So . . . I've been playing Skyrim since the day it's been released and I'm loving every single second of it.

Except for one thing.

The sound is detracting from my experience.

It's not a MAJOR issue like most people where there is nothing by white noise and static, but it's a pretty irritating problem that I'd love to be fixed. So, you see, everything works with the exception of sound effects.
When I mute everything except for the "effects" and turn up the volume, there is a lot of white noise constantly sounding in the background. Voices work perfectly fine, as does the music and footsteps, but there's nothing
coming from the effects. Spells are silent, dragon roars cut off abruptly, animals don't make noise . . . Anyone have any idea what's going on?

All of my drivers are updated, I've tried ALL of the sound format settings ( 24 bit, 44100 ; 16 bit 44100 ; 16 bit 48000 ), but with no success. None of the tips everyone else gives is working for me.