All sound EXCEPT Windows system sounds are extremely quiet

I know I have the correct drivers installed for my system but all the sounds in every program I have tried are extremely low and quiet to the point of being almost non existent. I have tried windows media player, skype, and VLC. No joy. I have surfed the forums for about 2 hours and not found any body with my issue. I will list my system specs below, but I do not think it is a driver issue because all windows system sounds come through loud and clear.

For example: I can start playing an mp3 with media player and I can only hear a low rumble in my headphones, but if I run the speaker test in the audio control panel, at the same time or not, I hear the windows chime loud as can be in my ears.

Any windows SYSTEM sound, such as the boot up noise or the error bell come though in all their glory but any other sound...no dice, always low and quiet no matter what.

I have tweaked every setting in the mixer I can find. I can see the green bars on the meter rising and falling like normal when music is being played but still cannot hear it. I have downloaded the latest drivers from realtek for the HD codec but alas no love. It is more like all of the programs have their independent volume sliders set to almost mute, but they don't believe me I checked!

I hope someone can help

System Specs:
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Moth...ProductID=3031

Processor:
AMD Phenom II x 4 3.0 GHz

Memory:
Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5 (8GB total)
http://www.corsair.com/products/go.a...N2X4096-8500C5

Video:
Nvidia Geforce 9600 GSO 768MB
Palit Multimedia Inc.

OS:
Windows 7 RC 1 (duh) 64bit.

interesting update, if in the realtek HD audio control panel I select any setting that makes the sound echo the sound gets much louder. Not sure why... so strange.

Just want to let everyone know that the sound issue is fixed, apparently the fix was to unplug and re plug in the headphone jack several times. I am not sure WHY it worked but all my sounds are back and working through many reboots.