Speakers' Echo Effect - how to turn off?

Anonymous
2009-03-07T17:05:57+00:00

There is an "echo" effect to all audio (music, game sounds, people speaking), which garbles sounds and is annoying...is there anyway fix this? I have a new motherboard (Gigabyte EP45-DS3L) and am running Vista. I have Bose Companion 2 speakers (just right & left, not surround). I've opened up the Volume Mixer and looked at the speaker info under Control Panel/Sounds. I've also tried Windows Help, but as I have no computer savvy whatsoever, I'm stumped. Thanks in advance for your guidance!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2009-03-13T00:59:17+00:00

Hello ratsees and welcome to the Microsoft Answers forum.

Some things to check for…

You will first want to ensure that this “echo” effect is not being caused by a third party application. The easiest method would be to test the default Windows sounds, then try configuring the speakers, and if the issue persist to try Safe Mode - to eliminate third party software or services as the cause.

Use the default Windows Sounds

1.    <br>Click<br>Start, click Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click<br>Sound.<br><br><br>2.    <br>In the<br>Sound window click on the Sounds (tab).<br><br><br>3.    <br>You will see a box with a list of items one being<br>Asterisk.<br><br><br>4.    <br>Click on<br>Asterisk, or any item in that box, and then click Test.<br><br><br>5.    <br>You should hear audio coming from your system.<br><br><br>6.    <br>If the clip was not long enough select another item, and then click<br>Test.<br><br><br>7.    <br>Determine whether or not the distorted audio is present.

Configure the speakers

1.    <br>Click<br>Start, click Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click<br>Sound.<br><br><br>2.    <br>In the<br>Sound window right-click your Speakers and select Configure Speakers.<br><br><br>3.    <br>Follow the on-screen setup, and<br>Test the available configurations.<br><br><br>4.    <br>Indentify whether or not one configuration appears to have less of an “echo” than others.<br><br><br>5.    <br>If the issue is resolved by modifying the configuration then you do not need to do anything further.

Boot into Safe Mode

This is done to determine if possible software that came with the speakers or if third party software may be causing this unexpected behavior. If the issue does not persist in Safe Mode then the cause is most likely a third party application, driver, or service.

Regardless please let us know how the troubleshooting works for you, and the results of each step.

1.    <br>Restart your computer if it is powered on.<br><br><br>2.    <br>Tap the<br>F8 key after your computer initially powers on.<br><br><br>3.    <br>Once you see the<br>Advanced Boot Options menu you can stop tapping.<br><br><br>4.    <br>Use the up/down arrow keys to highlight your selection.<br><br><br>5.    <br>Select<br>Safe Mode and press Enter.<br><br><br>6.    <br>You should see drivers loading, and then<br>Please wait.<br><br><br>7.    <br>You should then be at the<br>Welcome Screen.<br><br><br>8.    <br>Logon to your computer using an account with Administrator privileges.

[Jared

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Posting to you from Windows 7!

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-09-06T16:12:34+00:00

    I have Windows 10 Home (It's 2015 now) so this is quite a new reply for those who wandered onto this question from 2009.

    Anyways, for me right-clicking on the sound icon in the taskbar and clicking Playback devices than disabling the sound device (Never mind the Razer Surround audio controller!)

    Hope this helped!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-05T06:07:23+00:00

    thanks soo much that really helps

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-08T17:24:00+00:00

    Thank you, Jared M. for your thorough instructions on dealing with this very annoying and perplexing issue which has crept up since installation of the premier version of Windows 10. I had read that, initially, I might experience this effect BECAUSE my voice input would be sampled in order to improve components (Cortana/Speech Recognition?) of the OS. However, it has become very annoying and perplexing. I do think it might be a third party app such as Skype, which is a program that has always been useful and important to me as compared to LYNC. There are other perplexing (minor) annoying behaviors causing me to be less satisfied with this version of Windows but as a general rule this OS is much preferred over Windows 8 (Pro & 8.1 Pro).

    Thanks again.

    Sincerely,

    BearlyAlive

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-04T22:24:30+00:00

    Great: M2014P's solution worked for me, too!

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