5.1 Speaker Setup Freaked Out

[sixtiesmusic67]

Hi:

Could somebody be kind enough to explain how the following happened. The tech on the phone knew exactly what to do and fixed the situation but couldn't understand why with nobody else using the computer, not downloading anything,no virus, no severe weather patterns and no change of settings by me since day one how come:

The 5.1 speaker set up I have on Windows XP P4. 3.06 250 GB hard- drive 1024 Memory Cable Modem decided to only have 2 of the 5 speakers play any sound, the Windows Control Panel changed itself from 5.1 to desk top 2 speakers and under start/all programs/Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Drop Down/Speaker settings changed to 4.1 from 5.1.

This all happened from the time I shut the computer off at 12 noon Friday and turned it back on 7PM that evening.

For my own sanity what caused the freak-out? I ran virus scan the second it hapened and after it got rectified and it was fine, I frag once per week, virus scan 2x per day and anti Spyware consistantly throughout the day.

Thank you for your time.

[Alienware_Dude]

I've occasionally had my 4.1/Audigy2 setup revert to 2.1, but I don't really know why. Creative software does strange things to my machine.

[gosu mike]

playing a certain game or using media playback software can cause the speaker settings to change. as far as i know, the game vietcong had changed my speaker setup from 7.1 to 5.1. evidently, applications can mess with the master sounblaster controls.
i wouldnt call it a virus or anything to be worried about...and also i think youre going overboard with those 5x a day safeguards.