First Sound Goes, Then I Can't Shutdown

[Sam]

The following happens almost everyday. The machine uses Win XP
Professional with an audigy sound card.

After leaving the machine on when I am away at lunch, I see that I
don't have program sound when I return. What I mean is that I hear
the modem and can play a CD but there are no sounds from programs like
those you hear when mail arrives or when you exit a program.

Then when I try to shut down, Windows gets as far as closing all icons
and leaving me with a blank desktop screen and just sits there. I
have to press the power button to complete shutdown. Anybody can clue
me in on what the problem might be? TIA.

 

[Guest]

The following happens almost everyday. The machine uses Win XP
Professional with an audigy sound card.

After leaving the machine on when I am away at lunch, I see that I
don't have program sound when I return. What I mean is that I hear
the modem and can play a CD but there are no sounds from programs like
those you hear when mail arrives or when you exit a program.

Then when I try to shut down, Windows gets as far as closing all icons
and leaving me with a blank desktop screen and just sits there. I
have to press the power button to complete shutdown. Anybody can clue
me in on what the problem might be? TIA.

Hi Sam,
Check your Event Viewer for Error messages and post them here.
Your computer may overheated and things inside got loose and playing about
check your cables are fitted firmly in their places, Check for Malware/Virus
by doing a scan.
Did you by any chance install a new software/Hardware recently?
hope this helps
Regards
nass

 

[Guest]

yeh, it sounds like your sound for "shutting down" windows can't play and
stalls your windows. Set your sounds scheme to none and see if this
resolves your shut down. If it does, then this is a clue......

 

[Sam]

yeh, it sounds like your sound for "shutting down" windows can't play and
stalls your windows. Set your sounds scheme to none and see if this
resolves your shut down. If it does, then this is a clue......

Thanks. That enables me to shutdown. Now is there any way I could
figure out what is causing me to lose the sound in the first place? I
have checked the device manager list for sound and there is nothing
checked after the sound is failed. I am wondering if my screen saver
could be the culprit. Are there problem with using ones that were
written for early versions of windows?

 

[Guest]

Possibly. Back then, when virus's were not taken seriously by the public,
hackers used sound files to disguise virus's.

But what you could do is to test you sound schemes. When you get into the
sounds window via control panel, you can test each beep, bing, ding, etc...
sounds. If you hear them ok, then you sound driver should be ok. In fact,
it is possible that the sound inputted for "exit" and or "windows shutting
down" (not sure exactly which one is used for logging off) may be a bad sound
file. You can remove it from the scheme or change it, then save the scheme.
Or you can simply select "none" for the sound schemes.

If you dont hear any sounds, then you may simply have to disable and remove
the sound driver and reboot. Windows should attempt to reinstall it or you
can via the add hardware mode. If you have a sound card, then you may have
the drivers on cd. But it is better to use the generic drivers windows
has.......