sound card

[Nick_Black]

a friend of mine (over Msn) is having problems with her sound (card?) she said "the computer is giving me a fuzzy noise and i tried 2 sets of headphones.. the left one barely works.. and i checked the settings and they're normal..."
it's not the jack ither, she tried both the front and back port. I'm stumped without looking at it, or hearing it.. any sugestions?

thanks

Nick_Black

[Bucko]

It's one of those things that is hard to pin down with so little info.
Is it onboard sound, or a sound card?
If it's a sound card, removing it and then reinstalling it may fix the problems.

[jdbnsn]

If it is a soundblaster, in addition to Bucko's advice I would try updating it's software/drivers. SB's seem to have a high prevelance of static that can usually be remedied by updates.

[Nick_Black]

a bit of an update, it's onboard, and turning down all the recording volumes helped a bit, but it's still there, turning down all the volume an playback, and the humming presists, she also said that when she clicks mute it makes one "pop" sound... (though I believe thats quite normal..)

[progbuddy]

a bit of an update, it's onboard, and turning down all the recording volumes helped a bit, but it's still there, turning down all the volume an playback, and the humming presists, she also said that when she clicks mute it makes one "pop" sound... (though I believe thats quite normal..)

It's picking up extra frequencies. Maybe something is shorted.

[Daruvian]

Is the mic muted under the output volume levels? If she's got a mic, it might be picking up some noise from that and putting it out...

[Nick_Black]

progbuddy: I doupt it's picking up extra frequencies (she lives in the middle of nowhere, and she didn't have this problem before, and there were no new apliencies installed lately. as for the short, I'm thinking something like that too.


Daruvian: yes, we tried muting the mic. input (and all the other imputs) she said it helped a little, but not mutch.

thanks for all the reply's so far.

[DaveW]

The fact that some of this stuff is helping is actually very strange. Turning off the mike should either fix the problem or do nothing at all; this sounds like a short. Probably best to get that computer opened up and take a proper look.

-Dave

[Daruvian]

Can you be more elaborate about the "fuzzy noise"? I know I ran into a problem with mine when I made my own little audio extension cables... One of them had a loose connection which caused a "fuzzy noise" in my sound... Might want to check all of the wires and jacks/plugs...

[Redundant]

Every single time I've had static in speakers it's been because the wire is broken somewhere in the cable. Maybe she steps on the wire under here desk. She says the left one barely works. The wire could have been pulled on so the solder joint became loose where it goes into the speaker. The only way I can think to check the wire is to open up the speaker with the fuzz and check for continuity with a multi-meter.