RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
So last night I was sitting at a Windows machine and decided to listen to some tunes while I was working. I clicked into "My Music," and it sounded like Karaoke. The voices were missing, and the music sounded distorted.
"Aha," I said, "Microsoft must have sent me some evil DRM code." So I uninstalled WMP 11. No joy.
"I must need new sound drivers," I thought. But there were no newer ones available.
"Okay, maybe I need old sound drivers," I thought, and rolled back the drivers. No improvement.
"I know," I said, "It must be that dialup voice modem I installed for the answering system." So I uninstalled the modem. No go. Sound was still distorted.
"Maybe there are some system files that were replaced," I thought, and so I did a system restore. No luck.
"Must be the sound card," I decided. By then it was 3 a.m., and I was searching through my pile of junk for a sound card that would work with all of the operating systems installed on the computer. Couldn't find one.
I was about to grab one out of the truck when I absent-mindely moved the balance slider... and realized that it wasn't working. The sound still came out both sides regardless of the slider position , but the voices returned when I slid to either extreme.
So I flipped the switch from headphone to speakers, and the sound worked fine. Turns out the insulation in the headset wire wore out somewhere and probably created a capacitor that happened to filter out the range of human voice, and distorted some other frequencies.
Hey, I can't complain. That Plantronics headset outlasted three computers. So I bought a new one today for thirty bucks. Problem solved.
Rich
"Aha," I said, "Microsoft must have sent me some evil DRM code." So I uninstalled WMP 11. No joy.
"I must need new sound drivers," I thought. But there were no newer ones available.
"Okay, maybe I need old sound drivers," I thought, and rolled back the drivers. No improvement.
"I know," I said, "It must be that dialup voice modem I installed for the answering system." So I uninstalled the modem. No go. Sound was still distorted.
"Maybe there are some system files that were replaced," I thought, and so I did a system restore. No luck.
"Must be the sound card," I decided. By then it was 3 a.m., and I was searching through my pile of junk for a sound card that would work with all of the operating systems installed on the computer. Couldn't find one.
I was about to grab one out of the truck when I absent-mindely moved the balance slider... and realized that it wasn't working. The sound still came out both sides regardless of the slider position , but the voices returned when I slid to either extreme.
So I flipped the switch from headphone to speakers, and the sound worked fine. Turns out the insulation in the headset wire wore out somewhere and probably created a capacitor that happened to filter out the range of human voice, and distorted some other frequencies.
Hey, I can't complain. That Plantronics headset outlasted three computers. So I bought a new one today for thirty bucks. Problem solved.
Rich