Hello DyeTracks,
I want to make sure I understand the symptoms and sequence of events correctly. Correct me if any of the following are incorrect:
1. Before installing Ultra Hal, both your left and right speakers operated normally with normal volume on all programs and sound sources.
2. As soon as you installed Ultra Hal, only your left speaker operated, and then only with the volume turned way up high.
3. You un-installed Ultra Hal, and now your speakers still have weak sound on the left and no sound on the right; is that correct?
4. You mentioned that you have plugged "headphones into the speaker port." Does this mean that you have completely unplugged the speakers from the computer, and connected a set of headphones directly into the stereo audio port on the computer? Or, does it mean that you have plugged the headphones into a "headphone port" on the speakers?
For a thorough process of elimination, the first item that I would examine is a possible loose connection somewhere between the computer and the speakers; a partially plugged-in stereo jack will often produce weak, one-sided sound. I have had stereo jacks come loose from very minor bumps to the computer.
If you eliminate that possibility by plugging known good speakers directly and firmly into the computer's stereo sound card port, it seems to take us to the sound card itself.
Is there a "sound" icon on your lower-right system tray? If you double-click it, does it open an "advanced audio level control window?" On many computers, you can individually set the volume and balance for CD audio, wave audio, microphone audio, etc., along with "main" audio. I would check to make sure that all the settings look normal, and that nothing appears to be changed or set to "mute."
I'm not a Zabaware employee, but I THINK I heard Robert Medeksza of Zabaware state that the text-to-speech engines produce mono sound (that comes equally out of both speakers). I'm drawing a blank trying to figure out how an Ultra-Hal installation could cause this behavior from the sound card.
What happens when you play audio from a completely different source, such as from the CD player? Do you still get weak audio from the left speaker only, and no sound from the right?
We have a lot of helpful and knowledgeable people on this forum, so perhaps with your verification of the above information, our members can come up with more ideas.
Sincerely,
Don