Can't properly monitor my vci100

I have a vci100 hooked to my laptop, with sound routed through a novation Nio 2/4 external soundcard. I am using the Traktor 3 LE that came bundled with the vci100. The issue that I am having is that when I try to monitor a mix through my headphones the music that is coming out of the headphones is a tiny bit ahead the music that comes out of the master speakers [if i load a song into A or B and listen to it through the speakers and headphones at the same time, it sounds like a reverb (the headphones being the first to make the sound, with the speakers following right after)]. I can't mix this way, because beat matching what I am listening to on the headphones goes to hell when I try to fade in the second song (what was on the headphones was actually a little ahead of what ends up being faded in and heard through the speakers, so the beats only matched through the headphones). Is this an issue with Traktor, the vci, or the soundcard? I have tried adjusting latency, using the other headphone jack on the soundcard, and everything else I could think of. I don't want to blow a bunch of cash on new software and find out that it was not a Traktor problem. The vci is pretty much useless for me until I get this figured out. Thanks for any help!

 

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I have discovered that the problem is with the soundcard. No matter what program I am using (Windows Media Player, Traktor LE, Traktor 3 demo), the sound coming from the headphones (headphone 1 or 2) is always a tad bit ahead of the music that comes out of the stereo's speakers (line outputs 1&2 or 3&4). This happens both when I have the soundcard running through the mixer and when I have it connected directly to the stereo. I had it suggested to me that my Windows based laptop was not powerful enough, but a newer dual core processor and 3gb of RAM should be able to run anything I can throw at it. Any suggestions as to what I should do? I'm guessing that it is probably too late to return the soundcard. I bought it to monitor my vci100, which can't happen when the sound on the headphones does not exactly match the sound coming from the outputs. A bit upsetting, to say the least :-(

 

What spec is your current laptop

 

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Thanks swiss, here are the specs:
Core2Duo T7500@2.2ghz
3GB RAM
Vista Home Premium 32bit

The system is functioning properly at this time with the exception of the sound card issue. 1GB of RAM and 5% of processor are in use prior to starting any of the aforementioned audio programs, so this task should be handled very easily. To clarify, the headphones and the lines connected to mixer/stereo both come from the external sound card which is connected/powered via usb (Novation Nio 2/4; headphones connect in the front of the unit and audio lines out from the back of the unit). It is very strange that the headphone channel and line outs are not matched, and I know of no possible way to remedy the problem. When I play music in any audio program, and I listen to the headphones and speakers at the same time, the music from the headphones is about 1/2 a second ahead of what comes out of the stereo speakers.