windows 2000 - sounds play fast

[Robyn Blum]

Just inherited a Dell Windows 2000 computer from a family member.  All works fine except...

almost all sounds (websites with music/sounds, windows sounds from the control panel) play just slightly TOO FAST.  (Like an old record album on a speed just too high).  Music played directly from a CD in the drive plays fine.

Sounds play through 2 Creative speakers (no sub-woofer).

Any thoughts?  It's weird for my kids to play games on websites and have the characters not sound the way they're supposed to...

Thanks!

[Flame]

Have you scanned for viruses and Spyware? Have you tried updatinf your sound card drivers? Have you tried running a Windows Update?

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[Raptor]

Reinstall soundcard drivers.

[Robyn Blum]

Thanks for the tips - please pardon my lack of knowledge about these topics...

How do I find out what my sound card is?  Once I know that, do I have to uninstall the driver(s) first?  Then, do I just do an internet search for the updated, current driver to install?


BTW, yes, I have an anti-virus running and I frequently run spybot to remove spyware.

Thanks.

[Raptor]

You have different choices to determine the type of soundcard installed.

1. Through Hardware Mananger

I. Right click on My Computer
II. Select Properties
III. Click on the Hardware Tab
IV. Click on the Device Manager button

2. Through a program such as Belarc Advisor

I. Download Belarc Advisor
II. Install Belarc Advisor
Profile page will be loaded in web browser.
III. Scroll down and stop when you reach Multimedia.

3. Through DirectX diagnostics

I. Go to Start
II. Click run
III. Type DXDIAG
IV. Go to the Sound tab

Report the name mentioned.

[Robyn Blum]

DirectX says:

Name: AC'97 Sound Card

Driver: ichaud.sys
Version: 5.00.2160.0001

Incidentally - there is a bar on the Sounds page on DirectX that says Hardware Sound Acceleration Level, and it's set at "standard acceleration" as opposed to "basic acceleration" which is the level below or "no acceleration" which is the level below that.  Does this have anything to do with my problem?

Is this helpful?  Thanks for letting me know what to do next - I really appreciate it!

[Raptor]

You can try different levels of acceleration to see if they have a positive effect.

[Robyn Blum]

I tried different levels - at first I thought it worked - it played sounds correctly on the first website I went to, but after that it is doing the problem again - everything plays just a smidge too fast (and the setting remained at the lower, newer acceleration level), so it seems no effect.

What do I try next?

[Flame]

Update the drivers for the card by going to your sound card manufacturer's webiste.

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[Robyn Blum]

According to the info I found via DirectX, the card is manufactured by Intel.  I went to Intel (and Dell's) websites, but found absolutely nothing about sound card driver updates.

I did find a 3-year-old thread at a different forum which mentioned that lots of people were having this problem with this sound card, and they were able to fix it by updating the driver through Microsoft Windows update and selecting a "soundmax" driver.  I tried doing the update through "driver update" under the soundcard on the hardware tab of "sounds and multimedia" on control panel, but the only drivers it found were repeats of the same intel driver I already have installed.

I did find some soundmax drivers elsewhere online, and tried installing them, but would get error messages during the installation that "driver not found" or "device not found"

Thanks for any other advice you can give

[Raptor]

I tried doing the update through "driver update" under the soundcard on the hardware tab of "sounds and multimedia" on control panel, but the only drivers it found were repeats of the same intel driver I already have installed.

That only works when you have the proper drivers in your possession.

AC'97 Soundcards are not manufacturer by Intel. You were most likely looking at your videocard.

You most likely need to visit the following webpage to find the correct drivers.

Real tek AC'97 Audio CODECs.

[Robyn Blum]

Thanks for your advice - meanwhile, I had gone to Dell's website and finally found the right support forum for the computer I have.  And, sure enough, I searched and found other posts with the same problem and the replies gave a patch/soundmax driver update designed for the dell computer (the other ones I had tried must not have been for dell, and maybe that's why they didn't work).

All seems to be working properly now!  Let's hope it stays that way!

Thank you so much for all of your quick replies today.

[Flame]

Great to hear! Come on back and see us should you have any more questions!  

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[Cary_GRant]

Glad to hear you worked it out! And remember: A question not asked, is an answer not received Cheers!