I figured since my video card crapped out a couple months ago, it was only a matter of time before my soundcard did, and looks like I was right. Any audio coming from my speakers, regardless of the source, randomly fades in and out while the sound is playing. It's not doing it all the time, but pretty damn frequently. My question isn't really whether or not it's dying on me, I'm just assuming that it is, but is there any reliable way of actually CHECKING if it's going bad?
What brand of sound card? Could be an audio effect that's enabled or going funny. I know this sounds routine, but uninstall and reinstall the newest drivers you can find and see if it still does it.
Well, first make sure it's not the speakers. Plug in a different set of speakers, or some headphones, and see if you still have the problem
Your video card and sound card really aren't related unless your motherboard is causing you problems, which doesn't sound like the case. If it's fading in and out then clearly it's working in some aspect... do you have the latest drivers for the operating system you're running under? Is your card firmly in the PCI slot with the little latch?
Tried looking for updated drivers, but my soundcard is no longer supported (not surprising, it's almost 6 years old). Tried messing with settings, couldn't find anything that would be doing it, hell I don't even have a link to my soundcard on the Start menu, I have to dig through my system folders to even get to it. Tried listening through headphones, doesn't seem to be happening there, so it might be my speakers. I can live with just listening through headphones, so screw it for now. *Edit* Yeah, definitely my speakers. Turning them off and back on fixes the problem momentarily, but it quickly starts back up again. Looks like my uber-fancy pants 5.1 surround sound system is dying on me, unless it's a faulty cable/connector in there somewhere, which I kinda doubt because I haven't moved anything.
Yes, I know he meant that -- but even still, just because one part of a system is old and failed is absolutely no indication the rest of the system is bound to follow. No, I don't. I absolutely detest Dells. There should be a small clicking sound you hear when you insert a card into a PCI/PCI-E slot, which is a small latch that secures the card. There is a little white latch (or clip or whatever you want to call it) on every motherboard to secure PCI/PCI-E slots.
This depends on the motherboard. On most boards, the AGP slot has a latch. On some boards, PCI-E has a latch. But I've never seen a regular PCI slot with a latch.
Dells normally have proprietary motherboards (Dell makes their own), and they typically don't use them... most manufacturers do for AGP/PCI-E, though. Well, at least the major ones (ASUS, nVidia, Intel, etc). @Todd: My fault, you're right, PCI slots don't have latches.
Nah, Dell buys standard manufacturer motherboards, mainly Intel I from what I remember. Dell doesn't actually make anything. They just wholesale purchase and rebrand it.
For their XPS line they tend to rebrand, but for most of their consumer stuff they make their own: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Dell+proprietary+motherboard&btnG=Google+Search Anyways, getting back on the topic... what happens if you switch up your cables? I don't think all the speakers would be messing up on you like that if it was a problem with the speakers themselves. Are you sure it's not the cables you're connecting with?
Meh. I tried the old Nintendo method of unplugging all the cables and blowing the dust out of the connectors, and that didn't help any. I haven't moved any cables around recently anyway, so I can't think of any reason why they'd suddenly go bad. I thought perhaps something in my speaker drivers got screwed up, but I did a System Restore back a couple days and that didn't fix anything. They probably aren't BROKEN, I just don't know what the hell is up with them. I can honestly live with listening through headphones, I have a studio-quality pair of AKGs that almost completely cancel out any outside noise.