Vista - Realtek Audio Fades In & Out.

Firstly, apologies for not so great English and especially for not being very computer savvy.

My issue is that the audio fades in and out of HP Pavilion a6010n desktop PC, Windows Vista Home Premium, SP1, 32-bit os. I always use headphones plugged directly into the front of the tower, and my LCD monitor has built-in panel speakers. This problem has been constant since I purchased the PC in August of 2007, but will resolve itself periodically sometimes for a few weeks or even a few months.

I have noticed that it most often happens upon start up and even often affects the boot up Windows noises. Then, if I open Windows Media Player or anything else with audio (Youtube videos, Yahoo! News videos, etc.) the sound in my headphones will fade in and out from one ear to the other - usually (but not always) it is the left ear that loses audio, but lately both have done this. This will happen immediately after starting up, then usually reslove itself after anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour - then all will work well again.

I initially suspected I simply had a pair of defective/old headphones, but have tried with four other pairs and get the same results. It also happens when I unplug my headphones and play audio on the monitor speakers.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

It is a built-in Realtek sound card, version 6.0.1.5548. Realtek ALC 888 chipset.

Also, I just formatted my computer in January and the problem continues. I actually had to format my pc after trying to update the Realtek Audio driver in Device Manager, and when I rebooted (as I was prompted to do so) I had lost internet connection; I am using a Linksys WMP54GS adapter. After my Realtek "update", my system wouldn't even locate my adapter installed on my PC.

Anyone with any thoughts or suggestions . . . please? This issue has gone on long enough and seems to be getting progressively worse.

have you tried the loudness equalization option?

Thank you MrNeeds, I have enabled the equalization option, but am still having the same issue.

The only thing I can liken the sound loss to is when a pair of headphones start to die, and you have to wiggle the cord -- that fading in and out and losing audio. This happens to me repeatedly at start up now and will usually resolve itself after a few minutes (but can often taken longer). But, the issue lately seems to be getting worse. It used to mostly just occur in the left speaker/headphone, but now happens in both and more frequently and a for a longer period of time before it "corrects" itself.

It is driving me nuts!!!!

have you tried a different jack and assigning it to speakers?

I have gone into the Realtek control panel and assigned it to "speakers". I have also uninstalled the Realtek Audio driver in Device Manager (again) and reinstalled the audio driver directly from a download from my HP Pavilion's model page. I unplugged the speaker jack from the tower and monitor and reversed them (they fit both ways). I am still at a loss as to how to correct it, and the audio loss is getting worse and cuts out frequently now - even moreso than before.

I opened the tower to look for the built-in sound card; but, unfortunately, I am very inexperienced with computers and couldn't figure out which was the sound card - tried to follow the cable from the headphone jack on the front of the tower to where it plugs into the motherboard. Just seemed to lead to a very tiny yellow-orange box at the back of the computer.

I can't figure it out whatsoever. Maybe it's the headphone jack itself? Maybe the sound card is dying? Maybe I am an idiot? I am sure it's one of the three - maybe a combination.

Any other ideas? Would greatly appreciate it.

can you try and connect the headphones as a test to the back of the pc rather than the front panel? i suspect a faulty jack :/