question about audio drivers

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Guest

earlier to day i was cleaning off some old programs through the add/remove
program thing in the control panel. I thought i was just uninstalling some
old programs that i never use anymore...after finishing up i realized i no
longer had any audio. i found that i some how completely uninstalled my
multimedia audio driver and it wont reinstall...
does anyone know how to fix this?
 
Redwood said:
earlier to day i was cleaning off some old programs through the add/remove
program thing in the control panel. I thought i was just uninstalling some
old programs that i never use anymore...after finishing up i realized i no
longer had any audio. i found that i some how completely uninstalled my
multimedia audio driver and it wont reinstall...
does anyone know how to fix this?
Click to expand...

What does "won't reinstall" mean? What exactly happens when you try?
Error messages?

General driver installation information:

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM
computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific
model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers
anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor. The older Aida32 is good for this, too although it might not
work on Vista.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.aumha.org/free.htm - Aida32 (hosted on Jim Eshelman's site)


Malke
 
By "Clearing Off" some programs I hope you mean you uninstalled them either
with the programs' uninstaller utility or through Add/Remove programs, not
merely deleting the files.

I expect something else has happened to cause the sound not to work (files
can become corrupt just from general everyday use), and it may not be
something you've done. However, I find it difficult to believe you could
have deleted the driver files by accident or even intentionally, given that
they would be buried deep in the windows sytem folders somewhere, and
likely to be hidden files. Unless you knew where to look it would be a
difficult job to just hunt down the files, select and delete them.

Were the old programs associated with your sound card by any chance?
Perhaps, in that process it uninstalled your sound drivers as well. You
could try a system restore, to a restore point where you know the sound was
working, but that means the old programs you uninstalled would be back.
This would a good test to see if by uninstalling those same programs again,
whether this causes the sound not to work afterwards - and you'll have your
answer.

Usually with a system restart Windows should re-detect the hardware (the
sound card card in this case) and attempt to reinstall the drivers. It
might prompt for the soundcard's CD or even the Windows CD for the driver
files it needs.
 
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