Absolutely No Sound Whatsoever

[J_A_Munroe]

I have no sound at all.
I just moved my computer to a new location (university) and plugge
everything in exactly the way it was.

1) Sound worked fine before
2) My speakers are currently happily playing my portable CD player
they're just fine
3) I've reinstalled my sound card's drivers from CD.
4) I've system restored a few times to before the problem.
5) Headphones don't work either.
6) XP shows no device conflicts or problems
7) There is no external volume control on my card
8) Nothing is muted, including third-party programs that tweak syste
volume
9) I've gone through Help and Support's useless troubleshooter with n
result
10) It's not an old or on-board soundcard
11) At one point the computer told me point-blank that the sound car
was gone. This is no longer the case and all reports of the car
indicate it is working perfectly
12) I've defragged, error-checked, and tried checking all connections

In short, my computer just decided that it didn't want to play soun
any more.

PLEASE help me

 

[Malke]

I have no sound at all.
I just moved my computer to a new location (university) and plugged
everything in exactly the way it was.

1) Sound worked fine before
2) My speakers are currently happily playing my portable CD player -
they're just fine
3) I've reinstalled my sound card's drivers from CD.
4) I've system restored a few times to before the problem.
5) Headphones don't work either.
6) XP shows no device conflicts or problems
7) There is no external volume control on my card
8) Nothing is muted, including third-party programs that tweak system
volume
9) I've gone through Help and Support's useless troubleshooter with no
result
10) It's not an old or on-board soundcard
11) At one point the computer told me point-blank that the sound card
was gone. This is no longer the case and all reports of the card
indicate it is working perfectly
12) I've defragged, error-checked, and tried checking all connections

In short, my computer just decided that it didn't want to play sound
any more.

PLEASE help me!

I think the clue is that you moved the computer. You didn't say, but I'm
going to assume (and hope) that this is a desktop. With the machine
unplugged, open the case and reseat the soundcard. While you're in
there, make sure all other connections/cards are nice and snug. Now
plug in the computer, start it up and see what happens.

Malke

 

[Yves Leclerc]

And if this PC is a laptop, you may have a special key which would turn off
the internal speakers. Happened to me on an IBM Thinkpad A31 this past
week.

 

[t.cruise]

You have probably already done this, but if you have not: Go to Device Manager, right
click the sound card and Uninstall it. Exit Windows, power off, reseat the card making
sure that all cables are connected OK. Then boot into Windows, install the Windows XP
compatible drivers for the card as instructed in the documentation. Then go to Control
Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices, and make sure that the settings match your setup. I had a
sound card, and the configuration in the window mentioned above was set for digital
speakers. My speakers were analog, and I could not understand why I was not getting any
sound. Make sure that the setting is for whatever speaker system you have (e.g. Desktop
Stereo Speakers). Right now I have a Creative SB Live card, and on the Volume tab in the
window mentioned above, accessed by the Control Panel (not the Windows Mixer), there is
another mute box, and a separate Speaker Volume button, as well as an Advanced button for
setting the type of speakers. If nothing seems to solve the problem, there is always the
possibility of hardware failure.