VERY strange sound issues

Hi everyone, I am having issues with my 2.1 channel Creative T3130 speakers and the sound output from my motherboard (MSI P55-GD80).

At random times, one of the following will occur:

1. One speaker will get very loud and the other very quiet. Sometimes, one speaker cuts out entirely and all the sound outputs from one speaker. The subwoofer seems to continue functioning normally.
2. My subwoofer will get treated as a speaker while one speaker is treated like the subwoofer.

My sound driver is the most recent one and was downloaded from the MSI site. I actually uninstalled it and am running using the generic Windows sound driver and I currently have no sound problems. However, this also means that I have little to no control over things like audio balance, room correction, etc.

I was wondering if someone could please help me with this. :) Thanks.

Mike,

That's a Realtek audio chip, I suggest downloading the latest drivers from the Realtek site.

If you need it, let me know and I'll post it.

Ap

I actually looked around on the Realtek site. I can't find anything for it. My audio chip is the Realtek ALC889. All I can find links to are codecs for HD Audio and AC'97, nothing for specific audio chipsets other than datasheets.

i think you have enabled some sort of sound enhancement!

1. Right click the volume icon on the system tray and press Playback devices
2. Select the speakers and Press the properties button
3. Go to enhancements tab and unchect any boxes if they are checked

Also, try and change the settings in realtek properties until you can locate the issue

No sound enhancements are enabled. I also did a significant amount of fiddling around in the Realtek HD Audio manager, but to no avail as the issue was random on which speaker it would affect and when it would happen. Thus doing something like setting the balance to even out the sound would work until things started acting normally again. It'd sound weird then because the balance would be off and I'd have to set it back to zero.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

Mikeman said:

I actually looked around on the Realtek site. I can't find anything for it. My audio chip is the Realtek ALC889. All I can find links to are codecs for HD Audio and AC'97, nothing for specific audio chipsets other than datasheets.

Go here, (you have HD audio)

Realtek

The file(s) you need are right -above- the ATI HDMI Driver in red. Choose either the 32 or 64 bit driver. (Vista, Windows 7 2.51)

Ap

This might sound stupid but, are the speakers connected right?

Mikeman said:

Well, yeah. Sound's coming through them... Just strangely.

And @ Aphelion: Thanks for the link. However, that is simply "HD Audio Codec." I don't see anything about which specific Realtek audio chipsets it works with. I have no guarantee that it will work with mine. I actually looked on that page earlier but didn't download/install anything because of the aforementioned reasons. Thank you though.

EDIT: I'm going to download the HD Audio Codec for Windows 7 32/64 bit and see what it does.

EDIT2: The HD Audio Codec seems to have installed correctly. Is it a universal codec for all Realtek "HD Audio" chips?
I also noticed that the HD audio manager still has the "MSI - Insist on the best" graphic in the lower left corner of the window. Maybe the board. Weird. The Realtek site said that I wouldn't have the same features as if I grabbed the download from the manufacturer's site... And yet I seem to.

It is for your audio chip, and several others as well.

It sounds like it didn't install, however... it could have installed the drivers, the control panel is just a software interface to the drivers/hardware.

Do you notice any different behavior?

Realtek drivers are odd, in some cases they need to be reinstalled twice, the first install removes the old driver, the second install loads the new driver.

One thing I had to do when I built this machine, clean the 3.5mm jacks on the audio panel. I used a 3.5mm stereo plug (headphone) with some contact cleaner applied (alcohol will do in a pinch) and worked it in and out of the audio jacks. This stopped an odd problem where the driver would detect my speakers being plugged in/out at random intervals. The jacks were dirty with oxidation.

Ap