Missing Hardware?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Auntrowa
  • Start date Start date
A

Auntrowa

My computer runs Windows XP. I noticed a few days ago that no sound was
coming out of the speakers. I checked to see if everything was plugged in
and it was. The speakers get power because light comes on but no sound. I
then went to click on the volume icon in the taskbar and found it was
missing. I'm not sure why it went or how it went or where it went for that
matter. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions how I restore everything to
the way it was before the icon went missing.
AuntRowa
 
Auntrowa said:
My computer runs Windows XP. I noticed a few days ago that no sound was
coming out of the speakers. I checked to see if everything was plugged in
and it was. The speakers get power because light comes on but no sound. I
then went to click on the volume icon in the taskbar and found it was
missing. I'm not sure why it went or how it went or where it went for that
matter. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions how I restore everything to
the way it was before the icon went missing.
AuntRowa
Click to expand...

Would this have happened after you did Windows Update on Patch Tuesday ?
(That is the second Tuesday of every month.) You should not take
hardware driver updates from Windows Update. If that is what happened,
you could go to Device Manager and "rollback" the driver. Device Manager
supports one level of rollback, so you can return to the previous driver.

For sound to work...

1) Hardware must be enabled. Motherboard sound can be disabled or enabled
in the BIOS. There isn't a good reason for that to happen on its own.

2) The driver must be installed. For HDaudio, it consists of a UAA driver
and a sound driver. For AC'97, just the sound driver is needed. If the
sound card is a PCI add-in card, it needs a sound driver.

You can start by looking in Device Manager, to see if there is anything
with an error mark showing. For example, something is wrong with the
sound here.

http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/3750/sonudo20uo.png

To get to Device Manager, you can go to Start : Run and type in

devmgmt.msc

When you execute that program, the Device Manager will appear. There
are several other recipes to get to Device Manager, which are more
complicated to explain.

*******

If you want to run a test, go to Start : Run, then type in

dxdiag

There is a Sound tab in the DirectX Diagnostic program. You
can do the sound test there. There should be the name of the
sound hardware, near where it says "Device". If the program
thinks it is playing sounds, and yet no sounds are coming out,
check your wiring and make sure the power is on, on the
amplified speakers. Sometimes, the speakers need to be turned
off and then on again.

If you post back, please include the make and model number of
computer. And if you know that you have special hardware
added to the computer, don't be afraid to mention anything
that looks custom on the computer.

Paul
 
My computer runs Windows XP. I noticed a few days ago that no sound was
coming out of the speakers. I checked to see if everything was plugged in
and it was. The speakers get power because light comes on but no sound. I
then went to click on the volume icon in the taskbar and found it was
missing. I'm not sure why it went or how it went or where it went for that
matter. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions how I restore everything to
the way it was before the icon went missing.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why WinXP includes / System Restore
(see Help files for details.) This lets you turn the clock
back to some earlier date of your choice. (Of course
System Restore has to be turned on in the first place.)

Troubleshooting sound problems is tricky because
there are so many independent factors (from bad
system updates to plugging speakers into the wrong
jack). You need a complete and debugged list of
tests, to be done in correct order, as published in the
manual PC Help Desk in a Book (Que.)
 
Back
Top