Not sure if this is a sound card issue or an issue with my speakers. I have a Gigabyte 965-DS3 mobo, and Logitech 5300e 5.1 surround setup. For the past few months, my left speaker hasn't been working. When I play music, very little, distorted sound comes out. If I restart, sometimes it works like normal again. Most of the time it doesn't work though, and it's become really frustrating.

I've been thinking all along it's a bad speaker channel. I tried switching the "bad" speaker with another in my setup, and that hasn't helped. So either it's a bad channel, or it's my sound card. It doesn't seem logical to be my sound card...but what do you guys think?

If it is a bad channel in my setup, that really sucks because I have no way to replace it. Which means this whole $200 system is trash.

mmm Have you tried with another set of speakers/headset? If you don't have another set of 5.1's, try with stereo or headset speakers in the different sound card jacks.

One thing that happens commonly is that the bass connector of the speakers starts to fail, so it's usually needed to unplug and plug again the connectors.

Good luck