Crazy

Argh, I just wasted away one hour. More wastefully than usual…

So there I was, switching on my PC speakers after returning home and checking my regular website bookmarks for updates. Just as I was about to start winamp, I realized that the speakers were making a static noise. Shit. I checked all the connections for any loose wires. Nope. I checked the volume controls. Nope. I unplugged my microphone and turn off Line-In in volume control. Still not solved. I painstakingly pulled the speaker wires, untangled them from the rest of the bunch, and replugged it back. (in case other wires are interfering, which isn’t very likely, but has happened before) Noise still there. I unplugged the back-to-front extension cord and plug my speaker directly into the slot on the soundcard at the back. Nope, that’s not it either. I took out my speaker and plugged in my headphones. Static still there, not my speaker’s fault. Since my card was a fricking Realtek integrated one, I thought that maybe AC97 is causing the problem. So I downloaded the latest Realtek drivers. (omg, those things actually exist) The damn drivers forced me to restart, ruining my uptime. What’s more, the problem was not fixed. I tinkered around in the AC97 configuration menu. Nope.

Finally, I went to volume controls again. Through some miracle, I noticed the “Properties” button. After checking every single box I could find to display all the output/input controls, I found the little bugger. The Microphone channel was turned on for some reason. Muted, solved. DON’T ask me what the Microphone channel is for, because my microphone inputs through the “Line-in” channel.

Maybe I shouldn’t have solved the problem and just buy a new soundcard. I think even my 10000 years old Creative Live! Value card was waaaaaay better than Realtek and their stupid random sound emission emulators.