audio echo problem

[Joshua Nieuwsma]

Hi all, I am running Windows XP SP2, with both an on-board soundcard (Asus
p5nsli board) as well as also owning a Soundblaster 24-bit PCI soundcard. My
problem is that about 3 days ago I ran Company of Heroes off my old hard
drive without reinstalling it first (I recently reformatted/reinstalled XP),
and it did start up fine so I thought everything would work ok. BUT, it
appears something got stuck in the wrong setting or whatever, and now in
every program I have a weird background echo. It's a delay of about 3/4
second, and if I stop a sound quickly I can hear it echo twice, so it seems
to be a reverb setting. However, I can't get rid of it. I restored to a week
ago, hoping that would fix the problem, and it didn't. Then I took out the
soundcard, reinstalled the onboard card, and the problem is still there even
though the sound drivers are different. Which makes me think it is something
that's been changed in the Windows files. Anyone know how to remove a pesky
echo like this? Perhaps a file to re-copy? Or a setting somewhere I can find?
I've gone through all the standard menus for audio, and haven't found
anything.

 

[orange]

Hi all, I am running Windows XP SP2, with both an on-board soundcard (Asus
p5nsli board) as well as also owning a Soundblaster 24-bit PCI soundcard.
My
problem is that about 3 days ago I ran Company of Heroes off my old hard
drive without reinstalling it first (I recently reformatted/reinstalled
XP),
and it did start up fine so I thought everything would work ok. BUT, it
appears something got stuck in the wrong setting or whatever, and now in
every program I have a weird background echo. It's a delay of about 3/4
second, and if I stop a sound quickly I can hear it echo twice, so it
seems
to be a reverb setting. However, I can't get rid of it. I restored to a
week
ago, hoping that would fix the problem, and it didn't. Then I took out the
soundcard, reinstalled the onboard card, and the problem is still there
even
though the sound drivers are different. Which makes me think it is
something
that's been changed in the Windows files. Anyone know how to remove a
pesky
echo like this? Perhaps a file to re-copy? Or a setting somewhere I can
find?
I've gone through all the standard menus for audio, and haven't found
anything.

Make sure you don't have any echo or reverb units running in whatever sound
software you have.

Tyr turning off your on-bard sound and then re-installing your SoundBlaster
drivers. Did that work ? You may have a confict, why do you need two cards ?

Cheers,
Jerry

 

[Joshua Nieuwsma]

Thanks Jerry for your reply!

Unfortunately, I haven't solved this issue yet. I did what you suggested
(reinstalling my SoundBlaster & drivers). I don't actually have 2 cards - I
tried switching to the built-in MB soundcard because I thought that might
reset the problem. It didn't. So I've switched back to it.

To me, it seems like some sort of stuck reverb. It's there even in the most
basic Windows sounds (like the click in IE or Firefox when a page refreshes).
I don't have any reverb units running that I know of - unless there is
something somewhere in the Windows audio drivers that is incorrect. Again, it
wasn't doing it until I ran a copy of Company of Heroes (which has a lot of
reverb for effect in it, I've noticed) that wasn't in the Windows Registry
since I hadn't installed it in my fresh Windows install.

So I thought perhaps there might be another setting somewhere in the core of
Windows that makes all audio have reverb? Since I can't change it with the
soundcard reverb settings (they just make the reverb bigger but it is still
there when they're off). My biggest problem occurs when i'm listening to
someone talking, like internet radio. The voice sounds like a cave and it
really sucks if the conversation isn't really clear to begin with.

Hopefully someone knows of something that might cause this! Thanks!

 

[orange]

Thanks Jerry for your reply!

Unfortunately, I haven't solved this issue yet. I did what you suggested
(reinstalling my SoundBlaster & drivers). I don't actually have 2 cards -
I
tried switching to the built-in MB soundcard because I thought that might
reset the problem. It didn't. So I've switched back to it.

To me, it seems like some sort of stuck reverb. It's there even in the
most
basic Windows sounds (like the click in IE or Firefox when a page
refreshes).
I don't have any reverb units running that I know of - unless there is
something somewhere in the Windows audio drivers that is incorrect. Again,
it
wasn't doing it until I ran a copy of Company of Heroes (which has a lot
of
reverb for effect in it, I've noticed) that wasn't in the Windows Registry
since I hadn't installed it in my fresh Windows install.

So I thought perhaps there might be another setting somewhere in the core
of
Windows that makes all audio have reverb? Since I can't change it with the
soundcard reverb settings (they just make the reverb bigger but it is
still
there when they're off). My biggest problem occurs when i'm listening to
someone talking, like internet radio. The voice sounds like a cave and it
really sucks if the conversation isn't really clear to begin with.

Hopefully someone knows of something that might cause this! Thanks!

Try disabling any WMP plugins you may have. Did that work ?

Cheers,
jerry

 

[Joshua Nieuwsma]

Thanks again for your help, Jerry! But unfortunately I don't have any WMP
plugins installed. The echo is still there and going strong no matter how
many times I delete the soundcard, uninstall the drivers, restart and install
them again... Do you think perhaps if I remove the new version of WMP 11 that
might fix it? Or what about doing a Windows Repair?

Joshua

 

[orange]

Thanks again for your help, Jerry! But unfortunately I don't have any WMP
plugins installed. The echo is still there and going strong no matter
how
many times I delete the soundcard, uninstall the drivers, restart and
install
them again... Do you think perhaps if I remove the new version of WMP 11
that
might fix it? Or what about doing a Windows Repair?

Joshua

You could try rolling back to WMP10 first.

BTW, you don't happen to have an active microphone plugged in that is
feeding the sound out back into the system ?

Cheers,
Jerry

 

[Joshua Nieuwsma]

Jerry,

Tried your latest suggestion. No luck. No microphones plugged into the
system either. Hmm.... it is very confusing. Not sure what to think.

Joshua

 

[Joshua Nieuwsma]

HAHAHA I've got it figured out. Thanks for all your help Jerry! I appreciate
it that there are forums like this, even when the reason it was having
problems wasn't really Windows after all. I was just about to call it the
hardware since there didn't seem to be any software problems at all... when I
noticed my receiver looked a bit different on the display. I never touch it,
just use my remote for volume. It's set perfectly for my room so I hadn't
thought about it being the cause... someone must have been fooling with my
A/V receiver... cause that was the problem the whole time! HA. Well, I guess
it proves that DPS works. Well, now it's fixed! Made me look the fool,
though. Thanks again Jerry! Now to just find out who fooled with it...

Joshua