Missing singers voices in music, and sound effects in games.

desolation0 · 10-14-2009, 10:15 PM

Quite a few little problems to go over, and I've already been through most of the troubleshooting that I know of, so bear with me for a bit.

In videogames (main one I've tested this with was World of Warcraft), music plays correctly, but sound effects seem totally absent. Videogame voiceovers are very very quiet.

Similarly, music I play has the instruments playing fine, though many seem a bit distorted. Meanwhile the vocalist is only barely audible.

Running DirectXDiag. Every sound effect from the sound test comes out very quiet, while again there's almost no change from the music test.

I'm running a 6 year old, give or take, Dell Dimension desktop, with Soundblaster Live! 24-bit sound card from Creative. Running windows XP with the fossil. Recently did a full system reboot (probably a month ago now) to factory conditions after a near-brick from a nice virus. Already updated all the drivers to the latest, and double-checked after this little hiccup came up.

So far, trying to fix the problem without buying a new card, I've double-checked drivers. Checked that XP was recognising the card. Checked that the card itself didn't say there were any errors. Fiddled with just about every sound option, especially looking for if I somehow turned on a karaoke mode to get rid of the voices, but that wasn't it.

Any help troubleshooting this problem would be much appreciated.

desolation0 · 10-16-2009, 01:35 AM

Hmm, wild guess but think the card went bad. Still would like to see if that's the case before I run out, find another, and it turns out to have the same trouble.

Oh, guess I forgot to mention the particular model of computer, it's a Dimension 4600.

And yes, I've already run through the whole "Sound Problems?" sticky topic to no avail. :)

10-14-2009, 10:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
desolation0 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Missing singers voices in music, and sound effects in games. Quite a few little problems to go over, and I've already been through most of the troubleshooting that I know of, so bear with me for a bit. In videogames (main one I've tested this with was World of Warcraft), music plays correctly, but sound effects seem totally absent. Videogame voiceovers are very very quiet. Similarly, music I play has the instruments playing fine, though many seem a bit distorted. Meanwhile the vocalist is only barely audible. Running DirectXDiag. Every sound effect from the sound test comes out very quiet, while again there's almost no change from the music test. I'm running a 6 year old, give or take, Dell Dimension desktop, with Soundblaster Live! 24-bit sound card from Creative. Running windows XP with the fossil. Recently did a full system reboot (probably a month ago now) to factory conditions after a near-brick from a nice virus. Already updated all the drivers to the latest, and double-checked after this little hiccup came up. So far, trying to fix the problem without buying a new card, I've double-checked drivers. Checked that XP was recognising the card. Checked that the card itself didn't say there were any errors. Fiddled with just about every sound option, especially looking for if I somehow turned on a karaoke mode to get rid of the voices, but that wasn't it. Any help troubleshooting this problem would be much appreciated.

10-16-2009, 01:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
desolation0 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Re: Missing singers voices in music, and sound effects in games. Hmm, wild guess but think the card went bad. Still would like to see if that's the case before I run out, find another, and it turns out to have the same trouble. Oh, guess I forgot to mention the particular model of computer, it's a Dimension 4600. And yes, I've already run through the whole "Sound Problems?" sticky topic to no avail. :)