Hello. I've just re-installed Windows XP and I got this strange problem with my sound. The sound quality is just terrible. I've tried 2 kind of cards and many different drivers for them. My motherboard is Epox EP-8KRAI and it probably has Realtek AC97. I tried many drivers for it and none of them gave the quality I was looking for. I also tried SB Live! Value which I bought some years ago. But that gave no improvement. I've had this problem once before and DLing the latest drivers helped then. But unfortunately I lost the original motherboard CD, with the original drivers, so those are not an option.

You might find a m/board driver here.... http://www.mainboard.cz/epox.htm

Have you tried different speakers? Does this happen on speakers and headphones?

I haven't tried different speakers. I had this problem before and fixed it with the same speakers. There wasn't EP-8KRAI drivers there, yoda. :/ too bad.

I installed drivers from Epox International page and they worked! Epox Europe had latest drivers, but they were not good at all. Here's what I installed: VIA_Hyperion 4IN1_V451v.zip wdm_a354a.exe