No sound from left channel - software issue

[jim]

I got rid of my Creative soundcard a while back, and I'm just managing on the built in Realtek audio chip built into my motherboard (X48-DS4).

Problem is, I regularly lose the sound in the left channel, and it *seems* to be a software problem. Usually I fiddle with the settings in Windows for a bit (heck knows which ones specifically) and then it suddenly starts working again.

Has anybody heard of a problem like this before? I've tried fiddling around with the settings myself over the last couple of days, but this time it just won't fix itself so I'm a bit confused

[sadbuttrue]

Software no, hardware yes. My old yamaha amplifier wouldn't send sound to one of the channels until you turned the volume to ear bleeding levels. It was then fine until the unit cooled down.

[jim]

Well, it's not the speakers - they work fine with an MP3 player. And this is the second cable I've used, so that's extremely unlikely.

Which leaves a hardware fault on the sound chip, not unlike your problem, or a software issue.

[Behemoth]

I had this issue with an old motherboard, it did turn out to be the sound chip on the board that was at fault in the end.

[jim]

Changed the socket on the back, and the software let me specify what I wanted to use that socket for.

So now it's working again, temporarily, and I have steery-oh again. If it breaks again though, I may lose patience