Cheap speakers frying on-board laptop sound?
Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:00 am
Anyone ever seen something like this?
Was using a colleagues old cheap altec lansing speakers on my laptop a few days ago and noticed I was getting no sound. Noticed that my work laptop wasn't even recognizing the sound device anymore and nothing was bringing it back. THought nothing of it at the time, certainly didn't suspect these speakers had anything to do with it. Swapped my HDD into another laptop the school had went to use those speakers again (worth noting these are speakers with their own power supply) and when I plugged them in there was a popping noise from my laptop and the thing shut down hard (I had to use a paperclip and push the manual hardware reset button on the thing to get it to turn back on). When there should have been the usual windows chime, there was a bit of crackling and then nothing. Sound device still registers, but no sound. I've been using a pcmcia sound card in the interim, but it looks like these speakers did it both times. must have been discharge that fried something.
I'm just borrowing the PCMCIA card i have now. Any suggestions for a really cheap but effective USB or PCMCIA sound solution? I've seen a bunch online, but want to avoid the hassle of getting a complete POS that looked like a good deal.
Was using a colleagues old cheap altec lansing speakers on my laptop a few days ago and noticed I was getting no sound. Noticed that my work laptop wasn't even recognizing the sound device anymore and nothing was bringing it back. THought nothing of it at the time, certainly didn't suspect these speakers had anything to do with it. Swapped my HDD into another laptop the school had went to use those speakers again (worth noting these are speakers with their own power supply) and when I plugged them in there was a popping noise from my laptop and the thing shut down hard (I had to use a paperclip and push the manual hardware reset button on the thing to get it to turn back on). When there should have been the usual windows chime, there was a bit of crackling and then nothing. Sound device still registers, but no sound. I've been using a pcmcia sound card in the interim, but it looks like these speakers did it both times. must have been discharge that fried something.
I'm just borrowing the PCMCIA card i have now. Any suggestions for a really cheap but effective USB or PCMCIA sound solution? I've seen a bunch online, but want to avoid the hassle of getting a complete POS that looked like a good deal.