Laura said:
I have a question about the sound on my computer. My sound was fine
yesterday, then when I turned on my computer today, it says that my audio
controller is missing and to reinstall with the CD. I don't have a CD for it
and don't think I ever did. Is there anything I can do to bring my sound
back? I have Windows XP. Thanks!
It really depends on what kind of sound solution it is, as
to what the potential issues might be.
To give an example, I have a PCI sound card (fits in that
area on the back of the computer with the slots side by side),
and that card makes intermittent connections to the PCI bus.
If I plug the 1/8" plug into the green jack a bit too hard,
the card shifts just enough in the socket to make a bad
connection. Then Windows can no longer see the card.
I have to reseat it, and tighten up the faceplate screw
again (with the power plug pulled from the computer), before
it will work again. (It is a $7 sound card, so I don't have
great expectations of it.)
Check Device Manager and see if any "unknown" or yellow marked
devices have shown up in its place.
If the sound is integrated into the motherboard (and the green
jack is located in the I/O plate area on the back of the computer),
then if the sound disappears there, it could be the chip that
has died. In a case like that, I might boot an alternate OS
and test the hardware there. I use a Knoppix Linux CD as a bootable
OS, to do a test like that. Linux doesn't make such testing easy,
for a person who is unfamiliar with where the "control knobs"
might be hiding. Everything you try in Linux, costs days and
days of wasted time. (Took three days to get minimal functionality
from a webcam, and it still doesn't work that well. Took a solid
week of work, to get a piece of software equivalent to MCE, to work.)
One fortunate feature of Knoppix, is there is a boot time
announcement that the Knoppix CD attempts to play through the
computer speakers, so if you hear that, you know it is working
Paul
