Sound has gone AWOL!!

[Petzl]

Win7
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P
ATI HD4870
Logitech Z-640

All working fine. Last week the sound just stopped. Possibly due to an ATI Windows update but not sure.

- Plugged speakers into laptop and they work.
- Device Manager Sound shows ATI High Definition Audio device and Realtek High Definition Audio and both show working properly. I have disabled ATI and Realtek separately and rebooted but no luck. I have uninstalled both but no luck.
- Reboot gets a couple of power noises through the speakers as system connects devices.
- Realtek digital output properties tests don't play music.
- Sound playback devices show Realtek Digital Output, ATI DP output and speakers. ATI and speakers are showing as not plugged in. Realtek has the sound bars moving up and down and thinks everything is working.
- Realtek HD Audio manager has Analog back panel greyed out. Digital is showing.

The Logitech speakers use jacks at the back. Is the software expecting USB or HDMI cables or something?

This is driving me crazy.....I have seen plenty of references to problems on the net but it seems hard to troubleshoot.

Any suggestions? - Thanks!

 

[goombawaho]

Can you post a screen shot of your device manager showing the sound devices category expanded??

 

[rclarke250]

I have seen where a windows update or some other update can for some reason, cause the volume control knob in the realtek control panel being turned down to 0, this is a different control than the volume control for the speakers, or audio out device. I only notice because skype will have the audio bars moving but I get no sound, switch to my speakers and they have sound, through a sound blaster card. My headset is hooked up to the onboard realtek and is only used for communication software like skype,ventrillo, or google talk. leaving my other sound device free to play game, movie,and computer sounds out the 5.1 speakers.

I have also noticed that my ATI card, which is in my HTPC hooked to the HDTV in the living room wasn't playing audio out recently, And for a reason I can't explain it was the audio setting for the port on my TV had switched from analog from digital, switched it back and I was able to hear the movie audio again.

 

[Petzl]

Hey guys.....thanks for the responses. rclare250 - the volume was fine. I uninstalled the drivers again and this time chose to delete the drivers as part of that process. Rebooted and the pc would not boot up! Stopped at 'Verifying DMI pool data". I ended up doing an express recovery at startup and guess what? Sound is back.

Sound controllers now show ATI High Definition device and High Definition Audio device. So it would seem that it has put the MS High Def device there and there is no clash anymore. Must have been Realtek clashing with the updated ATI device perhaps??

Who knows....thanks for the responses though