I had this and it was provoked by using "active" headphones that put out a small current. It seems that the laptop thought it was a mic so I don't use these now. Anyway, part of the problem was that I had maxxaudio on delayed start. When I stopped the delay it was ok.
my laptop recognizes i put headphones *in*, but it still decides to play sound from the laptop speakers instead of through the headphones. i searched for a solution and it said to enable "waves maxxaudio" but that's not even an option, it's nowhere to be found.
headphone issue