Sounds funny...

[PretoriaSillyperson]

Hi, gang.

I've got a tricky problem for you and I would be very grateful for any advice.

I run a Radeon ATI 7000 3D card and graphics and sound used to be fine then, for no apparent reason, the sound quality has deteriorated hugely.

Sound in games from the CD is fine but music from CD, from the net and from CD music saved to the HDD is all dreadful.

The drivers are bang up to date, I have no conflicts (running XP) and although I did use a microphone this is no longer in use.

Also, all volume ctrls are set to medium. It's a sort of fuzzy sound (information which I'm sure is a great help!).

Tough one, I think!

Thanks in advance for any tips.

PSP,
London UK

[ORAC]

It may be that you've installed something that changed your default music player. Go to My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/File Types and see what programme CDA, MP3 are associated wth. (select them and it show in the bottom of the window).

If you select "Change" it will offer you recommended programmes from the ones you have installed - Windows Media Player etc. Select one and see if the quality improves, if it does, change the other music file types to the same one.

If the quality doesn't change, let us know and we'll try something else.

[PretoriaSillyperson]

Hi, ORAC and thank you very much for your help.

I've tried running CDAs in WMPplayer and Real Player and the quality is still awful. Basically, it sounds like I'm playing a track at maximum volume - distorted and scrathcy - even though all the volume indicators are set to medium. To clarify - the sound from the speakers isn't loud, it just sounds as though it would if it were really "turned up to 11".

Shafted if I can work it out!

Yours aye,

PSP

[goates]

PretoriaSillyperson,

What kind of sound card are you using? Is it built into the motherboard (ie. onboard sound) or is it seperate like a Sound Blaster card. Have you installed anything recently?

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

PretoriaSillyperson,

It sounds like you might have the wrong sound drivers for your sound card.

Another possibility would be to go to the Audio Volume Control and turn off any of the inputs you are not using.

Aux, Mike, Line In, etc.

Take Care,

Richard

[ORAC]

Have you added any other cards or accessories to your PC? If so, more the card to a differenr slot and/or uninstall the new device/drivers and see if the problem goes away.

Check/reroute/replace the audio cable from the back of the CD/DVD drive. (The game sound won't use the cable).

[Dr. Bunsen Honeydew]

It sounds as if the problem is with the media player you are using for playback (this wouldn't be used in game sound).

I use winamp, and this has a pre-amp setting in the graphic equaliser option. If this is set incorrectly, and/or the bass is too high for your speaker setup then there could be distortion problems at much lower volumes than expected.

You could try ensuring that the equaliser is de-selected or the setting are the default.

However, I may be wrong..............I'll keep thinking...


oops, I've just read the previous posts properly, and this has already been covered by ORAC! Ah well, another coffee to kick start the morning then......

[the wizard of auz]

I had the same problem for a while. I tied all sorts of software fixes, all not working. then I got clever and a tad more logical................ had a look at the speakers, one was US and caused the problem.
try a external set of speakers and see if it makes any differance.

[Saab Dastard]

PSP,

I had an similar problem a while ago when I added a modem to my system - some games started to have dreadful sound distortion.

On investigation, it turned out that the modem had installed a "unimodem audio device" - and guess what the games were trying to play through?

Since I didn't use the PC as a phone I had no qualms about disabling that particular audio device!

SD

[PretoriaSillyperson]

Thanks for your replies guys - this problem's giving me a serious mag drop!

I've tried playing music in Real Player and WMP but still have the problem.

The speakers are standard esktop jobs and the problem is replicated using headphones in the same socket.

There is a socket on the CD player itself but I'm as yet unable to get sound from it.

The card isn't the ATI Radeon - that's the 3D card only. The sound is through an ESS Maestro PCI card. The drivers are deffo OK as it used to work fine.

There are no erroneous inputs - I've disabled the mic.

The PCI modem is installed but not used - I've got a broadband modem (external, USB) and the problem was around when I used the internal dial up modem.

It just just had a sense of humour failure for no apparent reason.

I've also done a defrag, virus scan etc but to no avail.

Arghhh!!!

PSP
London

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

PretoriaSillyperson,

Please list all your IRQs and every device on each IRQ. (You can see the complete list in the device manager.) Lets make sure you do not have another device sharing the same IRQ as your sound card.

Take Care,

Richard

[PretoriaSillyperson]

Hmm...interesting.

The Radeon 7000 3D card is on IRQ11 and the ESS Maestro sound card...is also on IRQ11! However, there's no conflict listed in sys info. I can use Snag It to get a screen shot of the IRQ list if necessary.

Cheers,

Richard R.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

PretoriaSillyperson,

Just because Windows does not think there is a conflict, does not mean you do not have one.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. It would help if you posted a screenie of your IRQs.