Distorted and crackling audio

I reseated all the connectors to the front panel, since I'm not sure which is the front panel audio. That had no effect.

In your first post you said that this happens with anything plugged into the front panel as well. By "anything" I take it that you plugged the speaker system into the front panel and still had the distortion. Since you've now said the distortion comes from just the one channel I would say you could have a wiring problem, or other problem with that speaker.

Where the wiring is concerned, it could be the wire connecting the two speakers, or it could be the wiring inside the speaker system plug itself. On the plug itself there would be a right channel ring, and a left channel ring, then inside the plug assembly a wire attached to a connector for each of these channels. I think it rare, but it's possible this inside connection has come lose. If you're not comfortable working with wires (to splice into and re-solder etc.) you might have someone else take a look at it who you know likes goofing around with things electronic.

It's not the speakers themselves. I've tried several sets (I have a few lying around, God knows why...) plugged into the rear panel connector and the front panel connector. I've also tried headphones in both jacks. It certainly seems to be coming only from the right speaker / headphone channel, but it could just be alot quieter from the left channel.

Well I suspect you're like most of us around here in that many of us here have old speaker systems, headphones, and a ton of old computer parts lying about as well.

When you said "anything" I wondered if you had checked this problem with other output systems and my theory was awash. This is one of those tough ones to diagnose and I would be back to interference within the system but the single channel thing is bothersome; interference, whether coming internally or externally from the computer, in my experience, would produce distortion in all speakers (I have a 5.1 system) if they are enabled and not in strict stereo mode.

I'm out of things to look at for the moment but if I think of something I'll get back with you, and if you do find a resolution let us know here so we can mark it as resolved and perhaps help others who may be stumped.

One thing more but I doubt this is the problem, in your sound software disable the Line out, mic out, and digital audio out. Sometimes any of these can cause problems.

Altering the balance to the left cuts out all the crackling and distortion. I checked my settings, and everything else is disabled apart from the speakers.