I don't think so, I had the same problem a while ago and I am trying to
remember exactly what I did. It was on my other computer. I know that if
Digitial is selected I was getting alot of distortion. Go to the speaker
setup again and Yes! 2-1 should be fine, on that screen at the bottom is a
white box to check if you want digitial playback, make sure there is NO check
in that box.

If that doesn't work, unplug your computer, open it up, and make sure
there is NO Static Electriciy in your body, touch something metal first or
wear a ground strap. Unplug the Sound card from the socket and re insert it a
couple of times. There is chance that moisture in the air may have caused one
or more of the copper contacts to oxidize a bit and prevent a good
connection. Put it all back together.

When you said you bought NEW speakers did you replace the cable going to
the computer as well?

Are you sure you have it plugged in the Line OUT jack and NOT the Headphone
jack? It must be in the Line OUT and NOT the Headphone, the headphone is an
amplified output and as you increase volumn it increases the output level on
the Headphone jack, whicjh will cause a Line OVERLOAD and crakling etc.



I Have forgotten so much of what I once knew.
"A Stranger is a Friend you haven''t met yet."


"Dee" wrote:

> I have a Realtek AC97 Auio card. I"ve poked around in the control panel and
> played with various settings, but everything seems to be set up correctly for
> the card. The selection I have for a setting is Desktop Stereo speakers (I
> have a 2.1 surround speaker system), and this seemed the closest. I tried
> some other similar options, as well as runningthe troubleshooter, updating
> the driver, etc. but nothing has changed the speaker performance. Maybe my
> sound card went bad? I"m sincerely at a loss.
>
> "Craig A." wrote:
>
> > What sound card do you have? You make go to the sound card diagnostics and
> > be sure you have two speakers selected and NOT have Digitial selected. If
> > that doesn't work look at the sound card properties and look at the choices
> > for the card.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > I Have forgotten so much of what I once knew.
> > "A Stranger is a Friend you haven''t met yet."
> >
> >
> > "Dee" wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > > I am having a problem where the sound coming out of my speakers is scratchy
> > > and weak. I tried buying new speakers, thinking maybe I did somehting to my
> > > old speakers (which used to work flawlessly), but the same issue occurs. If
> > > I adjust the balance on the speakers all the way to teh rigth or left the
> > > scratchy crackly noises go away, but the volume is still weak, and of course
> > > not so good with only one speaker.
> > >
> > > I"m using Windows XP2 and the default Realtek driver that comes with the
> > > system.
> > > Help?!