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PC Tips
August 2000• Vol.6 Issue 8 Page(s) 30-33 in print issue
Troubleshooting Techniques How To Improve Audio Quality

Jump to first occurrence of: [PC] [AUDIO] [TROUBLESHOOTING]

When PCs first rolled onto the landscape, they didn’t have a whole lot to say. Because there really weren’t any applications where sound was necessary, they didn’t need to say much. A simple beeping or tone generation sufficed for those moments it needed to protest, warn, or otherwise get the attention of the user.

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first computer system with high-quality sound capabilities built into it. It was too late for the PC, though. To this day, sound continues to be mostly an add-on element in the PC. You can get exceptionally high-quality sound out of your system, but you’re going to have to piece together a shaky alliance of software and hardware to do it. Toss in the complexities of listening to sound from the Internet or using the latest in high-tech voice recognition, conferencing, and telephony software, and its enough to make you scream, “Beep!”

But before you get to the point of yelling at your computer, follow our troubleshooting tips below. We will help you solve some of the more common problems you’ll run across while using sound on your PC.

An Ensemble Of Parts.

Many things can adversely affect the sound on your system, but they all fall into two camps: hardware and software.

Hardware.

When you think a hardware device is causing your sound problems, start searching for the problem with your sound card, speakers, and microphone. You could even be experiencing a conflict between hardware devices.

Sound cards. Before your computer can sing (or talk or scream or beep), you need at least two pieces of hardware: a sound card and speakers. A sound card, or adapter, is the central station for sound on your system. (It gives your PC the ability to produce sound.) All sound cards come with basic in and out connectors for plugging speakers and microphones into them, and most also have jacks for plugging in other audio sources, a headphone jack, and more. All these sockets are for use with one-eighth-inch minijack plugs.

Sound cards can vary greatly from system to system, and it’s quite possible your card could be to blame for any audio problems you’re having. On the simple side, it could have a physical volume control turned down too low. Check the area around the speaker and microphone sockets on the back of the computer for such a control.

If your computer won’t start at all, make sure the sound card is pressed firmly into its slot. (Turn off the computer and unplug it before you open its case.) You should also make sure the card is plugged into the slot furthest away from other occupied slots; electrical interference can increase the closer the sound card is to other components and devices.

Finally, if your computer is experiencing errors or lockups, or it just won’t play sound, you could have a hardware conflict. One way you can resolve conflicts is by using the Windows Device Manager. The Device Manager gives you a wide range of information on installed devices. By comparing the various settings, you may be able to tell which ones are conflicting. To open it, click the Start Menu, Settings, and then Control Panel. Double-click the System icon and select the Device Manager tab, then click the plus sign (+) next to Sound, Video, And Game Controllers. You also can use the method of taking out all devices except for the sound card, then adding each one at a time until the audio stops working. The last device you added is the one in conflict with the sound card. You must change the settings of either one or the other for everything to work correctly.

Speakers. Without speakers, you can produce all the sounds of the world on your computer, but you’ll never hear them. There are two kinds of output sockets common to most computers: output for speakers, which is traditionally through the back of the computer off the sound card, and output for headphones, which will be near the speaker output, as well as on the front of the computer (the front socket is just for audio CD access). If you’re having audio problems, one of the first things you’ll want to check is the speakers. If you’re getting no sound or low sound, you may have the speakers plugged into the wrong socket.

If you’re using stereo speakers, are you using stereo plugs? If one speaker isn’t working, you may be using mono plugs. Are you using amplified speakers? Many computer speakers require battery- or AC-powered amplification. If you are having problems, your battery may be dead, or your speakers may not be plugged in. If they’re not amplified, they may also be too weak to properly amplify the sound; consider running them through an amplifier or getting better speakers.

Although you can go with regular stereo speakers, be aware they can have big magnets in them, which are bad playmates for computers and diskettes. If you do use stereo speakers, keep diskettes away from them, and keep the speakers a bit away from your hard drive and monitor. (Keeping speakers away from your monitor will also cut down on electrical interference.) The best speakers you can go with are smaller, self-powered computer speakers that come equipped with some form of magnetic shielding such as insulation or specially reinforced casing.

If your stereo has an in socket, you can also run a cord from your computer to it. Just make sure you have the right connectors for each end and you’re using stereo plugs. When you first go to test the system, make sure the stereo volume is down so you don’t blow your speakers.

Sites such as WinDrivers.com provide an easy way to find the latest audio drivers for your computer.

Microphones. You’ll probably have to purchase your own microphone if you want to use one to input sound to your computer; few computers ship with them. When you get one, make sure you select one with a one-eighth-inch minijack. And before you spend a lot of money on one, consider your sound card. Card input capabilities are usually on the low end of a manufacturer’s list of priorities, and your microphone is only as good as your sound card’s input capabilities.

Core Software.

Many of the problems you have with sound on your system will involve some form of software problem. With a great many virtual switches, knobs, bells, and whistles that you can play with, it can be pretty easy to find yourself in trouble after even the simplest setting adjustment. When you think you might have a core software problem, check your sound drivers, volume controls, control panels, and other programs vital to some aspect of sound creation or management.

