So my headset that I've been using with no problems for over a year suddenly started sounding extremely scratchy and noisy (to others) when I'd talk on Ventrilo and in games. I tried a spare headset and had pretty much the same problem, so I figured it had to be a sound card problem. After uninstalling, reinstalling, and updating the drivers for my Audigy 2 and getting no change, I bought an Audigy SE. Using that I often couldn't even get any sound to come out of my mic, not even the scratchy ugly kind.

I've switched back to the Audigy 2, tried messing with the drivers, tried using onboard sound, bought a new headset; nothing fixes the problem. The best I get is sporradic, but still scratchy, voice output on Ventrilo. I can never really predict when the mic is gonna work and be scratchy, or completely fail and put out no sound.

Anyone have any ideas?

Forgot general system setup:

Windows XP SP2
Intel P4 3.2
ASUS p4p800 motherboard

Both headsets are Altec Lansing.

And I guess "static" is another way to describe the "scratchiness."

Hi hihowru, welcome to PCHF.

Static/Scratchiness, your talking about interfearance, or skipping/choppy audio?

Have you heard this yourself, have you tried using any kind of recording software locally on the PC, or something like Skype (using Skype Test Call)?

It's rare for a sound card or even sound card drivers to cause intermittent issues, but I'm sure we can get to the bottom of your problem, or at least point you in the right direction.

Interference sounds like a good way to describe it. Static, excess background noise, etc. That's when the mic *does* work. I went a couple hours the other night playing Team Fortress 2 and talking on Ventrilo (using the Audigy 2 and my 1st headset) with the static problem but my voice still working, then I left for a couple hours and when I came back later no one could hear me at all. Then a little later I randomly threw out a "is my mic working yet?" and people could hear me again. I don't know why it works poorly (static) sometimes and why it doesn't work at all others.

Sometimes it works to record my voice in sound recorder, it's just really quiet and with the ugly interference.

Before placing my head through a wall I decided to try switching to the new sound card again (Audigy SE) and now my mic works fine

So apparently I screwed something up the first time I tried the switch, I'm not sure, but everything is working fine and I'm certainly not asking any questions.

Thanks madmonkey for the attention, and sorry everyone for the false alarm.

hehe, nice work hihowru, glad to hear everything is OK. Will mark this one as resolved, let us know if you have any further problems.