Can't hear most website sounds anymore

[Guest]

When I first got this computer I could hear background sounds and music
whenever I came to a website that had such sounds. Now, I can't hear those
sounds anymore except at very few websites. I know there has to be a setting
somewhere that got changed through gremlin activity or something.

The problem extends to sounds that launch windows media player. I get the
wmp display, and I get the little indicator down at the bottom moving left to
right telling me that it's playing music, but I get no sound at all on most
websites, but it do get sound on a few of them.

I have added service pack 2 and McAfee firewall and virus programs. I don't
remember if the problem started there or not. Be that as it may, I am at my
wit's end trying to find which button or buttons to click on/off. I think
I've done all that my little mind can logically dedeuce (script buttons, mute
buttons, etc.), and I've done numerous deadend google searches. So far, I've
found nothing.
Anyone have any ideas???

Thanks,
Squaredave

 

[Charlie Tame]

Okay, some sounds are played by different parts of the system and there are
volume controls for the various parts with a "Master" that's commonly
displayed as a little speaker icon.

Sometimes these controls are displayed as a sound card manufacturer's
"Mixer", sometimes by the windows standard "Mixer" and this depends a lot on
the "Drivers" installed. Windows update sometimes provides new drivers and
maybe you installed something like that which has changed the way things
look.

Assuming you have the little speaker icon double clicking will reveal one or
more sliders. There should be an options menu item with a properties item
that when selected displays a list of checkboxes. These are for all the
sliders that can be displayed, make sure they are all checked. Note that
there are two buttons for Playback and Recording, it's probably started in
playback mode but you can do the same for Recording mode too.

Usually these are all the controls your system is capable of, but if the
driver is bad there may be some missing because if the driver is not
supporting something the windows control won;t be able to find it either.

Anyway, for playback you don't want anything muted except maybe the
microphone, aux and other external inputs.

The card manufacturer's version of this (in my case) also includes some
functions where you describe you speaker setup and this also makes a
difference to some of the settings. The controls are about the same on the
panel, just styled differently. You definitely want Wave and SW synth
enabled with some volume above zero.

WMP will play wav or midi using synth and wav where appropriate but nothing
will get out if the mixer controls are not set, muted or broken, so if they
are set on the panel correctly but not working you may have a driver
problem. This can be a pain if the sound card is built in and you don't know
what chipset it is, and most big brands have on board audio. If you do
happen to know the chipset in use you might try that manufacturer's site (or
the PC maker if they have any info posted) and try re-installing drivers.
Sometimes newer drivers break things that were working before so it is worth
a shot.

If none of this is any help maybe you could post more details about PC,
audio chips if known (Or board if that's what it is) and maybe someone here
will have the right answer first time.

Charlie

 

[Guest]

I found the problem. For some reason the three sliders to the right of the
dialog box were checked "mute." De-Muting them did the trick. I was hoping
that I'd overlooked something obvious, and I did. Thanks for the help. It's
working now.

Dave

 

[Charlie Tame]

Good, but it probably wasn't your fault, I have found this happens from time
to time for no obvious reason

Doesn't help that some software changes these things and then of course if
you forget to look ...

Charlie