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Windows XP volume control spontaneously slides to zero

Windows XP volume control spontaneously slides to zero

Was listening to a podcast in iTunes at my desk, left my desk briefly and as I sat down, the volume faded.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 293
Total answers/comments: 3
Guest [Entry]

"I've seen similar behavior as part of a ""noise-reduction"" or ""echo-cancellation"" feature with a microphone. I would check your audio settings and make sure you didn't turn on something like that. Also, if you have selected ""stereo-mixer"" as your mic source then it will record the audio, which might be considered noise, thus it is decreasing the volume.

Actually I was thinking about this some more, and I had a co-worker who had some external speakers instead of headphones and he would turn his music on and leave his desk (with his computer unlocked) frequently. I installed a program I wrote that would turn his volume down. You might check to see if it is an office prankster. Of course my program would also eject the CD-drive and make random noises, so it must not have been me."
Guest [Entry]

"Only thing I could think of, would be to gradually kill processes, and check between if sound is still decreasing.

That way you might be able to determine the faulty process, since it seems to not be related to hardware.

Besides, I never heard of a virus/malware doing such thing, but you never know, maybe run a spyware or antivirus scan, if killing processes doesn't help."
Guest [Entry]

"Same problem: Volume scrolls automatically down to zero. Also noticed in 'mouse setting' all settings scrolled to max.

Had recently installed drivers update and Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard appeared as an option. Worked fine for a while but then went haywire as above.

Using an Anker mouse with USB wireless plugin.

My solution:
Uninstalled Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard (as it worked fine before this was installed - though cannot say this was definitely the cause)
Disabled Microsoft mouse driver installed by 'mouse & keyboard'
Removed USB plugin and then re-inserted it to force driver installation/use.

Had to reset mouse settings, and all returned to normal."