My Speakers

Alright well ive had this computer, and the speakers for a very long time, maybe like 3 or 4 years. Its a pentium 3 700mhz. 256 mb ram. The speakers are boston. No subwoofer. Now to my problem. The speakers have worked great until just a couple days ago. I came home, and turned my speakers to listen to music like i always do, and to my disgust the sound was heavily distorted, and it cut in and out like i had just blown out my speakers or something. I dont know how this happened. The speakers had shown no warning signs that they were going to stop working. I wanted to know if i should just get new speakers, or maybe i just messed something up on the computer. Please help me.


{edit} i have plugged headhones into the adapter on the speakers, and i get the same sound that comes out of the speakers. and when i plug directly into the computer, i get no sound. a friend suggested that maybe my sound card is blown. great. i have an integrated-everything motherboard, and i dont know if i have extra PCI slots.

{edit 2} i just plugged my speakers into my cd player, and the speakers work fine. so my soundcard is blown. delicious, now only if i have extra pci slots.

Sorry to hear it Orcutt.
Aida32 or Sandra can tell you if you have any PCI slots available.

did you happen to update your audio drivers , it could be the new driver is dodgy

try rollback driver, in the system device manager, or reinstall your original drivers see if it helps


i have see this happen a bit with onboard sound cards and the windows update

So i should try to update the drivers? I know i have 2 PCI slots open, but i'd have to geta new case because the motherboard lays down, with the PCI slots face up with only like 4-6 inches of clearance.

Quote:

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Originally posted by orcutt989@8 May 2004 - 09:52
So i should try to update the drivers? I know i have 2 PCI slots open, but i'd have to geta new case because the motherboard lays down, with the PCI slots face up with only like 4-6 inches of clearance.

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:blink: wierd case.

anyways, yes try updating the drivers. go to the manufacturers website and download them.

I'd try deleting your sound drivers then reinstalling them. That works more times than not. :)

I dont understand why this would just suddenly happen with the drivers? They've been fine forever.

I went to Gateway.com and entered my serial number in the tech support to find my current configuration. and this is what it says



Media
Gateway AC-Link 3D Game Audio (10/4/2001)
Microsoft Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device (1/26/1999)


So what should i do now?


{edit} alright i downloaded new drivers, and did the update driver wizard. but it says that i have the newest version of the drivers. so how do i delete these ones and put the new ones on?

You do what you want. I'd delete the old drivers & reinstall them again.

Quote:

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Originally posted by orcutt989@8 May 2004 - 12:55
I dont understand why this would just suddenly happen with the drivers? They've been fine forever.

I went to Gateway.com and entered my serial number in the tech support to find my current configuration. and this is what it says



Media
Gateway AC-Link 3D Game Audio (10/4/2001)
Microsoft Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device (1/26/1999)


So what should i do now?


{edit} alright i downloaded new drivers, and did the update driver wizard. but it says that i have the newest version of the drivers. so how do i delete these ones and put the new ones on?

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right click ur sound card in device manager and go to uninstall. then after it has uninstalled install teh ones u downloaded.

Dodgy sound is sometimes product of a bad/underpowered power supply. Unlike other things, there is an audible difference, you can tell your card/mobo isn't getting enough juice.

but that doesnt make any sense, ive had the same sound card ever since i bought the computer, and never had any problems with sound. so how could it be the power supply?

Quote:

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Originally posted by orcutt989@8 May 2004 - 16:07
but that doesnt make any sense, ive had the same sound card ever since i bought the computer, and never had any problems with sound. so how could it be the power supply?

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It hardly matters "how" your problem came to pass...what's important is isolating the cause and then fixing it.

Power supplies, just like soundcards, don't last forever, so it's a possibility I guess.

thanks everyone for your help, i'll try these suggestions. if it ends up being none of them, ill just have to get a new computer. its not worth the money trying to fix this one up, when i could just get a new computer thats better for less.

have you checed your windows speaker volumes?! maybe too high, it happebnwed to me, i played music once noise all distored, i checked the volume settings - they were at max and i never touch em!

just get a new comp in a month and throw that POS away :P

holy shit. The sound works now for some reason! I did a window's update this morning, thats all that i did. And for some reason it decided to work!!

Quote:

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Originally posted by orcutt989@12 May 2004 - 11:28
holy shit. The sound works now for some reason! I did a window's update this morning, thats all that i did. And for some reason it decided to work!!

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Cool. Glad you could get things sorted out.

Thanks for your help everyone.

Ok my sound is now totally distorted again. Does anyone have any idea whats going on?

I'd try searching for the latest drivers, OR have the original drivers and try those.

I had a sound issue out of nowhere and tried to update the drivers...worked for a bit, then caused my system to crash. That's why I say to have the drivers used originally *they are known to work*.

I'd also, remove sound card from device manager and reboot and install drivers from there.

just wondering...what sound card do you have? or if it is onboard sound, what is your motherboard model and manufacturer?

im not sure if this was already mentioned, as im to lasy to go back and search. lol. but if u arent sure then u can try a program called aida32 to find the motherboard or soundcard.

I did this already with my friend to find the sound drivers, and to see how many extra PCI slots there were incase i needed to buy a new case, this is what it says for my on-board sound card

"Media
Gateway AC-Link 3D Game Audio (10/4/2001)
Microsoft Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device (1/26/1999)"

The motherboard is a Gateway Brookings.

Heres the Support View.

I already checked and the drivers are up to date, they shouldnt have just stopped working.

alright my friend and i opened up my case, and pushed in all the plugs to see if ther were any loose connection, and with a little trouble started the computer back up, and now it seems to be working fine again. i want to know what the hell is going on. Alas, i found out i can ad a new sound card, or video card, one PCI slot is being taken up by the ethernet card :(.