No sound

[calabash30]

I've been almost a month without sound on my computer. It started in
December when I moved my computer and installed a second CD-Rom drive.
Up to this point everything was working perfectly. I have Windows XP
SP2. My soundcard is a SoundBlaster Live! card. I got some help from
a tech support site last month, and we tried pretty much everything
before finally coming to the conclusion that the card was bad. I've
since purchased a brand new (NOS) SoundBlaster Live! audio card which
I installed over the weekend. I still can't get any sound from my
computer! I have installed, uninstalled and reinstalled the latest
driver AND patch several times to no avail. I've also tried moving
the
card to a different slot, but nothing seems to be working. What's
more, when I activate my onboard audio through bios IT isn't producing
any sound either. I've gone to "Device Manager" and checked the
"properties" for my hardware and drivers and it says that everything
is working properly. Here's the message that pops up when I enable or
disable my SoundBlaster card:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Deviceinstallererror-1.png?t=1231193031
I'm at my wits end. What else could be causing my computer to not have
any sound?
Bryan

 

[david]

I've been almost a month without sound on my computer. It started in
December when I moved my computer and installed a second CD-Rom drive.
Up to this point everything was working perfectly. I have Windows XP
SP2. My soundcard is a SoundBlaster Live! card. I got some help from a
tech support site last month, and we tried pretty much everything before
finally coming to the conclusion that the card was bad. I've since
purchased a brand new (NOS) SoundBlaster Live! audio card which I
installed over the weekend. I still can't get any sound from my
computer! I have installed, uninstalled and reinstalled the latest
driver AND patch several times to no avail. I've also tried moving the
card to a different slot, but nothing seems to be working. What's more,
when I activate my onboard audio through bios IT isn't producing any
sound either. I've gone to "Device Manager" and checked the "properties"
for my hardware and drivers and it says that everything is working
properly. Here's the message that pops up when I enable or disable my
SoundBlaster card:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/ Deviceinstallererror-1.png?t=1231193031
I'm at my wits end. What else could be causing my computer to not have
any sound?
Bryan

Are you sure your speakers are hooked up correctly?

 

[Jan Alter]

Are you sure your speakers are hooked up correctly?

I assume that you have tried going back to a restore point before installing
that second CD-ROM drive and see if that would change anything. Tried going
to see if there is an updated driver for the sound card? If it had been
myself I would have tried reinstalling the OS before I went out to purchase
a new sound card. It is amazing how software can conflict with itself and
other programs to disable things from working properly.

 

[Dave]

Are you sure your speakers are hooked up correctly?

Are the speakers DEAD? -Dave

 

[Dave]

I've been almost a month without sound on my computer. It started in
December when I moved my computer and installed a second CD-Rom drive.
Up to this point everything was working perfectly. I have Windows XP
SP2. My soundcard is a SoundBlaster Live! card. I got some help from
a tech support site last month, and we tried pretty much everything
before finally coming to the conclusion that the card was bad. I've
since purchased a brand new (NOS) SoundBlaster Live! audio card which
I installed over the weekend. I still can't get any sound from my
computer! I have installed, uninstalled and reinstalled the latest
driver AND patch several times to no avail. I've also tried moving
the
card to a different slot, but nothing seems to be working. What's
more, when I activate my onboard audio through bios IT isn't producing
any sound either. I've gone to "Device Manager" and checked the
"properties" for my hardware and drivers and it says that everything
is working properly. Here's the message that pops up when I enable or
disable my SoundBlaster card:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Deviceinstallererror-1.png?t=1231193031
I'm at my wits end. What else could be causing my computer to not have
any sound?
Bryan

You've got a larger problem. Some of your OS files are corrupted or
missing. I'm not sure what the moving the computer or installing CD-Rom had
to do with that. Probably a red herring. I'm afraid your options are not
very appealing at this point.

1st try: Back up ALL important data files to CD-R or some other storage
place (USB memory stick?) outside of your computer. Then use system restore
to restore to a point at least in November of 2008, OR EARLIER.

2nd try: If that doesn't work, you could boot the XP install CD-Rom and try
a repair install.

3rd try: Back up ALL important data files to CD-R or some other storage
place (USB memory stick?) outside of your computer. (yes, again) Then try
reinstalling Windows on a freshly formatted hard drive.

But then, you could go through all that for nothing. Files don't just
disappear. You might want to check for malware, and scan your hard drive
for bad sectors. Then your options might change significantly.

