Windows 7: Volume spiking up randomly

Hello, I've only started encountering this problem after switching to Windows 7 Ultimate 64x. My volume tends to fluctuate randomly, and I'm not sure why. It happens while I'm playing games. It's usually quiet, how I like it, but it will suddenly decide to spike up and hurt my ears :/. Also, when I watch youtube videos, some videos are much louder than others, while being much louder than all other noises on my PC. Note that these are videos I watched before I upgraded and they didn't have this sound problem. This problem occurs very often with people talking on ventrilo. While someone is in the middle of a sentence, their volume will increase 3 fold and I'll have to mute my computer since it sounds like they're screaming. Anyone else get this problem? Patiently awaiting a response, thanks!

Hey again...

Right click the Microsoft speaker icon in the taskbar and select "Playback" devices.

Select the communications tab and try selecting "Do Nothing"

The other problem area can be having the "Loudness Equalization" enable.

Again follow the above and select Playback devices, this time select the Default output device (green check mark), at this point the Properties button should become active. Select properties then the "Enhancements" tab, first select "Immediate Mode" then scroll down and un-check "Loudness Equalization".

May have to reboot... see if that evens things out.

Ap

Haha, hey again, unfortunately, I've tried both of those suggestions prior to making this thread, and not much changed. The "Do Nothing" option didn't affect anything. Loudness Equalization was already unchecked on my headphones. Any other ideas?

Is this ONLY with headphones? Does the sound change when you use the PC's speakers? Or, plug the headset into the GREEN speaker jack on the rear of the PC and see if the sound level changes.

I've never actually tried using using my speakers yet, so I'm not sure. But I'll try plugging my headphones into the rear end of the computer and see what happens.

I'm also curious if your speakers do this as well?
Are these USB headphones (which are a separate audio device) or plugged into the onboard Realtek?

If plugged into the Realtek, might want to clean the input jack by putting a little alcohol on the headphone plug and working it in an out a few times.

Do you have the Realtek audio manager running? If not, it's probably in the control panel area.



Do you have the small folder icon in the upper right quadrant? If so click on it, select "Disable Front Panel Jack Detection" un-check the "Enable auto popup dialog..."

If you right click over the colored jack icons there are other options.

Ap

Hm, surprisingly, I don't have the folder you mentioned in my Realtek audio manager. However, I will try the alcohol solution.

I would suggest connecting the speakers in case the problem is the Headset as plugging the headset into the rear jack can produce the same problems as plugging into the front headphone jack.