Fixing Sound Card Problems
In case you are completely oblivious to computer terms, a sound card is the device in your computer that process and outputs the sound you hear in your speakers when playing video games, watching a movie, or doing anything else on your computer that involves sound.
Since the sound card is what sends the sound to your speakers, if it is having problems or is broken, the sound will not be right and most likely will come out distorted or sometimes not at all!
Basically there are just a few things that are likely to go wrong with your sound card. One of the major things that go wrong with sound cards is having a bad driver, or the wrong driver, installed for it (a drive is the software that runs the hardware).
Most people buy a computer with their sound card already built in, but the thing is your sound card driver can still become corrupted or over ridden by another faulty one over time.
So to put a point on it, always try reinstalling or downloading and installing new drivers for your sound card, before going out and buying a new one or trying to get someone to repair it.
Now of course sound cards are still able to just break like any other part in the computer, but since there are no moving parts on it, that is less likely. But of course if it does break, and you are not a graduate of engineering, the only way you can really fix it is to upgrade to a new one or take it to a local computer repair shop.
You can check out our sound card upgrade page to learn everything you need to know about upgrading a sound card, including a picture tutorial showing you how to install it.
For those of you who have problems locating your sound card, it most likely is attached to your main circuit board, AKA motherboard, inside of the computer. This is called a “built in” sound card and cannot be upgraded unless you buy a new motherboard. You can still buy a new sound card though, and install it in the required slot if you have one open, then set your default sound card to your newly installed one as a way around it.
To change your default sound card in Windows, you would want to go to “System” under your control panel, and go to the devices section and then to your sound card section. In that section you are allowed to change which one is the default sound card by changing its properties.
Overall though you need to keep in mind that your sound card is very reliable and will only require a little maintenance from you time to time, but do always check for new and updated drivers from the manufacturers website at least once a year.
