No sound on PC and cannot find problem 3

[Kwibster]

Can someone please help or give me advice.

My PC has stopped producing sound. I have been through the trouble shooter to no avail. Even system sounds are not working.

I have Windows XP Pro.

The Device Details are:

Intel(r) 82801AA AC’97 Audio Controller
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 01/07/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Publisher

The Device is enabled and all the checks I have done conclude that the Device is working properly. I have checked the speakers and they are not broken.

It is very frustrating. I would rather an error had come up on the trouble shooter but everything appears normal.

One of the problems is that I do not know precisely when sound failed on the PC because I do not always have the speakers on.

Two weeks ago I installed a new RAM card to boost the RAM. There appeared to be no problems. I definitely had sound before the RAM was installed. However, I do not know if I ever had sound afterwards and cannot say for certain if the RAM installation had anything to do with the loss of sound. In those two weeks I have also had a Windows update. I have taken the new RAM out to see if this would remedy the situation, but this did not work.

What can be wrong? If the speakers work and the device is enabled and apparently working properly, and no errors appear in device manager I am at a loss as to what the problem could be. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[ski]

-Make sure that the onboard sound adapter is enabled in BIOS.

-If ok, then remove the sound adapter from Device Manager, restart the computer, and let Windows reinstall the drivers. Also, make sure the sound card is assigned 01 for DMA(Direct Memory Access) in Dev. Mgr.

-If no luck, then go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio, make sure the sound adapter is selected in the 'Preferred Device' window under 'Playback', click the volume control icon next to the 'Preferred Device' window to adjust volume settings and make sure the Mute box is unchecked, click the Devices tab and click the + by 'Audio Devices' and make sure the circle is checked for 'Use Audio Features On This Device', and the box is unchecked for 'Do Not Map Thru This Device', click the + next to 'Audio Codecs' and make sure there's a long list of codecs(MS, etc.).

-If no luck, then make sure the volume control is properly adjusted in the sound card's software(if applicable).

-If ok, then make sure there is a drivers=mmsystem.dll entry in the system.ini file.

-If ok, then uninstall and reinstall the sound adapter's drivers.

-If all of the above are ok, then the sound adapter may be bad. Install a PCI sound card, and see if it works(You may have to disable the onboard sound adapter either in BIOS, or with a MB jumper).

 

[Kwibster]

Worked a dream!

Thank you.

 

[micker377]

What worked? We like to list solutions for future reference.

 

[nornIron2]

I'd also like to know how this was fixed.
I think I have a similar problem, and I also have a similar setup.
I have the onboard Avance AC97 Audio.

Driver details are:
Provider : Avance Logic Inc
Driver Date 23/7/2002
Driver Version : 5.10.0.3940
Driver Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher.
I'm running Windows XP Home

As suggested in Kwibster's excellent advice I uninstalled the device in device manager, and let it reinstall.

No change.

I checked the BIOS Setting

I also used 'update driver' and used the system recovery disk that came with the Acer PC, but it unsurprisingly said there was no better match than the drivers already running.

The odd thing is, the system will play OK audio CDs etc in Windows Media Player, and the Text To Speech utility works fine (Microsoft Sam is loud and clear).

But there are no sounds for many applications and when I use Control Panel/'Sounds and Audio Devices'/Sounds and try choosing a sound for a system event, the 'play' button is greyed out. So the system seems to know that sounds are disabled somehow...

I wish I knew how...

 

[activa]

Hi,

Same problem, everything checks ok but no sound at all. Gateway 400VXT laptop WinXP same onboard sound card. Over the weekend I was messing with Knoppix (Live Unix CD), kids were playing games on it. This morning no sound. Did system restore back to known working point.

If I did system restore, and if Knoppix doesnt' allow sound, it's got to be either BIOS, firmware, or hardware, right?

 

[micasa]

i have read post similar to this elsewhere but this is the first mention by anyone of the greyed out arrow in the Control Panel/'Sounds and Audio Devices'/Sounds. I too have lost sound and have the the same greyed out arrow. I have also lost all web sound also e.g those sites with music etc however sound is fine on CDs, movies games etc. have a PCI soundcard (Creative Audigy) so onboard sound disabled in BIOS. have seen various references to registry entries under HK_KEY_CURRENTUSERS but has made no difference to me. Cant say when sound stopped as spekers turned down unless playing music! Have recently upgrade to Norton Internet Security 2005 and installed (and since uninstalled) XP SP2. Keen to know what the fix was - anyone???

 

[bcastner]

Add New Hardware
Yes I have already connected the hardware
Add a new hardware device
Install manually from a list
Sound, video and game controllers
Have Disk
Browse
Windows\System32\mmdriver.inf
OK

 

[nornIron2]

I tried out your solution bcastner.
It didn't work, sorry.
It's really frustrating. Some apps, audio CD's, Windows Media player work fine, while other apps and system sounds do not work.

I still have the greyed out 'play button' on Control Panel/'Sounds and Audio Devices'/Sounds.

 

[bygeek]

I had a situation the other day where the user had installed SP2 and the sound no longer worked. Turns out the driver was no longer compatible. It was a Sony Vaio notebook with a Yamaha sound device. Went to the Yamaha website and d/l'd the generic driver and it worked fine. You may try replacing the driver or try ununstalling SP2 to see if that's the problem.

 

[bcastner]

Do not give up hope. There are more things to try.

See: thread779-917841
See:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1066427444

 

[Kel2]

I have a similar problem which is simple but complex
Got this PC off my bro (just the pc) i cleared it out and now the system cant find the soundcard which i have no clue what soundcard it has....
And its reconisded the monitor as plug and play but it wont let me change it

What do i do ???

 

[bcastner]

Run the Belarc Advisor:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

 

[Kel2]

Its come in useful but it hasnt detected any multimedia device, i do have a software CD but my pc thinks ive got a cd-rom when it a dvd-rom and the cd is a dvd...
I also keep getting the blue screen of death... sigh

 

[RufusB]

Thank you Ski!

Had no sound problem on Win98 pc, after I determined speakers were good, took your advice.

Did not know how to check if onboard sound adapter is enabled in BIOS, so proceeded to remove the sound adapter from Device Manager, restart the computer, and let Windows reinstall the drivers.

This fixed everything! Thanks!

 

[ski]

You're welcome.
Glad to hear that you fixed the problem, and thanks for posting back with the solution.

 

[limaoli64]

No sound created from sound card

Can anyone help me or give me advice? Thanks in advance.
For whatever reasons, my PC crashed for virun, then I reinstalled win2000 but no sound from mainboard. Then I bought a PCI sound card and installed drive. When I checked I found: 1. from panel, I can see all working properly and functioning well. 2. plug in proper outlet, speaker works before. no problem on speaker and connection. 3. I can see rectangular when I try to hear sound from window basic sound, window default. I can see dropdown where c_media sound card displayed there. I choosed proper volumn. I am frustrated very much. I am waiting for your help. Once a time, I can hear sound, but later, maybe for unstable on slot, I can not hear any sound. I try many ways.