Bad sound from laptop speakers

[Golf View]

Suddenly the speakers on my laptop sound distorted & scratchy. Can this be fixed by installing new drivers? How would I do that? Do I uninstall the existing drivers, then install new (hopefully free from the internet) drivers? It seems unlikely that both speakers would go bad at the same time. Since I am a tightwad, I'm not ready to call in the Geek Squad & would like to fix it myself.

[Pepperhead]

Are they powered speakers? If so, you may be overdriving them. Try to balance the volume control on the computer and the speaker for the best sound. If the signal from the computer is too high, the amp in the speakers will start clipping the peaks off the signal. This puts DC through the speaker...not a good thing.

[George Bieniaszek]

My wife has a Gateway laptop and was complaining that the volume from the speakers was very low no matter what the setting. I purchased an external speaker system from Amazon that either clips on the laptop or can be freestanding. Power comes from connecting the speaker to a USB port. Total cost around $20 and shipping was free. Wife is happy and life is good :)