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Playback sound distorted

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by msmac67 1 view

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The system is Dell Dimension 4300 that has been upgraded to Windows XP. All updates have been installed, SP2, and DirectX. Sound Card is Avance Logic ALS4000, with current drivers installed. (I swapped with Soundblaster card but same distortion occurred). Searching for an answer, I checked the power supply. There is no indication of a problem, but I notice the fan is fluctuating (spinning, then slows down, and spins up again). This fluctuation in the fan doesn't happen at the same time the music is distorted, but is the only answer I can come to. Is this a viable conclusion? Has anyone experienced this? Yes, the power supply will be replaced,the owner is contacting Dell to find out about warranty. My other concern is long term damage to mobo from the voltage supplied by PS. Thanks

16 replies

by cp7212

Have you checked the sound with two different output devices, i.e. speakers and headphones? You can also check in Settings, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, Audio tab. Verify that your playback device is the one you have set up.

Also, are you playing from your hard drive or CD drive? And what player are you using?

by msmac67

Happens with both speakers and headpones. Settings for audio have been checked in control panel/sounds and audio devices

by sgt_shultz

that speed up slow down thing suggests something dragging down the power supply. a short developing that is pulling a lot of current. does that bring out a bad power supply. where is the chas these days anyway. think is good idea to try another (known good) power supply also to blow dust out of fan and wobble blade to see if bearings loose? i do not believe pwr supply could hurt mobo.
as for music. how is it being tested? windows media player? control panel/sounds? it does not add up to me that 2 sounds cards distort same thru headphones and speakers. sounds like you need amplified speakers and are using unamplified ones or trying to drive big impedance like studio headphones or something. otherwise i look for somenting global enuf. something in BIOS or see if set to output to digitaL spkrs or like that. control panel system sound card

by hughesm1

I've found a lot of distortion problems occur when the volume on the sound control panel is maxed, as well as the sound control on media player being maxed. Try lowering them to 80% output, that should clean things up.

Also, go with powered (active) speakers v. passive. Makes a big difference in audio quality.

by oz_media

Firstly, Chas is on a brief yet scheduled break from Q&A I believe.

The fluctuating FAN, is it the power supply fan or a case fan that is running on a power management system that just fires it up when at a certain temperature, IBM and some Compaq's do this.

Is your music playing fast or slow? What form of distorion is it? Have you checked the system sound proerties and the EQ?

Is it when a CD is playing or is it in ALL media players (WinAmp, Windows Media player etc.) or just ONE player?

by msmac67

Speakers have their own power supply. The problem exists within any audio program, Media Player, iTunes etc. Volume control has no effect on the garbled output. Codecs all appear to be current.

by douglasb

Have you tried installing the sound card in another pci slot? It may be a dma/irq issue that allows the card to work partially but not correctly.

by msmac67

The power supply fan slows down. The music speed is ok, the distortion sounds like it is under water for a second or two then normal on a very steady basis. I also noticed that when I ran an application with sound attached the app paused at the same time the sound distorted. (The app was Clean-Up which scrolls through files being deleted. I don't want to drive anyone else crazy with this problem, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something obvious that I overlooked.

by msmac67

Here is the solution. Uninstalled Sound Forge (and another music editing program) from the computer and the problem simply went away. Thanks for your efforts and support.

by msmac67

Here is the solution. Uninstalled Sound Forge (and another music editing program) from the computer and the problem simply went away. Thanks for your efforts and support.

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