# Solved: Can only hear background noises from speakers



## dragonfall (Dec 31, 2009)

Hello,

I have a dell Latitude D600 running windows XP service pack 3. My computer has developed a strange sound problem. For some reason, it will only play the background sounds on videos, such as background music, special effect sounds, etc. while the voices are extremely low. It does this randomly, once in the middle of playing a video. The problem persists even when I use my headphones. I've noticed that this isn't a problem when listening to music or videos over the internet.

I have tried going into control panel-sounds and audio devices-volume control, but everything is turned all the way up. when I go into advanced the bass and treble settings on the tone control are greyed out and enable SPDIF is checked. I've tried restoring my computer, but that does nothing for the problem. It has done this before, and the only way to solve it was to reset the laptop to factory conditions, which I don't want to do again. 

Thank you in advance for any help,
dragonfall


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## dragonfall (Dec 31, 2009)

I've done some research and it sounds like this is some kind of downmixing issue, but I'm not sure. When I play mp3's I don't have this problem. I have uninstalled and reinstalled my audio codec (sigma tel c-major audio) with no result. 

still stumped 
Dragonfall


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

Verify your audio setup, specifically the speaker setup.

Also test using a different media player. Sounds like the media player is trying to play and output a multichannel soundtrack, when it should be outputting the audio in stereo. In which case, it's a media player configuration issue.


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## dragonfall (Dec 31, 2009)

Thanks for responding!

tried playing in windows media player, divx player, and media player classic, with the same result. In control panel my speakers show as being laptop stereo speakers. I tried switching them to mono but that did nothing. Is there some more specific way for me to verify my audio setup? Sorry about my lack of expertise.

Just checked. The sound of my DVDs is just fine.


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## dragonfall (Dec 31, 2009)

Figured it out! Ran the offending files through g-spot and they all showed some kind of error that involved cyberlink audio decoder. downloaded the windows xp codec pack and all the files play right again!

thanks for your help
dragonfall


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