Hi fi problem

[Cyclist33]

Earlier this evening I switched the leads from my computer's soundcard from one set of terminals on the amp to another - literally just turned off the amp, and moved the cable from "tape" over to "CD", and moved the DVD player's cables out of the "CD" terminals and into the "DVD" ones.

Now the PC sound is coming through like, er, a very distant radio that's tuned into white noise. The DVD player (unrelated in cabling terms) is still playing CDs through the amp fine.

So, is it possible to cock up a cable just by switching it in this way while it was still connected to the (on) computer?

[I've tried various reconnections including how I had it before, and I've also now cabled up the soundcard to my surround system (a separate object entirely) and am getting the same issue, so it does seem like it's either the cable or the soundcard's output port that is playing up?

Help!

Thanks

Stu

 

[Wobblers]

I suppose you might of damaged the cable when you pulled it out of the socket. Try swapping the sound card cable (is it a standard phono lead?) for another one. If that doesn't make any difference, then check that the sound card is firmly seated into the motherboard.

 

[MrJamie]

Are you sure you put it back in the same socket? theres quite often line in/out/mic/headphones, perhaps you hit the headphone hole instead of line out or something. Ive noticed my soundcard detects what ive plugged into it and changes settings accordingly, maybe its something in the settings thats changed as it detected you messing around with the connectors. Check your master volume and volume of whatever application is making the sound, check what device is set as output under volume control.

Try a different cable, or try finding another device like a walkman (ipod?) or smartphone you can plug the cable into instead of the pc to get some more info on which combinations dont work.

 

[Cyclist33]

thanks. ok so currently playing music on my ipad using the same cable which to recap, has a 3.5 jack at one end and two rca connectors at the other end. rcas are plugged into the amp's vcr inputs. apart from a bit of light scratching if i twist the 3.5 end around, its fine and dandy. so it does seem like ive fried the computer's onboard sound...

have tried disabling then uninstalling and deleting the drivers for this, then redownloading from scratch and it does say this device is working properly etc., but it isnt. hmmm. stumped!

 

[ColinJ]

Try connecting everything back the way you originally had it and see what happens ...