When using Audacity to record LPs to the computer hard drive, the recorded file always skips when being played back or copied to a CD. The computer is an IBM Aptiva with 64 MB RAM (54% free) running Windows 98. How can I prevent the skipping?

There is a good reference I found for Audacity called the Audacity Wiki. A particular section of the Wiki deals with problems when using Audacity, in particular for your case, skipping. The page is available at audacityteam.org/wiki/index.pl?Identifying_Problems. The cause of skipping is because Audacity cannot write the audio to the computer hard drive fast enough to keep up with the audio source being recorded. The site contains useful tips for reducing the amount of CPU resources being used on your computer, giving Audacity more resources with which to play. Given the specifications of your computer, it’s likely that Audacity is having problems given the small amount of RAM in your machine and also the likely slow speed of your processor. Even though you have said the machine has 54% of RAM free, this is probably when the computer is not recording an audio stream using Audacity (at which time, the resources of your computer are probably being strained). I suggest you give the suggestions at the Audacity Wiki a go, but you still may experience problems given the performance of your computer. As always, respect copyright laws when copying audio.