Laptop constant static sound

[CHiLL]

My parents laptop has developed a problem where you can hear static coming from the speakers. If you plug USB headphones (didn't have 3.5mm to hand), the sound also comes out of them. This rules out the physical speakers as the problem, but a driver or circuitry problem. I didn't have time to investigate further, but thought I'd put this out there for any potential advice.

 

The laptop had a prior fault with a 3.5mm microphone, where plugging it into the microphone slot would create a high pitched noise. I put this down to a broken jack. Could this problem have come from that? Have wires crossed inside do you reckon?

[Niickehh]

I would first make sure there's not a problem in the Sound settings, make sure all is good there, you can't rule out Software issue all the time. This happened to my Mum's laptop, but once it had Vista reinstalled, it worked fine. Maybe post the sound settings on here, so we can take a look.

 

Nick 

[Thrill]

I'm not ruling out a software issue, but it's more than likely a hardware issue. Could be the jack, is there any way you could think of to test it's the jack?

[Florian]

First and foremost, I have, you must ensure that both can not rule out software problems all the time, there is a problem in the sound settings, so make sure you do not. This time it happened to my mother's laptop, reinstalled Vista, it worked fine. Posting here may sound settings, we can see it.

[CHiLL]

First and foremost, I have, you must ensure that both can not rule out software problems all the time, there is a problem in the sound settings, so make sure you do not. This time it happened to my mother's laptop, reinstalled Vista, it worked fine. Posting here may sound settings, we can see it.

Thanks for your input . Unfortunately, I have already tried this. It was on Vista, had the problems. 7 has the problems, and I've tried various drivers, including the latest from Acer's website.