Is my onboard sound busted? :-(

Helloooo

Its been ages since I last posted here...and as a result I've pretty much lost track of all things new and good in terms of PC components.

Issue:My on board sound seems to be busted. Basically I can only hear from the right side of the headphone (I always use headphones as this PC is mainly used for gaming). If I just slightly take out the jack half way then I can hear from both sides so I know my headphone works (but then this way I'm only using one channel...aka the right side if being played through both the right and left side of the headset if that makes sense).

Tested my headphone out on my laptop and it works just fine, so I'm pretty sure its my mobo. What's weirder yet is if I fiddle around with the plug at the back i can get the sound to come out just from the left side or just from the right side...but not from both together unless its just using the one channel through both speakers.



Question 1: Has anyone had a similar issue and knows of methods of solving it?

Question 2: What would you guys recommend as a relatively cheap (about £25 +- £10) sound card for general use (don't really care about crazy sound quality. Just wanna be able to watch movies and play games with good enough quality and specially without issues)


UK sites would be appreciated.

Extra info if you need regarding mobo: Its a Asrock 775dual vsta and uses the realtek hd audio codecs and drivers all of which are up to date.


Cheers in advance!