CD sound problems

[midoubleraj]

MoBo: Chaintech 7AJA2
CDR: Teac 540E
OS: Win 98SE

When I play music CD in CD Player or WinAmp, there is sound only on one chanel (I don't know which one). When I play it in Windows Media Player with 'Digital playback' option checked, there is sound on both speakers.

Is problem in the CD drive, or is it audio CD cable to blame? Maybe even Motherboard?

Any ideas?

 

[tviman]

You've answered your own question... speakers work OK with Media player (digital) but not with Winamp. Therefore, it's not the motherboard or audio cable. Check ALL of your media settings in Control Panel, check your sound card settings (if available), and check the speaker connections at the sound card to ensure cables are in the right place. There's always a better way...

 

[leonec]

I agree with tviman. check and then re-check all the options is winamp and then your sound applet in the control panel.

 

[cdogg]

Did it work in the past in Winamp? If so, it sounds like one of the default settings have changed. There should be a "restore defaults" button under preferences. Otherwise, try uninstalling/reinstalling as a quick solution.
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[midoubleraj]

All my settings are fine, except: Control Panel > Multimedia > CD Music, where the option for enabling digital CD audio is gray and I can't select it.

Furthermore, I pluged my headphones (they work) under the Teac-540E door, and there was sound only on one of them; it was same with the speakers. When I selected 'Digital playback' in Windows Media Player, there was no sound on headphones, but both of the speakers worked. By the way, MP3s and other media files work in stereo.

I don't know whether is it because of that unavailable setting, but, as far as I know, there should be stereo sound on the headphones.

 

[cdogg]

If the headphones don't work properly, then I suspect there's a problem with analog playback. There are 2 ways audio travels from your CDROM drive to your soundcard.

1) Analog Playback: sound travels over the analog audio cable that connects from the back of the CDROM directly to the sound card.

2) Digital Playback: data from the audio CD is transferred in its original state (a bunch of data bits 1's and 0's) over the IDE cable which eventually hits the sound card through the PCI interface.

When you are listening with your headphones, it is analog not digital. This is why it has the same problem as your speakers. There seems to be an internal problem with the CDROM drive. They are so cheap nowadays that you'd be better off not wasting any more of your time and replace it.

Secondly, MP3 and WAV files are data files in digital format. That's why they play just fine. So basically, you're only having an analog problem which is caused by the CDROM drive.


Sorry this is explanation is overkill, but I've found in the past that it is a very hard concept to explain... ~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[midoubleraj]

cdogg > Sorry this is explanation is overkill, but I've found in the past that it is a very hard concept to explain...


That's the way I like it - detailed. I read before about differences between analog and digital, so I pretty much knew that it's either a CD audio cable or a CD drive itself. These headphones pretty much determined what it is, although I'll check it with some others, and maybe I'll even try with different audio cable.

Thanks for your help.