Sound drivers. Sound drivers provide vital links between your devices/ adapters and your system/applications. Windows comes with an extensive library of drivers, and when you install a new device and reboot your computer, your system will automatically install an appropriate driver for you. However, these drivers can become corrupt or get deleted or outdated. You need to have the latest version of a driver to make sure your system keeps working smoothly. You can usually find sound drivers on the manufacturer’s Web site or by searching sites such as WinDrivers.com (http://www.windrivers.com/).

With the Volume Control panel, or mixer, you can set recording and playback volumes for all devices relative to the whole system volume.

Volume controls. The volume controls on your computer can be a little trickier than you’d think. To begin with, you may have volume controls on your headphones, speakers, microphone, or sound card. You also have various virtual volume controls on your computer, including the system tray speaker icon and maybe even a full-fledged mixer that gives you complete control over all your sound sources.

The easiest way to quickly adjust the sound on your system is with the speaker icon in the system tray. (You also can open it by selecting the Start menu, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, and then Volume Control). Clicking the icon on the Taskbar pulls up a simple volume slider and mute checkbox so you can adjust the volume or just mute everything. Right-clicking the icon brings up a menu with two options: Open Volume Controls and Adjust Audio Properties. The first is a mixer; the second is a tab on the Audio Properties dialog box. You also will see this same tab in the Multimedia Properties dialog box.

The Volume Control panel gives you precise control over every type of sound on your PC. Each device gets its own window in the mixer interface, with the name of the device, such as CD Audio and Wave, up top, followed by balance and volume controls and an advanced tab (if applicable). Your sound card is going to again determine what you see when you pull the panel up, and some of the better ones will offer fancy interfaces, as well as more control over bass and treble.

The Volume Control panel essentially lets you set how each source will react to the whole (master) volume coming out of your system. You can set a balance for system sounds (low) and music (high) that will stay proportionately the same regardless of how high or low the volume is. You can control what shows up on the panel (under the Options menu) for playback, recording, and other modes.

If you have no sound, make sure that the master volume control isn’t all the way off, any applicable Mute checkboxes aren’t checked, and the individual device has its volume sufficiently turned up so you can hear it. If your sound is too low, turn up the master volume or the device volume.

The Multimedia Properties dialog box gives you access to almost every sound setting on your computer. This is a good place to begin adjusting settings when you are having problems.

As mentioned, the second menu choice when you right-click the system tray speaker icon brings up the Audio tab of the Audio Properties dialog box. You also can access this tab by opening the Multimedia Properties dialog box. Just click the Start menu and open Settings, Control Panel, and then Multimedia. Here, you can access just about every sound setting on your system. We suggest going directly to the Multimedia Properties box instead of the Audio Properties dialog box because you have more sound options from which to choose.

The Multimedia Properties dialog box is split into five sections, covering Audio, Video, MIDI, CD Music, and Devices (on most systems). The Audio is in two sections: recording and playback devices. This tab lets you select speaker setups and choose hardware acceleration for recording. It also is where you can opt to display the volume control icon in the system tray; just click the appropriate box at the bottom of the window.

Tabs such as MIDI and CD Music in the Volume Control window let you tinker with settings in both of these sections. But the tabs for these devices in the Multimedia Properties window gives you access to settings for just about every video, audio, and game device on your computer. If you want to really fine-tune your audio system, this is the place to do it. But be careful, the difference between “fine-tune” and “fine mess” is small if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Sounds Properties. The Sounds Properties dialog box, which you also access from the Control Panel by double-clicking the Sounds icon, controls a much different side of sound on your computer: the day to day beeps, cymbal crashes, and other tones that sound when your computer starts up, receives mail, and more.

You use this dialog box to get rid of a particularly annoying sound or to add sounds to events that usually don’t have them. Just select the event the sound is associated with in the Events section and either scroll through the media directory or browse your computer for a replacement sound. If you want to replace every sound, the Schemes window at the bottom of the dialog box lists all the sound schemes presently on your system.

Sound Recorder. You’ve used the Sound Recorder (click the Start menu, select Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, and then Sound Recorder) to record a message, but the resulting file is several megabytes in size, and you are trying to save space for more audio files. You can make files smaller (and as such, lessen the quality) by opening the File menu in Sound Recorder, selecting Properties, and clicking the Convert Now button. The resulting window lets you select from various types, such as Telephone or CD Quality, or you can create and save a type to your own specifications.

Other Possible Solutions. The CD-ROM drives that come with most computers are rugged, but problems can still surface around them. In addition to a bad sound driver, the cable that connects your drive to the sound card may be loose. One easy way to check this is to try headphones in the front (CD-ROM socket), then try them through the back sound card socket. If the first works, but the second doesn’t, you probably need to replace or reattach the cable.

Poor CD playback could also be the result of a slow CD drive. Faster replacement drives are one of the cheaper computer components you can buy these days so replacing it might be your best option. You may also be experiencing a resources problem with another device. If you notice that CD play consistently slows down when using a certain device, you may want to avoid using that device while playing a CD.

