No Sound

Good morning, My sister donated her used Dell computer to me. We've been troubleshooting this sound thing for days, and can't figure out why there is no sound. I'm at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Beth

Good morning,

My sister donated her used Dell computer to me. We've been troubleshooting this sound thing for days, and can't figure out why there is no sound. I'm at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Beth

Hi Beth,

Right click ''my computer'', click ''properties'' and then a box will come up. Find the 'Hardware' tab, then click 'Device Manager'.


This brings up a new box. Click 'Sound, video and game controllers'. See if there are any yellow 'triangles'. If there are, then you're
missing a driver.

'Right click' the yellow triangle and you should have an option to 'Update Driver'. This will look for your Driver.

Hopefully it'll find your driver and once installed, restart the PC and you're ready to go!

If it doesn't work, can you write up a list of what it says underneath 'Sound, Video and game controllers' and i'll see what i can do.

Good luck!

'Bob

Hi Bob, First, thanks for taking the time to help me. Ok, I've checked and there are no triangles (all have a plus sign + to the left). Here is what is listed under sound, video, game controllers: Audio Codecs Legacy Audio Drivers Legacy Video Capture Devices Media Control Devices Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device Video Codecs While I was troubleshooting, I found that when I go into Control Panel, Sounds/speech/audio device/ Properties, under the Volume tab it says "No Audio Device", and Im unable to adjust volume, and speaker settings. My sister had me download two drivers yesterday, neither of which made a difference. I'll wait to hear from you before attempting anything more. Regards, Beth

Hi there, sorry for the late reply, the time difference got me!

No problems for trying to help - i enjoy it

Right, here is what to do next:

Someone else on the forums has a sound problem and i suggested this:

1)Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2) Depending on which Control Panel view you use, Classic or Category, do one of the following:
3) Click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.
4) Click Performance and Maintenance, click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.

that will take you here:

http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftu…t.aspx?ln=en-us

Click: 'Express'


This will scan your computer and see if there are any missing drivers. Hopefully it'll locate the exact one. Might take some time to scan and download & install anything, but once it's done, restart the PC and see what happens.

Hopefully it'll be ok.



Now, a quick couple of questions, because the problem may be the speakers themselves.

1) Are you on a Dell Laptop or Dell Desktop PC?

2) Are the speakers powered via USB or built into the machine?

3) Are the speakers turned on? (silly as it sounds, this can be over-looked sometimes)


Good luck!

Hello Again, I'm going to give the "express" thing a try. I'm on a Dell Desktop PC Speakers are NOT built in (checked the connection 20 times, lol) Yes, the speakers ARE turned on (not a silly question if you knew me personally) I don't believe its the speakers because when I first hooked the PC up, I was able to hear the sound of incoming Instant Messages (the chime), but the computer never said, "Welcome, you have mail", or, "Goodbye" when I logged off. I had to turn the volume down on the speaker because of the loud humming (white noise). The sound card was accidentally pushed in while trying to connect the wires (but was put back where it belongs) and I'm hoping it did no damage. I will run the auto updates and post a reply. TTYS, Beth

Hi Beth, thanks for the quick reply. We'll see where we get with the express update. If it finds nothing, i'd say we need to look at your sound card. I don't know how technical you are, but it's possible that the sound card is not in properly or the 'lead' from the sound card is not connected up correctly. don't worry, hopefully we'll have this sorted asap! Sorry it's not happening sooner but we have to check every avenue 'Bob

Hi, No High-Priority updates were available. I'm not very technical, but I can follow direction pretty darn well Is there anything special I can do to check the sound card? I will wait for your reply. Beth

Next action:

Download Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

The Belarc Advisor will automatically install, build a profile of your hardware and software, and display this in your Web browser.



Once installed, just follow the usual 'i agree' options and it'll come up with a page with all your computer details.
There will be a section called; 'Multimedia'.

You can find this quicker by holding 'CTRL + F' and typing in 'Multimedia' and it'll point you in the right direction.

Can you copy and paste what it says in the Multimedia section for me?

Thanks Beth

Hi there Beth, It's nearly mid-night here in the UK, and probably time for me to get some shut-eye! i'll continue helping with your sound problem tomorrow soon as i wake up! I've asked some of the tech guys on the forum to check the topic to check if i've missed anything. I'm positive we'll get this sorted. Thanks for your patience. Bob

Good Morning Bob, I ran the scan and this is what it says: Multimedia Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device I saved the Belarc to my desktop, can I get rid of the icon? and how would I go about doing that? LOL You may need an extra cup of coffee before dealing with me TTYS

couldn't resist one last look at this topic until later, so here goes: Windows XP Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Sounds and Multimedia, or Sounds and Audio Devices. Click on the Audio tab. At the bottom of the window, select "Use only default devices" or "Use only preferred devices". Click OK. (to Delete Belarc, just left-click on the Icon, and press 'delete aka del' on the keyboard It'll go to your recycle bin. Right Click the recycle bin and click 'Empty Recycle Bin' TTYL

Dear Bob, I will do as you advise, but I'm afraid to post my answer as you will get no sleep tonight if I'm still having trouble . Sleep tight

OK - so I lied. I selected the default devices, restarted my computer and still no sound. And something weird is happening when I try to restart my computer. It says its trying to end a task or close a program (something like that) and if I end task now, I will lose all my information. I have to click the end task button or it will continue to show that blue screen and never end. It's only been happening since Ive been trying to fix this problem (but dont take it personally, lol). Sex in the City is on, gotta run. Thanks again for all your help.

That error can happen quite a few ways. Here are some examples of how it happens: 1) You have two accounts on your PC and when you try to log off/shutdown/restart, the other account is not logged out, and you'll get that message. 2) You have another application open that has not been saved 3) There is a process running in the background that is being ended when you log off, shut down or restart. I must admit, i'm at a bit of a loss what to do with your sound now, so i'll pass this onto the OCP Techs to have a look at, hopefully they'll help more than i can. Thanks, and i hope this gets fixed! 'Bob

Is it possible for me to pull out the sound card and try to reconnect it, or would I risk doing damage?