Strange Audio Problem

[Wanderlustus]

Hey folks. My computer's audio seems to have gone wonky on me, and I can't figure out what to do about it. Symptoms, say playing a movie are: Vocals are muffled though the background audio and soundtrack seems ok. Then, later on it will snap back on and everything plays ok. I've gone into my audio settings and tried changing stuff, reset to factory settings, but it doesn't seem to help.

I have a WINXP Home, 3 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, creative stereo speakers, Soundmax Integrated Digital HD Audio.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

[Wanderlustus]

Now, with the office quiet, I just noticed barely audible snapping noises. However, when the speakers are powered-down I don't hear the snapping/crackling. I should've also mentioned -- I did try another set of older speakers and experienced the same prob's.

[redwudz]

That sounds like the center channel isn't working properly. That's where the vocals are. If you just have two speakers, it should be downmixing to stereo. If you have just stereo speakers, make sure stereo is selected in the audio panel. But it should downmix automatically. Does it have the same symptoms with Windows sounds (Mono or stereo) or does it just happen with 5.1 channel sound? Could be a bad chip in the decoder.

I would double check that all cables and connectors are in good condition. If no help there, try uninstalling, then reinstalling the audio drivers. If that doesn't fix it and no one comes up with a better solution, consider disabling the on board audio and getting a PCI audio card instead.

[Wanderlustus]

Thanks redwudz, I'll give this all a try.

Set to "desktop stereo speakers" check. Same effect on "Windows sounds." Also, just turned up the volume to max and am hearing a loud buzz, as if it wasn't grounded or something. I'll have to check all the cables in a bit. I will report back. Cheers for the help RW.

[Wanderlustus]

Looks like it's the mini-jack cord that's proving the problem. Shite, I was hoping it was something I wasn't going to have to replace. Thanks again, RW.