Master volume does nothing

[matty2112]

This has been a real stumper for me. The machine is a basic desktop
running XP Home SP2. It has some basic speakers plugged into the green
output port on the back. The machine does not have a separate sound
card, instead it has typical onboard sound (described -- I think -- as
Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM AC'97 in Device Manager).

The issue is that Master Volume no longer has any affect on system
sound volume. When listening to MP3s in either WMP10 or Music Match,
adjusting the Master Volume will do nothing to change speaker volume.
Similarly, that "beep" that plays when you adjust the Master Volume to
demonstrate the volume setting sounds the exact same whether the slider
is released at the very top, the very bottom, or anywhere in between.
The Mute option also does nothing. Adjusting the slider and using the
mute for the Wave channel does affect the volume as expected, however.

This is not my machine, but I've been told that the Master Volume
slider worked fine until just about a month ago. As far as I know, no
software has been installed in that time.

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

This has been a real stumper for me. The machine is a basic desktop
running XP Home SP2. It has some basic speakers plugged into the green
output port on the back. The machine does not have a separate sound
card, instead it has typical onboard sound (described -- I think -- as
Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM AC'97 in Device Manager).

The issue is that Master Volume no longer has any affect on system
sound volume.

Well, one of my machines has the same sound chip (hardware codec) onboard
and there was an Intel driver installed by default. Due to problems with
that sound driver I had to decrease the hardware acceleration, however,
this was just a workaround until I found out that other third-party
drivers for that sound chip (Realtek, Avance etc.) work much better and
solved all problems. However, there is no guarantee since one of these
drivers (C-Media) caused a BSOD right after reboot.