interesting sound problem started happening

[Rick Langston]

I'm running Windows XP Pro on a Thinkpad A31 (from late 2003). Level SP2.

Just tonight something strange started happening with the audio, after
having no audio problems earlier
this evening. I can run WMP and see the visualizations but there
is no sound from the speakers or the headphones. All indications are that
things should be working properly.
I can go to Volume Control and see that things aren't muted.

If I play a CD or DVD, the same thing occurs. I tried an Internet Radio
Station using Real Player, and
heard nothing either.

If I go to Systems->Sounds and try playing sounds, I hear nothing.

The only sound I can get out of the system is a beep when I click on the
slide for Volume Control. And if I
plug in my headphones, I can hear that beep over the headphones. If I click
on Mute and then click on the
slide, I hear nothing over the speakers or headphones.

This leads me to believe that the sound card is still working, but something
mysterious has happened to otherwise
disable audio.

Any thoughts on what this might be?

 

[Guest]

1st,never mix players together unless one is uninstalled (disabled
first),otherwise
it creates problems with the OS when they both try to play the same files.As
for sound,with one player active,open device mgr,expand the sound tree,R.
click on the sound hardware,select uninstall,do not restart pc after
each,when
all is uninstalled,exit device mgr,shutdown pc.Power off,move the sound card
to another pci slot,start pc when thru,xp will reinstall the card.

 

[Rick Langston]

I've been using both Real Player and WMP on this Thinkpad since I first
received it (actually from
late 2002, not 2003 like i first posted). Some applications need Real, some
can use WMP just
fine. I've never had an issue with their coexistence. And the only reason I
mentioned Real in
this instance was to indicate that it played no sound as well.

Note that this is a Thinkpad (i.e. laptop/notebook) and therefore there are
no PCI slots, and I have
no access to the sound card, which I suspect is built in to the motherboard.
My understanding is
that the chipset for the Thinkpad does not allow for the uninstall of the
sound drivers.

My impression is that if something is wrong with the chipset, there would be
no sound whatsoever,
but I can still hear a beep with the clicking of the volume slide, and I
hear it over the headphones
if they're plugged in. So my feeling is that something has become
deactivated for some reason.