StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Basically, my sound stopped working yesterday, but after checking out the hardware and drivers in Control Panel, I found no conflicts or driver errors of any kind (I even re-installed the drivers, to no avail), and of course all the volume setting are correct. Aditionally, attempting to play sound files will not produce error messages, and the program playing them will behave normally (with the exception of no audible sound) so as far as Windows is concerned, the card is working properly.

Using headphones produces no sound at all, but with speakers (which of course have an external power source) you get mostly static, but faintly you can hear the sound that's supposed to be playing. I'm thinking this is a hardware problem, which means replacing the sound card: It's a cheap 7-year old card, (an SB Live Value), so I'm not too concerned about losing it, however I'd just like a second opinion before going out and buying a new card.

Had the same card years ago, which started acting strange and eventually ended with the exact symptoms you describe. A few days after that it stopped being detected at all. So I'm going to say that yours is probably dieing on you. Nowdays I just use the onboard, most newish motherboards come with pretty good onboard sound chips now days, and creative hasn't released a new sound chip in years. They just keep updating it. (and the fact that many audigy's can be "turned into" more powerful ones simply by driver hacks backs this up). Of course if your onboard is the shit-tastic AC97, I wouldn't use it

Had the same card years ago, which started acting strange and eventually ended with the exact symptoms you describe. A few days after that it stopped being detected at all. So I'm going to say that yours is probably dieing on you.

Yeah, figured as much: thanks for the input. I'll be off now to replace it.

Of course if your onboard is the shit-tastic AC97, I wouldn't use it

Yes, it is AC97: The mobo is as old as the sound card, which puts it before the advent of IHDA.