Karen,

Much as I respect Joe Offer, I think he's wrong in expecting that your computer components will fail after 5 years. Generally they won't.

The difficulty in answering your question is that the problem my be any number of things from a large variety of possibilites.

The first thing to do is to try and isolate the problem. Try the speakers elsewhere, try some headphones in the soundcard etc.

If the problem is definatly with the sound card, follow the above advice on reinstalling the driver, and Scorcha's point of checking the audio settings.

If none of this works, you may need to get inside your computer to look at the soundcard. Take it out, put it back in, and that might solve things - it's amazing how many times it does. (deleteing the driver before a fresh reboot can also help)

If none of this works, maybe you need a new soundcard £10 - 15 will get you something that works well.

I hope this helps

Ed

feel free to PM me with any problems if you prefer