soundcard in computer doing weird things

michael_w

Wasn't sure where to post this so here goes.

I've been just listening to music on my computer (non critical background music) though the audio out from my motherboard (no outboard sound card) into a sonic impact t-amp that powers the mini pipes I built. Out of the blue today it just seemed to cut out. I can still hear the music and if I turn it way up, but it's bearly audible. I know it's not the t-amp because I tested it with my pocket pc as a source and it works just fine.

Has the soundcard portion of my mobo finally kicked the bucket? It's odd because if I restart it goes back to normal but then it repeated the problem a few hours later. I did some spyware and virus scans but nothing came of it. The only thing I've installed in the last couple days would be the macromedia flash suite, but I doubt that has anything to do with it...

Any ideas?

bobman1235

Sure sounds like it kicked the bucket. May want ot hit eBay, get a cheap sound card (like ten bucks) and install it and see if the problem continues. Seems a lot of work for a simple diagnosis though.

On teh off chance that it's software, maybe try re-installing the drivers? What software are you using to actually play music? Perhaps re-install that?

heiney9

I had a similiar problem. When I used Adobe Audition for the first time, which is a sound editing program, a driver/setting conflicted with my audio output from my soundcard. I started to get this distorted, choppy, low output sound. It took my brother and I (he's a computer genius) many hours of investigating to assume it was some sort of conflict with the program. I never did find exactly what it was, but I did a system restore using a date a couple days before I noticed the problem. It worked great, but I have never used Adobe Audition since. It maybe the Macromedia suite that caused the problem.

Try a system restore, setting it for a date on the calendar a few days before the problem started. If it goes waway chances are good it was the program.

H9

michael_w

Thats a good idea. Maybe the drivers are just old enough to start creating problems with my system. I'll update the sound card / mobo drivers and see how that goes.

The problem isn't application specific because once it does it any sound that my computer makes is muffled in the same way (not just iTunes). I'm always changing things on my computer so it would be hard to pick out something I've installed or uninstalled that might have caused the problem to begin with. It's also hard to tell because it's only done this twice after a couple hours of listening and has been fixed with a restart.

I don't have system restore turned on right now because it's not really useful to me. If my computer is messed up badly enough that I can't fix it myself I probably have to reformat it. I'd rather use the 20+gb for other things since I have a lot of stuff on my computer. I may, however, try uninstalling the macromedia programs.

A decent sound card is on my list among many other computer upgrades (ram, video card etc...) but at the moment I'm dead broke so it's not really an option at this time

Thanks for the replies!

ledhed

The problem with just uninstalling is that drivers usually do not associate themselves with a program and thus, just uninstalling a program will usually not get rid of the drivers too.

bobman1235

I love when people just respond to five month old threads like they were posted yesterday.

ledhed - I'm hoping he solved his problem by now

michael_w

When I first read the reply I had no idea what he was talking about and then I found out it was my thread to begin with!!

Thank you, but yes I did solve the problem... a long time ago