Speaker volume trouble

[Rayista Geoff]

A quick question for the assembled company: just finished building a new system after slogging along with an old AMD K5 from like 4 years ago. My "new" soundcard is a Soundblaster 128. However, when I plugged in my speakers, the level is way too low even with every volume slider I could find anywhere set on maximum (i.e. I can barely hear the audio from games over the fan).

It feels like a physical problem, i.e. for some reason the soundcard isn't putting out a level that's high enough, as the speakers do still work with my old computer. Is there *any* chance that it's a software/driver problem? Is there some obscure master level setting I'm missing? The speakers are just cheap unpowered ones. Do "newer" soundcards require speakers with their own power? Any thoughts appreciated! OS is Windows 95 OSR2, by the way. (It's what I had lying around. So sue me. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif )

[ReddDogg]

I have that soundcard installed on my main machine at home. First thing to check, is to make sure the drivers are installed properly. Check the device manager for any conflicts, and if none, maybe uninstall and reinstall the drivers for the sound.

I know with unpowered speakers, you won't get great sound quality, speakers are fairly inexpensive, I can pick up speakers and subwoofer set for like 25 dollars here in ohio, so I tend to avoid unpowered speakers. However, if you upgrade to windows Me (I know, not really an option on old system) it has great sound card drivers for that card that auto install. Anyway, if you can barely hear the sound over the fan, first guess is driver conflict or problem.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Paleo Pete]

I think it's the unpowered speakers. Try a set of headphones and see how they sound. They should be louder. I would say find some cheap powered speakers.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

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