So this morning I was watching a DVD on my laptop as I normally do, no problems. Tonight I go to listen to some music and its very muffled. I hear the song but even with all volume settings on high, the sound is faint and scratchy/cutting in and out. The problem is worse when I plug in some headphones. I get a constant hiss regardless of my volume. The music is even more faint than when using the built in speakers.
Might I have a driver issue? Or could it be that my sound card gave out?
FASTEST UPDATE EVER:
I restarted my laptop a few times to no avail, but this last time I shut it down completely for a few minutes. Low and behold, now I have sound? What the hell is going on?
Dude it’s a dell.
It actually is a Dell.
I wore the headphone jack out on my laptop, I just got a usb thing that basically turns it into a headphone jack
Heat issue? Where is the laptop placed? Is there sufficient ventilation?
Can you reproduce the problem if you leave the laptop on a bed/carpet/non-ventilated area after a couple hours?
The computer is well ventilated. It sits on a laptop desk (kinda like the tray tables used for hospital beds). The only time I have had any heat issues were during the summer. It was on the majority of the day so there might have been a heating issue. This is the first time it happened.
I haven’t tried to reproduce the problem and I would rather not.
try reinstalling the drivers (probably wont do squat…)… worse case… disable onboard sound in bios and get a new sound card that slips in the side.
Damnit, it did it again tonight. I turned the computer on and the sound worked just fine. I left it for less than an hour and when I came back the sound was all fucked up again. I had to shut down entirely and reboot to get it to work. Restarting doesn’t do anything.
That is a wierd issue, I’d say heat also, but if cold booting that solves it for a bit sounds like it might be another issue. Granted I have heard of some odd driver issues, but I’m not sure if that would be the case.
Still under warranty?
Negative. Its about 2.5 years old. Its not so obsolete yet that its time for a new one because it was new technology when I bought it. I haven’t a clue what a new sound card would cost and I hate the thought of having to send it back to Dell.
ehh… $79-99
what model is it?
edit: i’d go to “device manager” and try to match up the sound card on ebay if possible…
if there’s no listing then it’s probably an on-board card you may have to go usb or pcmcia…
Its the 600m. I am betting that its onboard. Even it if wasn’t I don’t know that I would want to mess around with it myself.
yes it’s onboard… u can get a soundblaster at bestbuy or whatever… pcmcia
Thats what you want.
With this card, I will have to use external speakers correct? What about my built in ones?
correct,built in speakers are done deal.
or you could use headphones,says it comes with a pair.
card can probably also be found cheaper too