Stuttering, skipping playback when streaming

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I keep experiencing stuttered playback when trying to stream music on Spotify Premium. It will work fine for 5-10 songs, and then it will start skipping (playing the same one second of audio over and over) like a badly scratched record. The only way to stop it is by closing the program completely. This is a temporary fix though, as the problem returns again soon after restart.

For reference, I am using an Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, with Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1. I have turned off hardware acceleration in the Spotify settings. 

Please help!  
Thanks in advance...