One earpiece is sounding scratchy - Finis Swi MP3 Player

One of two things. The deck has got a static problem. Perhaps caused by an earth connection problem.
Or you have a bad earth connection on the cartridge.

Two reasons are possible , first it can be from the source , so try the headphone on another device , increase volume and see if the noise persists. if so the headphone has problems.
Now this can be due to faulty earpiece speakers or poor connections within the flexible wires to the jack.
If the noise is evident on only one side then the headpiece must taken out and confirmed.-- a rather tough job to **** open to get access to the earpiece.
The replacement units are available only with Sennheiser but the cost must be taken to consideration.

possibly update or reinstall drivers for the sound card. In "device manager" find your soundcard and update drivers( you can always roll back to former drivers if this doesn't work. Also check mfg.s website forum for said sound card for insight into the problem. Don't forget, because it's an Acer doesn't necessarily mean the sound card is by Acer. good luck.

This may help.

Updated audio codec is required for your system. Go to this link:

http://www.free-codecs.com/XP_Codec_Pack_download.htm

Download it. When a box appears, Click Run button to automatically install it on your system. 

Best regards

The headphone jack is faulty - replace the player - find out from Sansa if you are in-warranty.

Have you tried with headphones?  Scratchy WITH heaphones. Reinstall driver. If it's NOT scratchy with headphones.  Either your speakers are blown, (which usually doesn't happen), you need to reinstall your sound card drivers, or bad settings.  Double click sound horn. Turn some volumes haflway, or mute sound channels you aren't using. Options Properties will let you show ALL sound properties. Ctrl+S makes the sound properties half size.
ReInstall Drivers: Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Device Manager, Expand Sound Controllers, Right Click on your sound card, Click Uninstall.  Reboot and reintall.  
Might ask to reinstall automatically.  Thats fine.  Install then reboot.  I prefer to cancel the install until I have rebooted.  But both ways tend to work.  
Hope you don't have to change your speakers.  Need to pull your mobo to get to em. Instructions here pg. 5-55
James Mac

Try the speakers on another PC with good working sound. This will indicate either a speaker problem or a sound card issue.

If speakers work ok on 2nd pc, then you have a sound card issue on your pc. If speakers are still scratchy on 2nd pc.. check the metal connector end, make sure it is clean and shiny. If there is any rust or other oxidation, clean it off with a very fine grade of sand paper

Seems to me that the first thing you want to do is find out if your problem comes from the camera speakers/output, or if it records them scratchy. Take one of the "scratchy" cassettes, and play them on another device to see if it transfers bad audio. If it does, then you're worst off offcourse, more of a repair. If it doesn't you can decide you don't need a repair, as long as it does the job. Good luck