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Wed 11 Feb, 2004 08:01 pm
My sound has gone off.
Happened out of nowhere.
I've checked everything.
Any suggestions?
If your OS is a W2K, or XP, which does "plug and play", you can delete the sound related hardware (drivers) in Hardware Manager once. Then reboot. It will automatically "plug and play." However in the course of re-installing the drivers, you may be asked about the folders where driver files are placed, in that case you must search those files in "Find" with names of driver files required given in pop-up windows.
Good luck.
Has the sound icon disappeared from your tray?
Happened to me a couple of weeks ago. After doing everything recommended at a number of computer help sites, I went to the microsoft sites, did an update search, and *kaboom* there was a sound update I could use that worked. I had to put the original Windows disk in to complete the job, but after I got over my nerves, I did it - and I've got sound again.
The first thing the help sites recommended was to go to the control panel, and look at multi-media - check the sound settings there.
Probably checking the cables first would be the sanest option. errrrr, not that I'm recommending that route.
ehBeth- Now I remember something. On my old Win 98 computer, every once in awhile, I would get no sound. When I went to the slider that controlled the sound levels, it had gone back down to no sound. I simply returned it to where I wanted it.
I once called Dell about it, and the tech put me through a lot of machinations that was supposed to prevent what was happening........................It didn't work.
Never did find out why it was happening.
It would be helpful to know what Operating System you're running, and the make and model of your soundcard. If it isn't something as simple as something unplugged, or a failed wall-wart powersupply for your speakers, check Device Manager and see if your soundcard is listed as present, enabled, and working properly.
It might not be a bad idea to just go to the website of your soundcard's manufacturer and download the latest available driver for your operating system ... but don't open or install it after you download it. Just store it someplace you can find it easily, like in a desktop folder named "Soundcard Driver". Next, go into Device Manager, select your soundcard, click "remove", then, when asked "are you sure?", click "Yes". Reboot. Your machine will probably tell you it has detected new hardware. Cancel the notification. Open the Soundcard Driver folder on your desktop, and run the installation routine. Reboot. If the soundcard has not totally failed .... unlikely ... all should be normal again.
I'm gonna try some of these recommendations right now. I'll let ya all know.
Thanks so far.
When I signed off to try the recommendations -- I suddenly heard a voice SHOUT "Good-bye!"
The sound is back.
I must say that I have kept my computer on for several days -- and just turned it off last night.
So apparently the turning off and re-starting took care of whatever problem had occurred.
Thanks for all the help.
Glad it solved itself -- because one of the things I might have done messing with this thing -- is to make things worse.
Ain't A2K great!!!!!!
Probably the 2 most important troubleshooting steps are
1) Make sure everything is plugged in, hooked up properly, and powered on
and
2) See what happens when you try to shut down and restart
Often, gremlins will scramble a driver or other control program, a problem which will fix itself on a reboot. You know that notice you sometimes get to "Strike any key to continue"? Well, when you see that, the "key" to "strike" is the power button. Shut the sucker off, wait about thirty seconds, and reboot. Usually, when I do that to one of my machines, I'll boot into safe mode, run a thorough Disk Check with auto-repair checked, then defrag and reboot into normal mode. Its time consuming, but its just good practice. If you're running any Win 9x OS, a simple reboot every days or so is a good idea. That's not so much the case with Win NT/2K or XP, but an occasional reboot never hurts anyway. Its always good to defrag frequently, BTW ... especially after installing or removing software.
timberlandko wrote:Probably the 2 most important troubleshooting steps are
1) Make sure everything is plugged in, hooked up properly, and powered on
and
2) See what happens when you try to shut down and restart
Often, gremlins will scramble a driver or other control program, a problem which will fix itself on a reboot. You know that notice you sometimes get to "Strike any key to continue"? Well, when you see that, the "key" to "strike" is the power button. Shut the sucker off, wait about thirty seconds, and reboot. Usually, when I do that to one of my machines, I'll boot into safe mode, run a thorough Disk Check with auto-repair checked, then defrag and reboot into normal mode. Its time consuming, but its just good practice. If you're running any Win 9x OS, a simple reboot every days or so is a good idea. That's not so much the case with Win NT/2K or XP, but an occasional reboot never hurts anyway. Its always good to defrag frequently, BTW ... especially after installing or removing software.
Thanks. But I have just mastered the on/off switch. This other stuff is way beyond me. :wink: :wink:
LOL ... I know whatchya mean Frank. Hell, I've broken more computers and other electrotoys than most folks will ever own
Most of my "practical knowledge" comes by way of "Well,
THAT didn't work ... not a good idea at all. I shoulda known better. Now whutinhell can I do?" (sometimes muttered as I set about putting out the fire I just started
)
Well, Timber, I'm sure gonna try the "shut it off and start it back up" approach from now on.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who has taken things apart -- never to get them back together.
Back a ways -- it was clocks.
I was under strict orders never to touch a clock (or toaster) by my parents.
Whew, I could really screw them up.
Something I've picked up from setting up computers at work. Once I've got the thing set up correctly, I take a full image of the system. Then I can play with it however I want (something I've done in order to learn) and if I "break" it, I just reload the image and all's fine. Obviously I've got the advantage there of all the latest imaging software, and spare hard disks and server space to store everything but it does work. All those machines I set up with 2 hard disk partitions. The second partition contains the image of the bootable partition. I also keep a copy on a server (not normally available to home users) and a copy on CD.
I use "Ghost" to take the images, use maximum compression and split the images into 600MB blocks to fit on CD's.
That's a good plan, Wilso. The optical media backup of critical files is a biggie. My machines all have more than one hard drive, whether internal or external. A partition on an auxilliary hard drive maintains dynamic backups of all files on each computer. Barring catastrophic electrical fault or other physical damage, its highly unlikely 2 drives on on any given machine will go south at the same time.
Phoenix, you can't do much real damage with keystrokes (unless you really know what you're doing), but screwdrivers and pliers and jumper cables and soldering pencils and bent paperclips and straightened staples can get things interesting in a hurry
You'll be fine as long as you don't open the machine.
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