No Sound - Urgent Help Needed

[HannahHawthorne-x]

Well, I've been doing without sound on my Compaq laptop for around 3 weeks
now, and I simply can't put up with it any more. It causes too many problems.

Before this major problem occured, sometimes my computer would be a bit
temperamental and stop the sound coming through, even though it recognised
there was meant to be sound there, and a restart would usually sort it.
However, one time 3 restarts didn't solve the problem, so, in my usual "Oh
I'm a 15-year-old whiz kid I can handle this" manner, I went to the Control
Panel in order to look at the devices that were there.

Speakers, OK. I took the most logical step I could think of in disabling
them, leaving only SPDIF Interface (Conexant High Definition Audio) in their
place. Now, this thing (whatever the heck it is) seems to recognise that
sound is due, but nothing happens! I've looked everywhere I can think of in
my Control Panel for where the speakers have gone, and I even tried a full
system reboot, which didn't work for some reason or another.

Please help, I'm a student and sound really comes in helpful sometimes!! Oh
and uh..go easy, I know I've probably made a fatal mistake, and believe me
when I say I've had all the *tsks* I can take from my mother. Eternally
grateful xx

 

[Malke]

Well, I've been doing without sound on my Compaq laptop for around 3 weeks
now, and I simply can't put up with it any more. It causes too many
problems.

Before this major problem occured, sometimes my computer would be a bit
temperamental and stop the sound coming through, even though it recognised
there was meant to be sound there, and a restart would usually sort it.
However, one time 3 restarts didn't solve the problem, so, in my usual "Oh
I'm a 15-year-old whiz kid I can handle this" manner, I went to the
Control Panel in order to look at the devices that were there.

Speakers, OK. I took the most logical step I could think of in disabling
them, leaving only SPDIF Interface (Conexant High Definition Audio) in
their place. Now, this thing (whatever the heck it is) seems to recognise
that sound is due, but nothing happens! I've looked everywhere I can think
of in my Control Panel for where the speakers have gone, and I even tried
a full system reboot, which didn't work for some reason or another.

Please help, I'm a student and sound really comes in helpful sometimes!!
Oh and uh..go easy, I know I've probably made a fatal mistake, and believe
me when I say I've had all the *tsks* I can take from my mother. Eternally
grateful xx

Go back and enable whatever you disabled. Then go to HP's tech support site
for your specific model laptop and download the audio drivers. Install
them. If this fixes the issue, then you're done. If the sound continues to
show up and then disappear, it is probably a hardware failure. In that
case, contact Compaq tech support for repair/replacement. Since this is a
laptop, you can't fix sound chip failures yourself.

Malke

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It would help if you gave the specific names of your computer and the sound
adaptor.

 

[Snacko]

If you disabled a device that was showing in the device manager and it didn't
come back (same as if you had uninstalled it and it didn't come back), it
probably means that windows doesn't see it.

One thing to try: Plug in earphones just to make sure your speakers aren't
bad. They're on a different bus, so this will identify whether the problem
is with your speakers or something more fundamental (the ole "half-split"
troubleshooting method).

If you get no headphone sounds, look at drivers next. Check your system by
doing this (classic start menu): start, programs, accessories, system tools,
system information. Expand "components" and highlight "sound device". See
if the status is OK.

What you want to do is identify either the specific sound device on your
computer and go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest
drivers. If your computer came with a restore disk and you still have it,
you should be able to use it to load this specific device's drivers. A good
process to follow if you are afraid a restore disk will restore and overwrite
too much stuff is to insert the disk and cancel the prompts, then go to
device manager and uninstall your sound device. Then right-click your
computer name at the top of the dialogue box and select "scan for hardware
changes". It should find the device and ask for drivers. Direct it to your
cd drive.

If none of this works, it should at least bring you a step closer to
identifying the nature of the failure. Then we can hone in some.