Interesting sound card problem: deepening of voices/music

Factual Questions
1

I am having an interesting problem with my sound. The voices from music seem to be lowered and slightly hollow. It is lowering the music too, but it is not as easily to detect. The voice shift is very distinguished though… a group of women sound like a group of men. This will not do…

Tests I have tried:

In the computer’s sound port, I have tried headphones and speakers, same problem.

I have tried MP3s, CDs, and videos, same problem.

I have streamed music from other machines over my home network, same problem.

I have used Winamp and Windows Media Player, same problem.
From these tests, I have narrowed the problem down to my OS (XP) or my sound card (intergraded with IBM R31 laptop). I have not changed any drivers or installed any new software recently.

Can a sound card go bad? I have never heard of such a thing (especially an integrated one).

Any ideas?

2

Oh yea, I forgot to add the obligatory:

This does not appear to be an adware/spyware/virus problem. I have Norton Antivirus, Adaware, and Spybot and I update them and run them all quite frequently.

3

I’m sorry. I, a great computer wizard, have fallen. In the thick of analyzing my machine and solving this great unsolvable problem… I forgot to reboot.

I personally blame this darned Windows XP operating system, since it hardly ever needs rebooting, I just forgot about it. mumble mumble
Your Humbled one,
Hermitian