Weird volume issue on PC

[beelzerob]

So I began to realize that my TTS wasn't working anymore. So, I went over and did the first check, which was to make sure the PC volume was up. So I clicked the little speaker icon, and ya, the slider was up near the top. I clicked on the slider, and you know how normally that should produce a "beep" from Windows? Well...nothing. So, I checked the PC speaker volume, and it wasn't too low to hear anything.

I wrote a string to the SayText field of the TTS just to see, and I actually could hear it, but it was REALLY faint. I had the speaker volume cranked all the way, and could still barely hear it.

So figuring it was just some windows oddity bug that commonly occurs, I rebooted. Well, when it shut down, I heard, in perfect volume, the windows shutting-down theme. Then, upon coming back up, I heard the windows starting theme. But once again, clicking on the volume slider does not produce an audible ding, and the TTS is still too faint to be audible.

I started up windows media player, and chose a sample clip at random, and IT played ok so I could hear it. But my wife this morning was claiming that video's from the internet didn't have any sound.

A few days later, my wife thanked me for fixing the issue. Unfortunately...I hadn't. But suddenly the TTS was working again. And now....it stopped again.

So, I did a completely system reinstall, loaded the latest motherboard drivers....and it's still a problem.

Grrrrrr... Anyone have any ideas of how to troubleshoot this? I just can't fathom that it's a hardware issue, as SOME sounds are coming through in perfect volume, and it's not only one type (.wav) that aren't. But I have no idea why a system reinstall wouldn't clear it up either.

 

[TXFlatLander]

When you reinstalled everything, did you try sounds before your TTS was installed? Just wondering if that has something to do with it. If it is hardware, that is weird since it is intermittent and only certain applications -- but I would think since the reformat/reinstall and it still persists that logically it would be hardware.

Have you tried another headphone jack port on the back of the computer? Some MBs will allow you to select multiple stereo out.

Might run eventvwr and see if you have any errors under the System & Application event log.

 

[beelzerob]

Good suggestions.

The TTS I'm using is the Windows TTS, so there really was no installing it.

For that matter, even with a complete reinstall, this still could be a software issue, as I normally install, install motherboard drivers, and then install all windows updates. So, if a particular windows update is causing this issue, it still would after a complete reinstall. I should have tried just the TTS test in the control panel from plain vanilla Windows.

Here's another nugget: The touch function on the attached ELO screen has stopped working. This happened once before, when I first noticed the sound issue. At that point, I hooked up a 2nd ELO screen, and saw that the touch function WAS working on that. Then, assuming it meant a bad ELO screen, I hooked up the original screen and, lo and behold, the touch function was working again.

So, the touch functionality is working intermittently as well as the sound issues. The more I think on this, I'm thinking it's SOME kind of hardware issue. I'm going to just install everything on my media PC, since it sits and does nothing currently, and see if that fixes some of this crap.

 

[pete_c]

I had a similar issue but I am using HS. I lost my TTS out of the blue. Looked at my default audio and it had defaulted to my "modem" for some odd reason and not giving me a choice of any audio devices. I actually shut down my PC instead of just a reboot and the audio devices came back. On your TS stuff see if you are exceeding the draw and if its shutting itself off.

 

[beelzerob]

What do you mean by "exceeding the draw"?

For clarity purposes:

I'm running Windows XP Home.
This machine is also my CQC master server.
I'm using Windows TTS, via CQC
The sound is built-in to the motherboard (Asus A7N8X, I believe...or maybe Abit)
The sound goes directly to a pair of speakers (no amp in between)
Sound works fine for some things, too-quiet-to-hear-unless-you're-right-at-the-speaker for other things.

 

[JeffCharger]

could it be different settings for voice versus 'other'? Also, I have had success in 'fiddling' with the different elements of the sound setup. ... the "wave" setting etc.

 

[beelzerob]

Do you mean all those little volume sliders you get when you double click the speaker icon on the taskbar?

Don't forget, this isn't specific to TTS. Perhaps the most annoying example is that the normal windows "ding.wav" you get from clicking the speaker slider bar is heavily muted (too quiet to hear...same problem as the TTS), but the windows starting and stopping music (both are .wav files) sound just fine.

 

[pete_c]

"What do you mean by "exceeding the draw"?"

If you exceed the Mw voltage draw on anyone USB port (unless you set it to ignore it) MS will shut down the port. Historically this has caused problems with some of my devices connected to my HA system.

I am using an Asus MB in my office PC. I have the sound hooked up to an Altec speaker setup. I noticed when setting it up the first time I had some issues because of the auto sensing of the audio ports. Athough its an analogue connection out there are controls for digital 5 channel sound.

 

[beelzerob]

Ok, so I decided to make a final accounting of what does and doesn't work soundwise. Works means it sounds just perfectly fine out the speakers. Doesn't work means that at that same speaker volume, it is in audible unless you put your head right next to the speaker.

