Much too quiet.

My audio in Vista Ultimate 64 suddenly seems to be too quiet. I turned everything up as loud as it will go, but it seems distorted and quiet. I have an external audio card “focusrite saffire”. I tried reinstalling the drivers, but it is still quiet. This all happened out of the blue. Any ideas why ? I really do not want to have to reinstall windows. If you have any ideas please drop a comment.