There may not have been anything wrong with your old speakers, it may have been just a sound driver problem. Try re-installing the sound driver which you can download from your PC or laptop maker's website.
if that doesn't fix it, fit a new sound-card if it's a PC (not possible with a laptop).
Check to make sure nothing is muted, check device manager to see if the sound card is installed with no errors, make sure you are using the right ports to plug the speakers in, try both back and front ports if you have those.