Help with losses of sound?

[harold]

This is a fairly new Dell Dimension 8400 desktop, 1024 RAM, 3200 mhz P4
and XP pro. Its probably safe to rule out viruses or spyware as causes
of my problem.

When I restart, I lose all sound. Device manager identifies the sound
card correctly and says it's working properly, but control panel says no
sound device is present. I have to uninstall the Audigy card from device
manager and restart to recover it. So far, these reinstalls have worked
every time, but I'd like to find the cause and correct it.

Any ideas about what could be causing this? Thanks..

 

[Jerry]

Boot into Safe Mode, open Device Manager, and remove ALL instances of the
sound crad, reboot, and let Windows re-detect.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

NEVER rule out anything! Even with an one hour old PC, if it is connected
to the Interent without out protection (anti-virus, firewall and
anti-spyware utilities), it can be infested!

 

[Harold]

I can see how you drew your conclusion, but I didn't really mean to
suggest that there's any connection between the computer being new and
being free of spyware or viruses, Yves.

I became a cleaning freak years ago, after a virus wiped me out.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Harold.

Could there be a conflict between on-board sound and your Audigy card? If
that computer has on-board sound, maybe you need to disable (or tweak) the
settings in the BIOS. Was the Audigy pre-installed by Dell or did you add
it?

Another possibility is a "phantom" device. In Device Manager, be sure it is
set to Show hidden devices. It's not unusual to find skeletons hiding in
this closet, interfering with efforts to install and configure a device.
And, rather than uninstall the Audigy and restart, in Device Manager try
clicking Action | Scan for hardware changes.

Also, check the Audigy's instructions, and Creative's website for the latest
drivers and support. Some devices want their software installed first;
others want us to let WinXP detect the device on reboot and install the
drivers for it. Still others need a combination: Let WinXP detect and
install basic drivers, then insert the sound card's companion CD to add
"bells and whistles" to the basics.

RC

 

[Harold]

The Audigy card came with the computer, so it may not have onboard
sound. I'll get into the bios and look for it, though. I'll also look
for phantom devices when I get home tonight. I changed the driver before
I posted. The new driver eliminated some minor static, but nothing else.

I forgot about being able to see hidden devices in Device Manager. Thanks.

 

[harold]

This was finally solved by moving the sound card to another slot.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I used every one of them..