Sound Recording Ending Up Like A Chipmunk On Crack

Ok, whenever I record an audio file in Audacity or Microsoft's Sound Recorder or anything of that nature, the playback sounds like what the title suggests, a chipmunk on crack. (You know, like Alvin?) I know this isn't a microphone problem (it happens on multiple mics), and I know it's not a speaker problem (all other audio sounds fine), so could you help me? This might be a part of it, so I'm going to put it in. We recently wiped my hard drive for memory reasons. Also, I' not a huge audio tech wizard. So please explain it in simplest form. I have a Dell Dimension E521 desktop.

Thank you for your time.