# Audio files play faster/at higher frequencies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936 "2005-04-25T01:01:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936/1 "2005-04-25T01:01:13Z")

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I have a friend who owns a Packard Bell EasyNote E1 notebook with a RealTek AC’97 audio card and Windows XP with SP2. Everything it plays sounds like it has been shifted a few notes higher than normal.

Male singers start sounding like girls or chipmunks, depending on the voice. The problem affects any audio from any player – WinAmp, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, etc., even the Windows startup/shutdown sounds.

My hypothesis is that it’s an audio hardware problem.

The audio drivers were already the latest ones (which are a couple of years old, oddly enough), and reinstalling them doesn’t help. I have tried changing the level of audio hardware acceleration set in Windows. It already has the latest version (9.0c) of DirectX.

Anyone encountered this problem? Some Google searches reveal that some people have seen this with audio CDs (not relevant here) and DirectX 8.0 (ditto), and apparently changing the level of hardware acceleration is the usual fix.

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936/2 "2005-04-25T01:46:01Z")

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I can’t speak for notebooks. But we fixed it on my wifes computer by installing a chead soundcard.

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**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936/3 "2005-04-25T04:25:39Z")

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Sounds like a similar problems to [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=300043). Try the drivers provided by the PC manufacturer. As I mentioned in the other thread, sometimes the maker clocks the hardware differently than expected, meaning generic drivers don’t work.

If the link doesn’t expire, [this](http://support.packardbell.com/uk/mypc/index.php?PibItemNr=platform_Lynx_DC&PibLinkType=2007&PibCategoryId=92#show) should get you there.

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**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-files-play-faster-at-higher-frequencies/300936/4 "2005-04-25T04:29:24Z")

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Interesting. Unfortunately, the drivers I tried were the official drivers – from exactly the page you cited. These turned out to be exactly the same drivers already installed. This PC is brand new, with a factory-installed OS.