First thing though, back up all your data before you do anything. -Dave

 

[calabash30]

Reinstalling XP is an absolute last resort. I've customized virtually
everything on my PC....the boot screen, ALL the icons (system icons,
control panel icons, OpenOffice icons, start button, etc.), changed my
"tcpip.sys" file to allow more connections, gotten rid of the shortcut
arrows on my desktop, altered dozens of system files using Command
Prompt (mainly stuff portaining to the OS appearance), I've added tons
of screensavers, gotten rid of the annoying messages that pop up from
time to time (those little "reminders" that pop up in the lower right
hand corner of the screen)....I mean, the list goes on and on. This is
basically a custom OS that took months to build. And yes, I've used it
for over a year without a single problem. So if there's anything I can
do to avoid a complete reinstall, that's what I want to do. Somebody
from another forum suggested that the antivirus should be disabled
while installing the driver for my soundcard. I'll try that tonight.
How do I scan the harddrive for bad sectors? What are the files that
might be corrupted? Perhaps they can be replaced.(?)
Bryan

 

[Jan Alter]

You've done all that and you wonder why your sound doesn't work?
Hmm.

Fine, then try a test of using a second hard drive ( if you have one) and
install XP on it with the mb chipset and sound card drivers. See if it
solves the issue. If not you've lost less than an hour sleuthing it and can
continue satisfyingly that you needn't do a new customization of the OS and
there's still a problem with the sound.

 

[calabash30]

You've done all that and you wonder why your sound doesn't work?
Hmm.

Yep, it's worked perfectly for over a year with these customizations.
I'm also musician and have been using my PC since last January for
mixing and recording. So being with sound is significant. Jan, what
will really piss me off is if I do a complete re-install of XP and it
still doesn't solve the problem. Starting all over from scratch is an
extreme solution, especially if it doesn't even work. I DO have
another harddrive. I'll try it on that one. Actually, I have several
things I can try now. So we'll see what happens.
Bryan

 

[Marty]

wonder why your sound doesn't work? Hmm.

Yep, it's worked perfectly for over a year with these customizations.
I'm also musician and have been using my PC since last January for
mixing and recording. So being with sound is significant. Jan, what will
really piss me off is if I do a complete re-install of XP and it still
doesn't solve the problem. Starting all over from scratch is an extreme
solution, especially if it doesn't even work. I DO have another
harddrive. I'll try it on that one. Actually, I have several things I
can try now. So we'll see what happens. Bryan

Have you tested the output with a set of headphones? It is possible that
your speakers are rooted.

Can you get audio into your PC through your soundcard? If you have a copy
of Audacity, open it, plug a microphone into the sound card and then set
Audacity to record mode. What happens?

 

[Dave]

Reinstalling XP is an absolute last resort.

I agree.

I've customized virtually
everything on my PC....the boot screen, ALL the icons (system icons,
control panel icons, OpenOffice icons, start button, etc.), changed my
"tcpip.sys" file to allow more connections, gotten rid of the shortcut
arrows on my desktop, altered dozens of system files using Command
Prompt (mainly stuff portaining to the OS appearance), I've added tons
of screensavers, gotten rid of the annoying messages that pop up from
time to time (those little "reminders" that pop up in the lower right
hand corner of the screen)....I mean, the list goes on and on. This is
basically a custom OS that took months to build. And yes, I've used it
for over a year without a single problem. So if there's anything I can
do to avoid a complete reinstall, that's what I want to do. Somebody
from another forum suggested that the antivirus should be disabled
while installing the driver for my soundcard. I'll try that tonight.
How do I scan the harddrive for bad sectors?

Command prompt. chkdsk /f
It might prompt you that it wants to run on reboot. LET IT, if it offers
that option.

What are the files that
might be corrupted? Perhaps they can be replaced.(?)
Bryan

Well, you are missing the Windows component that helps to install sound card
drivers (among other things). Don't know what else you are missing, but it
would be mighty darned odd to be missing just ONE file. -Dave

 

[calabash30]

I plugged my studio mic into the back of the soundcard and recorded it
with Audacity. There IS sound going in. In fact, I played an MP3 and
hit the record button (in Audacity) and it's showing soundwaves there
too! I'm just not hearing it. If I turn the volume ALL the way up, I
can just barely make out some faint sounds if I put my ear on the
speaker. All the connections were checked and the speakers are working
fine. This is clearly a software issue. Tonight I downloaded and ran
the installer cleanup utility (msicuu2.exe) and reinstalled the
drivers for my soundcard with the antivirus disabled. At least now I'm
no longer getting this message:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Deviceinstallererror-1.png?t=1231193031
But it doesn't solve the problem. I still want to try this driver on a
harddrive with a clean install of Windows XP. This will be my father's
computer (he had XP reinstalled yesterday and also has the same
SoundBlaster Live! card in his pc). Unfortunately his computer still
isn't working correctly. As soon as it gets back from the repair shop,
I'm going to head over there and see what files he has, that I could
be missing on mine (or maybe I have them, but they're corrupted). Not
sure exactly what I'm be looking for yet, but I suppose we'll cross
that bridge when I come it.
Bryan

 

[Nil]

I plugged my studio mic into the back of the soundcard and
recorded it with Audacity. There IS sound going in. In fact, I
played an MP3 and hit the record button (in Audacity) and it's
showing soundwaves there too! I'm just not hearing it. If I turn
the volume ALL the way up, I can just barely make out some faint
sounds if I put my ear on the speaker.

