Multitrack drop outs in Cool Edit- Help!

[Court Jester]

I have recently purchased the PreSonus Firepod, so I’ll be able to record 8 tracks simultaneously into Cool Edit. When I was using the sound card from the mother board (only 2 channel), I had no problems even playing 20 tracks in multitrack mode. I have correctly installed the drivers for the PreSonus, and set the latency on the hardware and software from 1.5 - 25. I have tried different buffer sizes, and times (1 sec to 20 seconds) for recording and playback under the settings menu in Cool Edit. I have enabled and disabled dithering (even though I don't know what that's for). I have disabled the computer sound card in the bios, removed unnecessary programs and only have the basic needs running with Cool Edit. I have upgraded my memory. I know the PC can handle the task. I have reinstalled Cool Edit. Cool edit is recognizing the PreSonus and is recording individually (mono) 8 simultaneous tracks. My problem is -------it is stuttering approximately 30 seconds - 1 minute during playback and recording, but not at the same point in the song (as if it can't process the info from all the tracks at the same time). I don't know what to try next, but I’d like to use this gear for recording drums and live recording mix transfers. I love Cool Edit as I have tried Cakewalk, Cue base, Protools LE, and Sound Forge. Can Anyone Help?

[Strryder]

What do you have the buffer size set for on the Firepod's control panel?

I would go up to 512 samples per buffer, and give it a try if it's set lower than that right now, then try 1024.

[Court Jester]

Thank you everyone.
The Issue was hardware related.
Thank God - It has been resolved.