My sound seems to be slowly distorting and volume is slowly lowering to the point that I have to have it at full volume and then hear some distortion.

So, today I bought some mid range speakers [logitech 25 watt rms with base @ 1,290thb] thinking that was my problem......but not!!

If anything the volume is lower than my old speakers.

So, now can it be assumed that the problem is my onboard sound card??

Do sound cards fail slowly like I described above?? or do they die a quick death??

or maybe I'm going deaf???

It is possible (I mean the sound failing not your ears) how do headphones sound do they have a sep. jack.?

If that is good and the audio is on the mother board then you could get could get a sound card or use an amp with the new speakers via the headphone jack.

Be sure to check that line levels are set by any programs that are running. sound may have low input to start with.

trash in trash out.

The new speaker may be harder to drive but with proper level they should sound fine.

"Be sure to check that line levels are set by any programs that are running. sound may have low input to start with."

duuuh, how to set line levels?? I notice the low volume mostly on downloaded torrents. not all but more than before.....is that a clue??

"Be sure to check that line levels are set by any programs that are running. sound may have low input to start with."

duuuh, how to set line levels?? I notice the low volume mostly on downloaded torrents. not all but more than before.....is that a clue??

My computer, control panel, sound effect manager and/or sounds and audio devices.

Check connections, may be a dodgy connection.

OP's post is the equivalent of

"My car is failing, no matter what I do it doesn't seem as fast as before. I bought new tires but it didn't solve the problem. Am I going blind or is the car failing?"

To properly and quickly diagnose any system failure, please, please post computer specifications, operating system version, hardware vendors and driver versions at the very minimum.

I generally want to help out but most of the time I just skip these kinds of posts and go to a post where there is enough information to help troubleshoot. However, I felt that I'd make an exception and point out the lack of info in this post.

Hopefully others will read this and try to avoid these kind of less than informative posts asking for help.

OK filingaccount.....sorry for not posting all details on my problem. I was just inquiring about the 'general symptoms' of sound card failure.

I'm running [legit] XP64bit pro sp2, AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core, 2.01ghz 1,000mb ram

as per RGS suggestions, I checked my 'sounds and audio device properties and most of the slide bars were @ 75%....I uped them to 100% [hopefully no harm done], but when i checked advanced audio properties where you choose the type of speaker setup and many options, but no 2.1......what I have is 2 desk top speakers and a separate base. I set that up at 'desktop stereo speakers'

Do you actually have a sound card? If so, pull it out and try the onboard system.

Actually, I think that I have an onboard sound card...so maybe I should look into getting a better performing sound card?? any suggestions??

You can buy a sound card for less than a thousand baht. If you open your case, you will be able to see what slots you have available and if there are any cards plugged in.