I was given some new speakers as a (very) late christmas present from my dad last night. Nothing too special, but I had sound on my computer, so I was happy.

Woke up this morning, I have no sound. Speakers are still plugged in and turned on, so I try all possible combinations of plugging, switching on/off, swearing, and volume controls.

If I have something with sound playing, and I turn my speakers off then on, I get sound, but then it quiets down until I can only hear it with my ears pressed right against them, and stays at that volume. Last night it was plenty loud.

Any ideas on what the hell I've done?

 

Might simply be that your computer doesn't power to drive the speakers - if the speakers are not usually used for computers but rather for actual sound systems - I use a two-headed jack plug to connect my laptop to my sound system since the speakers I use require way more power that the laptop can deliver to the amps - even then I still lose a little of the higher frequencies since the amp/player system itself isn't strong enough for the speakers.