James I too have a Toshiba it is a Satelite C660....It is the poorest sound quality from any PC or laptop I have ever heard. It has Realtek High def soundchip......garbage. I have tried different drivers and configurations all to no avail so I bypass the card and run a Creative soundblaster external USB soundcard.
My Dell is so much better but even that is pretty poor compared to the soundblaster.

Ray I have the answer to your sound probelems.....get a hearing test....and read about music production...specifically about multi input recording and overcoming the probelms of latency.

Try this analogy.......Now a dial up modem is OK.... it works..... and it will download anything you want.....the specs say so. However nobody in their right mind would opt for one as a first option except maybe you.
I would prefer broadband...as it downloads in seconds what dialup takes hours to perform. Similar with a standard card V a proper music production soundcard/interface. Nobody who is serious about music production in their right mind would opt for a standard card as a first option....they do the job BUT not in the way we want.....Try comparison after being fitted with your hearing aid and a better technical knowledge and understanding of the problems associated with cheap standard soundcards.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055