Two other important tools to try on audio problems are:

The shutdown switch. It’s amazing how many Windows problems a hard reset can fix. Shut off the computer (by selecting Shut Down from the Start menu), let it set for a few minutes, and then reboot.

Windows 98's Sound Troubleshooter will walk you through solving some of the more common sound problems.
The Sound Troubleshooter. Windows 98 includes a Sound Troubleshooter that will walk you through some of the more common sound problems. You can open it from the Start menu. Just click Help, select the Index tab, type sound troubleshooter, and press the ENTER key. Then, follow the on-screen directions.

Other Applications. If none of these tricks and techniques works, turn to the specific application you are using to solve the problem. Below are some of the most common types of applications with which you might be having problems.

Internet sound. Trying to listen to sound that comes to you over the Internet can present its own unique problems. In general, sound you’ll find on the Internet comes in two flavors: audio files such as WAVs or MP3s (Moving Pictures Experts Group, Audio Layer 3) you download and then listen to and sound that is streamed to your computer so you can listen to it as it comes in. In both instances, you need a media player. They are readily available for free from numerous sources, and two of the best known are RealPlayer from RealNetworks (http://www.real.com/) and Windows Media Player from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/). When you combine a media player with a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator (http://www.netscape.com/) or Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can come pretty close to giving everything you need to play Internet sounds.

Streaming lets you slowly pull in radio stations and other music and listen to them as they download. For the most part, you can’t save these files, and your browser doesn’t save copies to your browser cache. A search of the Internet will reveal thousands of radio stations just waiting to be streamed into your computer, but it’s very nature is also streaming’s greatest weakness. During peak times, Internet traffic can slow to a crawl, and this will affect the quality of your audio stream. Check your ISP (Internet service provider) to see if it tracks peak times (generally evening hours). If you find out when the peak hours are, make sure you avoid them.

Other points to keep in mind with streaming media:

You can increase a player’s buffer, or the amount of time it sets aside to ensure smooth play, in the player’s options or preferences section.
Because standards are updated all the time, make sure you’re using the latest player to get the best audio results possible.
The server you’re trying to reach may be down; try again later.
If you have trouble getting sound to play with AOL’s browser, download the latest copy of Navigator or Internet Explorer.
Some media players have special ways of reconfiguring the way they interact with sound cards; check preferences or options to tinker with any of these types of settings.
If you’re behind a firewall and are having audio problems, contact your network manager or ISP to find out how to optimize your configuration.

Voice recognition. Voice recognition has considerably improved during the past couple of years, and solutions such as IBM’s ViaVoice and Dragon Systems’ NaturallySpeaking offer packages that let you dictate to your computer. Accuracy is the name of the game here, and there are things you can do to cut down on errors:

Talk at a normal pace, clearly verbalizing every word.
Make sure you keep the position of the microphone relative to your mouth consistent throughout the session.
Talk the way you talked when you trained your application. (Training involves a series of exercises that set up the application and get it used to your voice.) Better yet, before you train the system, practice a bit and figure out how you will speak while using the system.
Get a good sound card and a powerful system. These applications can use up a sizable chunk of resources so make sure you have what it requires and then some. As for sound cards, check with the manufacturer to get recommendations.
Correct mistakes directly after you make them. This will improve the accuracy of most programs.
Your voice can change when you are ill or stressed. Consider this when your accuracy suddenly plummets.

Conferencing. Conferencing software such as Microsoft’s NetMeeting combine so many factors—Internet delivery, multiple computers, audio, and video, for example—that it can fall prey to a wide range of problems. For instance:

Choppy audio. Make sure all noncritical applications are turned off, reduce shared program windows (and try not to move them while speaking), and run (for NetMeeting) the Audio Tuning Wizard again. Other things that can produce choppy audio include a slow connection, slow computer, bad sound driver, or having audio set on half-duplex mode (like walkie-talkies) instead of full-duplex mode (both sides can talk at once). Of course, if you have a slow connection to begin with, half-duplex mode may give you better quality.
Echos. If the sound seems to be delayed a second or two, it usually means speakers on the other end of the conference are feeding into the microphone. Have the other party adjust microphone sensitivity or just move the microphone and speakers away from each other.
Muffled/distorted sound. This usually indicates the user is too close to the microphone or just needs some form of a shield (such as a sponge covering) for the microphone.
Periodic slowdown. If your connection periodically slows down, it may mean something in your system, such as an e-mail checker or notebook idle-detection program, is draining off resources. Try to turn off all other programs before starting a conferencing session.

Telephony. Web-based phones (telephony) are similar to conferencing applications, and as such, many of the same recommendations apply. Try to use a fast computer and Internet connection and avoid peak hours. Keep background noise down, and position your microphone 12 to 18 inches in front of you with the speakers set to either side. In addition, keep the amount of non-critical applications you’re using to a minimum. Finally (and a good idea with any attempt at pulling sound in from the Internet), if you are still having problems, hang up and try to reconnect to boost audio quality.

by Rich Gray

Key Points

When troubleshooting PC audio problems, keep in mind that either software or hardware may be at fault.
Closing noncritical applications when using audio programs can help to boost audio performance and quality.
Avoiding evening hours when accessing Internet audio can help to boost streaming quality.

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