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sirbardo · ‎12-04-2013

Hello everyone. My girlfriend gifted this soundcard (Solo version) to me a few months ago. I only ever used it with Razer Tiamat 7.1, which don't use the headphones out jack, so I never happened to use that plug. A few days ago I ordered a Sennheiser HD650, that I am about to receive.
Yesterday I tried to plug my Senn hd201 to the headphones out ampedplug (on the back of the card) and... bad news.

Basically, volume output from my left channel is about 5% of my right channel. It's almost completely silent. Now, before I try to use my warranty, which, living in Italy, will probably take a LOT of time, I'd prefer to try and fix the issue myself, if possible.

Things I tried:
Reinstalled the drivers. (I AM RUNNING WINDOWS 8.1). Many times. Tried lots of different drivers, including the one who just came out.
Checked if headphones are working properly (obviously).
Disabled on-board sound card, uninstalled its drivers aswell.

Things I will try soon:
Try the card on another computer I have, who is now rocking a essence stx.
Try the card on win 7 x64 ultimate.

If anyone has any idea of what is causing the problem, and if its hardware related of software related, your help would be greatly appreciated.

Just in case, this is my motherboard: Asrock Extreme 4 Z77.

Please excuse some minor mistakes in English, as this is neither my native nor my main language.

Raja · ‎12-04-2013

I think it sounds liek a hardware issue if your headphones work fine with Essence STX. But try in another computer first and then see if you need to RMA. Not heard of anyone else with channel imbalance issue with stereo output (no surround modes etc)..

sirbardo · ‎12-04-2013

Hello! Thanks for the quick response. I searched these forums before posting, and yes, I had a very hard time finding someone with a similar issue. I did find one though, he somehow fixed it by changing drivers. (His problem was almost exactly the same, apart from the fact that his headphones were more balanced, something like 50% lower volume on the left, whereas I am sadly stuck with 95%.) I will edit the OP with results from trying the card on a different computer.

Raja · ‎12-04-2013

might be worth trying fresh OS install as well...

WTC · ‎12-04-2013

Have you tried uninstall Phoebus driver and let Windows use default driver? If headphone volume is still out of balance then it's a HW problem.

sirbardo · ‎12-04-2013

Yeah sadly I did try and even with windows' drivers it wont work. I'll report back later after I try it on the other comp but yes, sadly I think it is hw...

Nodens · ‎12-04-2013

This may also be due to broken codecs etc. So before you RMA try this. Download K-Lite Codec Pack from here: http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

When you install it make sure you uncheck the options for the toolbars etc in the installer. If you have broken codecs it will detect them and will ask you if you want them fixed/removed. Click yes and test again after the installation is done.

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Ekaress · ‎12-26-2013

Hi, well guess what your not alone my card doing the same thing. Yesterday woke up start my comp everything work fine. Close the comp to go eat when I came back my left earcup sound is realy low right side work fine.First I tought it was my sennheiser pc360 having issue so I plugged them on my laptop no probleme,plugged my pc360 using onboard work fine too.Tryed another pair of pc360 on the card still same issue.So far, I uninstalled / reinstalled driver no luck, moved the card to another pcie still not working, tried older win 8 driver :(, and done a full fresh window install + driver install still not working. I realy think something broke on the card cant realy tell what going on I got the card since September and everything was working fine until December 25.

yeffoll · ‎01-22-2014

Same thing with my card too.

DeLeTe3 · ‎01-29-2014

Same problem rma my card they sent me a brand new card this one seem to sound better

Is my sound card broken or is this issue software related? (uneven headphones volume)