Sounds to me like something is mis-set in the mixer applet. Something
is either muted or turned all the way down.

 

[calabash30]

This is unbelievable. At the risk of looking like a total moron, I
thought I'd share with everyone that the problem has been fixed. I
went to my father's to see why his SoundBlaster card is working and
mine isn't. It turned out to be something really minor. His speakers
were plugged into the green jack (A), I was plugging mine into the
blue one (B) SEE PICTURE:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Soundcard.png?t=1231445495
It never occurred to me to use the green jack because since building
this computer in January 2008, I have ALWAYS used the blue one for my
speakers! I have no idea what the hell happened, I'm just glad to
finally have sound again.
Bryan

 

[Robin Bignall]

This is unbelievable. At the risk of looking like a total moron, I
thought I'd share with everyone that the problem has been fixed. I
went to my father's to see why his SoundBlaster card is working and
mine isn't. It turned out to be something really minor. His speakers
were plugged into the green jack (A), I was plugging mine into the
blue one (B) SEE PICTURE:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Soundcard.png?t=1231445495
It never occurred to me to use the green jack because since building
this computer in January 2008, I have ALWAYS used the blue one for my
speakers! I have no idea what the hell happened, I'm just glad to
finally have sound again.

I've noticed that on my Soundmax control panel you can program which
sockets are for mic, line in and speakers regardless of the standard
colours. Green is usually the default for speakers. Maybe your sound
software reprogrammed them.

 

[Nil]

This is unbelievable. At the risk of looking like a total moron, I
thought I'd share with everyone that the problem has been fixed. I
went to my father's to see why his SoundBlaster card is working
and mine isn't. It turned out to be something really minor. His
speakers were plugged into the green jack (A), I was plugging mine
into the blue one (B) SEE PICTURE:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/totalrod2/Soundcard.png?t=123
1445495 It never occurred to me to use the green jack because
since building this computer in January 2008, I have ALWAYS used
the blue one for my speakers! I have no idea what the hell
happened, I'm just glad to finally have sound again.

I see the green jack on my motherboard's built-in sound card is the
speaker out. I've never been sure about what's the standard, if there
is one. I've always gone by the near-unreadable stamped-in symbol, or
by trial and error. I see from its mixer/control applet that you CAN
reprogram the jacks to be either ins or outs. So, maybe that's what
happened to you, as Robin suggested.

Whenever I have this kind of problem that seems to resist all
commonsense solutions, I should start by unplugging everything and
verifying the cabling. 'Course, this is a PITA, so I usually resist it
until I've wasted a bunch of time, only to find out that something had
come partially or full unplugged. It's usually one of them Occam's
razor thingies.

Glad you worked it out.

 

[calabash30]

Whenever I have this kind of problem that seems to resist all
commonsense solutions, I should start by unplugging everything and
verifying the cabling. 'Course, this is a PITA, so I usually resist
it
until I've wasted a bunch of time, only to find out that something
had
come partially or full unplugged. It's usually one of them Occam's
razor thingies.


Not as much of a PITA as this past month has been. It's like spending
3 weeks looking for your wallet (and cancelling all your credit cards
in the process) only to find it was in your pants pocket all along.
Not that I've ever done that.
Bryan

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Whenever I have this kind of problem that seems to resist all
commonsense solutions, I should start by unplugging everything and
verifying the cabling. 'Course, this is a PITA, so I usually resist
it
until I've wasted a bunch of time, only to find out that something
had
come partially or full unplugged. It's usually one of them Occam's
razor thingies.


Not as much of a PITA as this past month has been. It's like spending
3 weeks looking for your wallet (and cancelling all your credit cards
in the process) only to find it was in your pants pocket all along.
Not that I've ever done that.
Bryan

I have done it with missing keys(hiding
under my wallet.....)

 

[david]

Whenever I have this kind of problem that seems to resist all
commonsense solutions, I should start by unplugging everything and
verifying the cabling. 'Course, this is a PITA, so I usually resist it
until I've wasted a bunch of time, only to find out that something had
come partially or full unplugged. It's usually one of them Occam's razor
thingies.


Not as much of a PITA as this past month has been. It's like spending 3
weeks looking for your wallet (and cancelling all your credit cards in
the process) only to find it was in your pants pocket all along. Not
that I've ever done that.
Bryan

Just like I told you. "Are you sure your speakers are hooked up
correctly?"

 

[Jan Alter]

--

Just like I told you. "Are you sure your speakers are hooked up
correctly?"

Sorry, no self-credit allowed. Only the OP can proclaim who the winner is,
.... even if you were right.

Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)