Mac mini choppy sound

hi ive got a problem with my mac mini mid 2009 model, when i plug some headphones in or external speaker into the audio output, the sound is choppy it sort of goes on then off very quickly with like 1sec intervals. its unlistenable. please help

If you bought your mac second hand, you might not have got the install dvd that came with it. Your mac can boot from a dvd or external disk. If you have a mac friend he might be able to help you with that.
When you boot from a clean system on a dvd you can eliminate problems caused by faulty files in the system software.
The other possibility I can think of is hardware. Either in the circuitry or simply in the connector. The intermittent sound you describe does not indicate problems with the plug, but does it crackle if you wriggle the plug?
If your mini has a HDMI plug, you can plug that into a tv and try if the sound is better that way.
Ingmar

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my sound doesn't work in various applications
including iChat (interface sounds of iChat only;
audio for chats works OK), Windows Media player &
Flash Player.
While re-booting SOMETIMES restores the [interface]
sound to iChat, the same cannot be said for WMP &
Flash players. I have uninstalled Flash Player and
reinstalled the beta universal application from
Macromedia and I still cannot hear any Flash based
sounds.
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Mac mini choppy sound

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