# Weird Sound Problem...



## ZephirisX (May 28, 2006)

I'm having a weird problem with my computer sound, I tried a few basic solutions, but nothing seemed to work. So I figured the best place to find the solution to my problem would be on a forum of computer experts ^_^ Allow me to explain my problem in further details:

First of all, my sound was working perfectly until yesterday. I didn't do any massive changes or anything in my computer settings, the problem simply occured out of the blue.

Now the problem is: Whenever I watch a video or play an mp3 with Media Player Classic, Windows Media player or any other program that plays sounds, The sounds (mainly voices) comes out extremely faint and "garbled". It sounds kind of like when you're underwater, and hear people speaking. You CAN hear them, but don't understand what they're saying.

I have the CCCP codec pack installed ( http://cccp-project.net/ ), which is highly recommended (Mainly to watch japanese animes) and well known to be compatible with every video format, and has always worked for me before. I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling the latest version, but nothing improved. It seems that this was not the source of my problem.

I tried restarting my computer, updated my anti-virus and made a virus scan (I use AVG) and no virus was detected.

I checked if my headphones were properly plugged, and they were. I tried plugging them into the different holes in the back of my computer, but only one of them works (The green plug with the soundwaves icon) I think the other plugs are used for other purposes, such as recording. My headphones are not damaged or anything, plus I've always taken good care of them and they were really expensive, so I doubt that they're broken. Just in case, I tried another set of head phones, and the problem still occurred.

I have a brand new computer (I've had it for about 2 weeks) not sure if it will help, but here's my computer settings:

*Operating System:* Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
*Language:* Japanese (Regional Setting: Japanese)
*System Model:* ASUS
*Processor:* Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
*Memory:* 480MB RAM (120GB Hard drive)
*Page File:* 301MB used, 1539MB available
*Windows Dir:* C:\WINDOWS
*DirectX Version:* DirectX 9.0c

Integrated Graphics card and sound card (Not sure where to check for those, but they came with my PC and they're recent ones, so they must be good)

Please let me know if anyone knows a solution to this problem. If all else fails, I'll try formatting my PC.

Thanks for your time!


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## Guest (May 29, 2006)

What i would do is look in your device manager and find out what onboard sound you have exactly. Then i would uninstall then reinstall the sound drivers. It might be that you had windows update set to automatically download and install any updates and most people have onboard realtek solutions, and if you have windows update set to automatically update your drivers it can cause issues sometimes. The only proper way to update or install sound drivers would be to do it manually and also make sure that you have windows update set to "notify" you but not to automatically download or install them for you. I'm just taking a shot in the dark with thet theory though - first thing would be to find out what you have and uninstall-reinstall as far as sound drivers are concerned. As far as it sounding like things are underwater ... if you find out you do actually have a realtek solution you might check to see that you don't have any "environments' activated - like "sewer pipe" or "underwater" - these are EAX type effects (not to be confused with actual hardware creative labs in game EAX effects). To see if you have one of these environments activated just clock on your driver startup configuration icon that usually resides in your system tray on the bottom right of the taskbar and see how you have things setup. Additionally, make sure you have it set to headphones (if that's what you are using at the time) on both the config utility in the systray and on the control panel for sound management.


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## ZephirisX (May 28, 2006)

T_Rex said:


> What i would do is look in your device manager and find out what onboard sound you have exactly. Then i would uninstall then reinstall the sound drivers. It might be that you had windows update set to automatically download and install any updates and most people have onboard realtek solutions, and if you have windows update set to automatically update your drivers it can cause issues sometimes. The only proper way to update or install sound drivers would be to do it manually and also make sure that you have windows update set to "notify" you but not to automatically download or install them for you. I'm just taking a shot in the dark with thet theory though - first thing would be to find out what you have and uninstall-reinstall as far as sound drivers are concerned. As far as it sounding like things are underwater ... if you find out you do actually have a realtek solution you might check to see that you don't have any "environments' activated - like "sewer pipe" or "underwater" - these are EAX type effects (not to be confused with actual hardware creative labs in game EAX effects). To see if you have one of these environments activated just clock on your driver startup configuration icon that usually resides in your system tray on the bottom right of the taskbar and see how you have things setup. Additionally, make sure you have it set to headphones (if that's what you are using at the time) on both the config utility in the systray and on the control panel for sound management.


Wow! It's exactly as you said, I just discovered that I have a sound effect software, and for some unknown reason it was set as "Underwater":










Thank you for your genuine words of wisdom! ^_^ I will know what to do is a similar problem occurs in the future.


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## Guest (May 31, 2006)

I guess that would sound kind of messy on AIM voice or a game. Glad you got it sorted out. :grin:

Remember if you actually like the effect you can also vary the effect - by rasing it or lowering the actual effect. By default it's sort of high. When i use the Realtek solution on my HTPC i like the "garage" effect but i lower it significantly until there is just a hint of reverb and echo'ed soundstage.


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## CyberThug (Jun 28, 2006)

*Same exact problem*

I been having the same exact problem, with the underwater noises...but I still don't understand how to get my AC'97 Audio Configuration menu open. Please help me understand =[.


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