Chapter 4. Sound Annoyances
It seems like only yesterday that my old Intel 286 system belted out tinny, robotic tones on its internal speaker. Mostly, it sounded like a flock of sick seagulls trapped inside the chassis-or maybe I just have no ear for music. Today, sound hardware goes far beyond the orchestral-quality soundtracks and vibrant noises of popular games. How often have you dropped in your favorite music CD and rattled the windows with the gentle, tasteful strains of Metallica? How would you enjoy your favorite DVD movie without the thrilling sounds of gunfire or the roar of the ocean? Sound also has a place in business, supporting voice in real-time collaboration, speech-to-text conversion, and VoIP telephone calls.
Sound has enjoyed a rapid evolution, but not without its growing pains. This chapter takes you through annoyances ranging from configuration, driver, and setup issues to volume, microphone, and speaker headaches. It also covers the most perplexing CD audio problems and player troubles.
CONFIGURATION ANNOYANCES
FIGURING OUT YOUR SOUND CARD
The Annoyance:
I want top-notch sound for my new game. How do I find out what sound card my system currently uses before I splurge on a new one?
The Fix:
First, determine whether you use an integrated sound chip or a PCI sound card. Take a look behind the PC and trace the speaker cable to the output jack. If the cable connects to a jack in the rear I/O area of the PC (the cluster of serial, parallel, USB, Ethernet, and other ports ...