A while back, I had a problem with my taskbar which I found was caused by a new audio driver from Windows Update clashing with my current audio driver. I managed to solve the problem by uninstalling the older driver so that the newer driver could complete it's installation. At first, there did not seem to be any more problems with my computer.

Well recently, I tried to use headphones for the first time since fixing the first problem, and I discovered a strange glitch. Whenever I start a program that uses sound such as iTunes or Firefox without anything plugged in, the speakers will be perfectly fine. But if I attempt to plug in my headphones while the program is playing sound, the headphones will not work and the speakers will continue to play.

The opposite is also true. If I open a program with sound while my headphones are plugged in, the speakers shut off and the headphones work normally. However, if I unplug the headphones while the program is still playing sound, the speakers STILL won't play anything, and plugging the headphones back in will not restore the sound; I have to turn off the program and restart it to get the sound back. In a sense, the headphones can no longer "hotplug".

The computer recognizes when the headphones are plugged in, and the headphones work fine during a sound test. It's only when I load a program that can play continuous sound that the glitch takes place. Once again, virus scans from AVG yield nothing.