I got my game running great, no lag, no stuttering, right? But there was no sound but the background atmospheric sounds. About 3-4 sconds later, footsteps and the firing of my rifle all play like they're meant to.
I'm thinking, "What the heck...?" The game's music is playing fine, the wind sounds are going, the cricket things are croaking.

And I restart the game. It doesn't give.


So now I'm stuck with a PLAYABLE Fallout: New Vegas, but the sound waits for a couple seconds before it actually plays.

Can anyone help?

Could be FFDSHOW or some other codec. Are your audio drivers up-to-date?
Post a dxdiag: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1122570-how-to-dxdiag/