Lightning Strike! Audio Issue

Hello, all.

It has been a while. I'd be most grateful for your kind opinions on this pressing PC issue.

We had a lightning strike here in my area of the UK, yesterday. I have 2 x 4-gang extension leads for my HP Omen 880 p0xx PC & peripherals. One is a surge protector extension lead. I thought my PC and monitor were plugged into it. It was just the monitor. The lightning strike knocked out all of the power in the house.

I now have audio just from one speaker and loud, white noise from the other. The white noise was so loud in my bass speaker that I had to disconnect my Logitech 3 speaker set and connect 2 small speakers (with no bass speaker). The sound issue is the same with these, small, cheap speakers.

Now, the odd thing is that I am now listening with a pair of headphones (speakers off) and the sound is 100%.

I use this PC for my very small business, which I run from home. Thank you in advance for any kind comments.

 

It sounds (no pun intended) like your sound card (which is likely integrated with the motherboard) was damaged - especially since you hear this problem with two sets of speakers.

The only other thing I can suggest is to make sure the audio cables are all securely fastened, then do a "cold" reboot.

By “cold”, I mean shut down the computer and flip the master power switch on the back of the power supply (if your supply has one) to off (or “O”), or unplug the power supply from the wall. Then unplug the speakers from the wall too.

Wait for about 15 - 30 seconds then plug the speakers back in.

Then turn the master power switch to on (or “|”), or reconnect the computer's power cable and boot up and see what happens. By totally removing power, you reset the PSU. It also removes the +5Vsb standby voltage all ATX Form Factor power supplies are required to supply whenever the power supply is plugged into the wall and (if applicable) the master power switch is set to on. This standby voltage is distributed throughout several points on the motherboard, including RAM for faster boots and the USB ports too. This also keeps alive several features, including “wake on keyboard” and “wake on mouse”, and the network interface for “Wake on LAN” commands. A cold reboot ensures any device settings that may be held by the standby voltage are released, then reset when power is restored.

This is a longshot, but worth a try.

If still no luck, then you might try resetting the BIOS. Check your manual for these instructions. Typically the process involves removing the CMOS battery for about a minute, or, if your motherboard supports it, shorting two pins on the motherboard. If the computer is more than 3 years old, I would probably just replace the CMOS battery since they are only a couple $$/££. This process changes any settings you have made to the BIOS back to their factory settings.

Be sure to unplug the computer from the wall and touch bare metal of the case interior BEFORE reaching in to discharge any static in your body. Then remove and replace the battery (or short the two pins), reconnect power then boot. Watch the screen carefully and when prompted, press the applicable key to go straight into the BIOS Setup Menu. Check and if necessary reset your date and time, and verify your drives are detected and the boot order is correct. Then "Save and Exit" to boot normally. The "Save" part is very important.

Hopefully, your sound is correct.

Is the sound is still faulty, then I am afraid you will need to live with headphones, or buy and install a separate sound card.

 

@Digerati Thank you very much for your clear and comprehensive response. I much appreciate this.

I will report back with any progress.

 

The strangest thing happened. After about a week, the issue simply disappeared. Really odd.

 

There have been a couple recent updates released through Windows Update. Perhaps one of those overwrote and/or reset a corrupt setting.

FTR, it is actually not uncommon for "waiting it out to see what happens" to clear problems.

Anyway, let's hope it sticks and thanks for the update.