What is up with my sound ????

[Lintball]

For some reason my sound is really messed up. When i have my volume and wave settings all the way up in volume my volume is still like really low. I have tried to d/l different drivers but none of them fix this. It is onboard sound...it is an ESS Allegro chipset. my os is xp home.also recently my microphone has started messing up...when i am on teamspeak or counter strike my microphone will sound really bad..it sounds like a mad gorrilla. my mic settings aren't up to high in counter strike nor in volume settings. someone please help me...thank you in advance

p.s. i realize buying a sound card would most likely eliminate this issue but i don't want to do that yet if there is anyway to fix this

 

[Lintball]

Nobody has any ideas ? i would appreciate some help

 

[003]

mabey your onboard sound is going bad?

 

[Lintball]

most likely...well i'm probably gonna have to buy a sound card...so what do you think is a good brand ?

 

[m3trj]

The Creative Audigy 2 ZS is meant to be a good card.

 

[GameGURU]

The Creative Audigy 2 ZS is meant to be a good card.

I hear it's the best for the price.

 

[Jorsoft]

Somebody just said it was $71 for an oem one on newegg. That's a great deal!