distorted sound

I'm running xp on my desktop, after a hard drive crash and replacement, I'm getting distorted sound, like muffled and slow motion. In device manager it indicates the sound card has no problems. Any suggestions would be welcome. Sound card is realtek ac/'97.

 

There are lots and lots of drivers for the realtek chipset. Dell for example have the wrong ones listed on their site, installing the supposedly manufacturer correct drivers just leads to a high pitched screech.. the ones on the mobo disk don't work at all XD

try here first .. best educated guess is often the right one

http://sound-drivers.org/

 

Thank you I'll give that a try and let you know how it goes.

 

I went to that site and it wants me to pay for a code key, is this advisable?

 

I have the same chip set. It died a process at a time. I bought a cheap audigy sound card for about 20 USD. It is at least as good as what I had when it was working. I would not pay much for the driver. I bought a driver updater and the new driver did not help. It does take up a slot.

 

thanks, I hate to pay for stuff like that and never use it again.