All Audio Files Play Distorted

[Chris or Larry LaMere]

All audio files suddenly play with severe distortion, the lower the
bitrate the worse the distortion is. Every type of file is affected
cda, mp3, ra, every one I've tried.Bitrateslower than 32kbps won't
play at all. I don't have any midi or wav files to test.

I've tried reinstalling RealPlayer and Windows Media Player and
neither helped.

Don't know what to try next.

Help, I have a lot of low bitrate old time radio show mp3's that I
can't listen to any more.

 

[Guest]

Scroll down to item number 5 at below URL (website).
Resources for Troubleshooting Sound Problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307918

 

[Chris or Larry LaMere]

I don't think it was item 5 but I rolled back the driver and that
didn't work. Just to see what was there I looked under the advanced
tab. There was a check in the s/pdf box, when I unchecked it
everything started working fine again. I dont know how it got checked
or what it is but that did it.

Thanks for the pointer to the reference page.

 

[Chris or Larry LaMere]

I was wrong everything's not fine.

The balance slider in the volume control panel is wierd.

When centered audio is seriously distorted.

When slid all the way to either side I don't notice much if any
distortion. The sound is fairly clear through both speakers (at the
same time, no fade from one to the other). Is this normal?

And the tone control sliders under the advanced options are greyed
out. Should they be?

Is there something I could uninstall then reinstall that might fix
this?