Skype issues with my MBA & Snow Leopard

Question

I have been having a very frustrating time with Skype on my MBA running Snow Leopard. Initially, apart from Skype, I was having the big problem of 150% kernel_task usage of my CPU, slowing my MBA down to almost an unusable state. I bought and installed Coolbook and that solves the problem. However, even then, each time whenever I start up Skype (latest version), the icon will be bouncing for a good 3 minutes or more before it starts up. In the process, everything on my MBA slows to a crawl. Once Skype is up and running, each time I clicked my mouse on anything (e.g. to open an email, or on a website), i will get the spinning pizza wheel for a good 5 seconds before I get a response. The moment I shut down Skype, all is back to normal. When I check under Activity Window, I don't see any unusual use of the CPU or memory. Yet this 5-second delay and the spinning wheel will continue to appear. Anyone else with this problem?
Forgot to mention that mine is the Rev 1 MBA, 1.6Ghz.
I never had this problem in the past running Leopard,

Answer 1

Try resetting some of the hardware involved (PRAM~NVRAM). See this Apple KB for details, etc.:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Can't hurt to try, and apparently this has helped others recently.
As well, get the 10.6.2 update asap... I recommend downloading the combo updater if you have the chance.