Hi paddle9, it's probably clutching at straws but have you checked the sound effect for the actual AC97 audio configuration? You should have a blue square icon with yellow sound waves in your system tray. Click it open and check that the sound tab is selected and the environment look up list is set to "None". I apologise if you included this when you said that you checked the sound effects in the other programs. It's all I can think of at the moment, as I've got those speakers.