Sound Trouble

[Hector]

A couple of days ago, my computer simply became unable to play any sort of sound file with any quality (even midi files). The change took place while watching an old naruto epsisode, and all of a sudden the sound got all strange. I've tried restarting, adjusting equilizer settings in winamp and volume control but to little avail. Everything my computer tries to play seems dropped a fair number of notes, and loud or particularly high/low notes are all garbled. The problem exists for both headphones and the computer's speaker so I'm quite sure the problem is not with those devices.

I was wondering if there were some software setting that could correct the problem, or if I'd have to do something more extreme such as re-installing the driver (I lack the driver CD at college so doing so is difficult) or investing in a new sound card.

Thanks.

[linkspast]

Try getting the driver from the companies website.

[suzumebachi]

also make sure the soundcard is seated properly (if it's not onboard anyways).

also, reinstalling drivers is far from extreme. more like... routine.

what kind of soundcard is it anyways?

[Smoke]

Is it an onboard soundcard or a PCI card? If it's not onboard, you can check if it's still connected properly, and possibly move it to another PCI slot. I've had similar issues with an older motherboard where a slot just refused to work properly and always resulted in BSoDs. Another board showed similar issues to what you're mentioning(Even with a different soundcard inserted), and in the end I just swapped it out for another one.

Also, check the volume settings. High volumes can sometimes result in distorted sound depending on the card.

Finally: Remove the card from the Device Manager and reboot to reinstall it.