Windows volume control: No work
Chord.wav in Windows Sound Recorder: Works
Sample sound clip in Windows Media Player: Works
TTS via CQC: No work
Youtube.com video: No work
videosift.com video: KINDA works

Ok, I've stumbled onto something here. Two things.

1) I tried running the TTS test from the control panel. However, clicking "Speech" would not bring up the TTS speech setup dialog. I"ve had this problem before in regards to CQC...somehow CQC was killing my TTS dialog box. I'm going to have to go back and dig up what the fix was for that.
2) In the videosift.com videos (a youtube copycat site), I was getting sound for the videos, but it was HORRIBLY garbled. I tried several different ones, and it was just noise, not sound. Very strange.


I've checked the sound devices, and there is only one available...the chipset sound device.

 

[beelzerob]

Ok...I thought I had found it.

I have moved everything to another PC, and so far it was working....TTS, volume slider, etc all had good volume. And then I swear that one day it suddenly started doing the exact same thing the other PC had done...too quiet to hear. That's when I realized that one of the most recent things I had done was use Windows Update to get the .Net 3.5 Service Pack1 and other .Net updates. And that makes sense, as I'm sure I would have done the same on the OTHER PC.

So, I went to Add/Remove and removed the .Net update, and sure enough, all the sound works again! Just to make sure, I then re-updated to get the .NET back again....and it's still all working. So, I'm not quite so sure anymore. but if the sound goes out again, I'm going to remove the .NET update and see if that fixes it. If so, I find it hard to believe no one else has encountered this, since I've run into it on 2 completely different PC's.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, sure enough...it's gone out again. :nutz: :nutz: :nutz: :nutz:

So, I removed 2 of the .NET updates. No change. My next step would be to remove the Windows Service Pack 3, but instead I think I'm going to do a complete reinstall on the OTHER PC (the first one with this problem) and just start from the beginning.

The main problem is that it works for a while....and then stops. So I can't trace it immediately to a Windows Update (which I only do manually). I think I'm going to just do a basic windows install and let it sit for like a month and see if its stable.

Two PC's, same problem. It's clearly software now, windows specifically.

It's becoming much more appealing to get an HP 5720 and make that my CQC server, as it can be set once and never changed.

 

[beelzerob]

So. After about 3 complete reinstalls, each time patching Windows less and less (to where I was down to service pack 2 only), finally know WHERE the problem is...though not why. And it explains why I had the problem on 2 separate computers.

Somehow...it is the cable.

The PC is located in the basement, and I use it to drive the touchscreen in the kitchen above it. As such, the speakers are connected through 2 cables, totalling probably 30 ft. This has worked perfectly fine up until a couple months ago. Since then, I've experienced this issue with sound, where some sounds are still crystal clear loud, and other sounds are very very quiet.

I discovered the issue when I hooked everything up to it down in the basement so I could reinstall again. So, I had a pair of amplified speakers plugged directly into the sound channel. All through the install, I kept checking...and I had good sound. Then, once it was all setup and ready to go, I switched the cables to hook up the upstairs stuff. All of the sudden I discover the sound has gone crazy again.

So I brought the 2nd pair of amplified speakers upstairs, and they have the same issue...so I know it's not the speakers. I took them back to the basement, plugged them in directly, and they sound great. I then plugged them into the 1st sound cable section (from the PC to the kitchen is 2 cables end-to-end), and it had the problem again. So it would SEEM that the issue is in that 1st section of sound cable coming from the PC.

Now then. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???? I mean, I'm GLAD I found where the issue was, because it was driving me absolutely bonkers. But nothing has happened to this cable. Just one day, we lost sounds. And again, the kicker is that it's SOME sounds. The windows logon/logoff sound still comes through crystal clear, but the TTS and sound recorder do not. How can a cable possibly be consistently favoring certain sounds?

So I'm still pretty baffled on this.

I can either buy a new cable to replace this one.....or buy some of those 3.5mm adapters and maybe make my own cable....or I'm thinking of skipping the audio cable altogether and going with USB speakers, since I have a USB cable going up there anyway.

 

[pete_c]

what kind of cable is it?

I use both premade and shielded two wire with ground microphone cable for a couple of audio runs.

For the TS in the garage I use a mini-pc and a separate small audio amplifier next to the mini PC.

I have a couple of the USB powered speakers and I noticed until I put a USB hub on her PC I would tax the USB ports some and they would shut off.

 

[beelzerob]

The cable is your standard monoprice cable, 12 ft I think, coupled to another 12 ft cable of similar type. It's pretty thin, with a 3.5 mm connector on each end.

I ordered some USB speakers, since they're only like $20 shipped...worth the try. I plan on putting a hub up there too, so it should be ok.

And again...the thing that's killing me is that it DID work just fine, and now it KIND of works for some sounds. So I can't image what kind of damage (or decay??) could happen to a cable to make it act like this.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Was any peripheral added to the PC, possibly drawing down the power supply (CD/DVD, hard drive, lights, etc...)