3200 static/tinny sound

[anythingtwice]

I've had a 3200 for about three years now. We've been through some ups and downs (hard drive failure, overheating and randomly shutting off, battery won't hold a charge anymore) but it still does what I need it to do. This weekend, though, the sound just went nuts. It's staticky, tinny, distorted, etc. Sometimes in the past, it has been staticky when the volume's up too high but this goes away when I use headphones or external speakers; this isn't the case now, so I am guessing this is not a speaker problem.

Anyone encountered this before? Is there anything I can do myself, or am I stuck taking it in somewhere? I'm not under any kind of warranty anymore.

[rskowron]

Is this online streaming audio or through your CD/DVD player or both? If it's all sound, it sounds like your audio amps or digital audio conversion piece of the processor in the unit have gone west. If it's all online audio only and CD audio sounds OK, then I'd suspect the codecs your media player (like Windows Media Player) is using.

Let us know.

Rick

[anythingtwice]

I haven't tried CDs/DVDs, but online audio, MP3s, and system sounds are all affected.

[rskowron]

Well, I'd definitely try a CD to see if it is "everything". If it is, it's a pretty good bet your sound chips on the motherboard are close to toast.

That's still, unfortunately, not to say that something happened to your audio software drivers also instead of the hardware. Mine pretty much uses the Realtek software and audio drivers. See if you identify your hardware and drivers through Sys. Info under Sound Device and check their website for an update.

Tough one to troubleshoot. Have you tried headphones?

Rick

[anythingtwice]

Huh. Problem stopped yesterday, hasn't given me any problems since. If it starts again I'll be sure to try a CD.

Weird. It's just like this thing - it'll give me hell for a few days and then act like nothing ever happened.

[rskowron]

Huh, that is weird. But, as you and I both know, these mothers very seldom cure themselves so you'll probably be visited again sometime by the sound devil.

Rick

[Chutsman]

I wonder if it could be the cutout switch on the headphone jack not making contact. Next time it happens, plug in some headphones and see if you hear the same distortion.

[rskowron]

Sounds like a path to me Chuts. Won't be the first time dirty or marginal switches in the headphone jacks caused screwy results. As I mentioned, drivers and bad hardware very seldom cure themselves.

Rick