits i took out of which mod.