Sound Cards and Speakers: Making Noise

Most PCs come with some sort of speaker system. That might be an internal speaker (although those are becoming increasingly rare) or two or more external speakers. In fact, some systems come with multiple-speaker audio systems, complete with subwoofers and so-called 3D or surround sound.

All speaker systems are driven by a sound card or motherboard-driven audio circuit inside your system unit. If you upgrade your speaker system, you also might need to upgrade your sound card accordingly.

Because speakers have no moving parts, they seldom go bad. If your PC goes silent, the problem probably lies in the configuration of a specific software program, in the workings of your sound card, or in the connection of the speakers to your system unit but not in the speakers themselves.

note

The word modem stands for "modulate-demodulate," which is how digital data is sent over traditional analog phone lines. The data is "modulated" for transmittal, and "demodulated" upon receipt.