no sound

[Jim Robin]

Hi,

Trying to help someone get her sound working on her PC. Thought it would be
easy - find the problem in the device manager under audio codecs etc - find
something with a yellow exclamation. However device manager reports that
there or no problems with sound / sound drivers ("This device is working
properly" - it says) Yet if I go to sounds in the control panel the sounds
items are there but greyed out and it says there is no sound!

Not too sure about the next step and would appreciate any input.

Many thanks,

Jim

PS She recently had a fresh install of XP which seemed to go smoothly
without error.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Install the driver for the sound card.

 

[Jim Robin]

I believe that the sound is part of the motherboard - ie there is no
specific card like say a soundblaster. That would have made it too easy ;-)

Thanks anyway,

Jim

 

[Bob Lucas]

Even if the sound card is integrated with the motherboard, it should
still be visible in Device Manager. To check, look at all entries under
Sound, Video and Game Controllers.

For instance, Device Manager on my HP laptop shows a SoundMAX Integrated
Digital HD Audio. Then, a Google search against "SoundMAX Integrated
Digital HD Audio" identifies various download sources for drivers.
Google also points to forums, where subscribers have discussed similar
problems.

Obviously, your computer may incorporate completely different hardware.
However, try the above steps to identify the sound card (integrated or
otherwise). Then Google to find drivers and other information.

 

[Jim]

Hi,

Trying to help someone get her sound working on her PC. Thought it would be
easy - find the problem in the device manager under audio codecs etc - find
something with a yellow exclamation. However device manager reports that
there or no problems with sound / sound drivers ("This device is working
properly" - it says) Yet if I go to sounds in the control panel the sounds
items are there but greyed out and it says there is no sound!

Not too sure about the next step and would appreciate any input.

Many thanks,

Jim

PS She recently had a fresh install of XP which seemed to go smoothly
without error.

Speakers pluged in / switched on ?

 

[Jim Robin]

Hi Bob,

Your advice seems very sound (if you'll pardon the pun) and I shall try
"Googling" the device as named in the device manager - then attempt to
obtain its driver. Since making this post I have discovered that it's
possble to purchase something called a USB sound card! I shall investigate
this too!!

Many thanks for taking the trouble to post your response!

Jim Robin

 

[Bob Lucas]

Hi Jim

Let us know if you are able to enable the integrated sound card.

I have no experience of USB sound cards. However, if you can't activate
the integrated card, I would be inclined to look inside the computer and
check for vacant expansion slots.

If you have a vacant PCI slot, you could purchase and fit a stand-alone
Soundblaster card. However, you only need one sound card on the
computer, so you would also need to disable the integrated card in
Device Manager.