Sound card issue?

Hello,

Just yesterday I was using Ventrilo to talk to friends and my sound starting messing up. It goes from regular volume to so quiet you can barely hear that there is any volume at all and it happens completely randomly but constantly. I thought it was a Ventrilo issue but then when I went to play a song on RealPlayer the songs are completely distorted. The volume cutting in and out doesn't happen but the music is completely distorted i'm not sure how to explain it... Kind of like if there was music being played in a gymnasium and the doors were shut but you were outside the gym at the end of the hallway.. echoey-ish in that way but then also kind of distorted.. Then during the melody of the song the persons voice comes through fairly clear but the music goes almost to mute. Or in the case of some other songs the opposite is true, music comes through fairly clear, voice is almost muted. This just started happening last night (my computer had been on all day and I hadn't used it, it's usually off if not in use..). Same thing happens when i try to watch videos on youtube, sound is so quiet you can barely hear it, but every now and again it will come through loud enough to hear, though not very good quality, and then cut back out again. What could be causing this?? I've had issues with this sound card (i think it's the sound card) where sometimes on one side of my headphones there will randomly be a sort of buzzing/frequency humming noise that is really annoying and usually I have to reload the page i'm on or close my browser or music player and restart it to make it go away.

 

Sounds like your headphones may be on the way out. Like faulty/intermitent connections.
Have you tried a different set of headphones or speakers?
Or try your headphones in a different pc?

Other than that you could try reinstalling the latest drivers but it doesn't sound lie a drier issue.

 

Wow.. yea it is my headphones, i tried them on someone elses computer. I didn't even think to test them out as the problem... not very smart.. perhaps it's all cold medication i'm taking.. i'll blame it on that. I just didn't figure they were the problem since they worked just fine until yesterday. I have had almost the exact same problem happen with 2 previous headsets and my speaker system started acting up last year which is part of why i only use headphones (cheaper to buy). Is there anything hardware wise on my computer that could be causing my headsets to wear out so quickly? These headphones are great headphones and are not even a year old My brother has the exact same pair and his are 3 years old, no problems. Plus he drops his and steps on them all the time, by his own admittance, where as I am really careful with mine...

 

I wouldn't think so. Even if your carefull you're constantly taking them on and off and this stresses the wires. At least that's my experience although I'm a bit like your brother . I don't trash them on purpose but they get knocked off the desk, cord tripped over by myself and my kids so mine cop a beating.

You could also just be extremely unlucky