Sound device problems

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it could simply be a matter of a bad sound board...... but you say it is
new. since you don't have recovery disks this may be a good option. what
you can do is to go ahead and check your cmos/bios In there you will
see your hardware options. Be sure to have your sound board installed when
you get into cmos.

When you power up the pc, you should press and hold the f1 key or the del
key to access the cmos menu. Browse through it and look for the options for
"sound" or "audio". since I think you have a pentium 4 and your motherboard
requires a pci sound card, there is likely a option to engage the audio.

Look for it and set it to yes or on. In addition you may find automatic
options like setting the motherboard to best or optimized performance. It
doesn't hurt to select one of these as well. Before you exit cmos, ensure
that the sound option is set correctly, save and reboot......
 
http://www.freshdevices.com/

Another thing to try is the "diagnose" freeware at the above site. Download
it, register for free, await for the product key, open the program, insert
the registration key, close and reopen it.

The program has a multimedia benchmarking/testing and it can provide you
with additional information about your system. The benchmarking feature
won't work with out the key....
 
if you get "any popups" regarding free registy scanning, cancel them. just
work with fresh diagnose program.
 
Sorry for the delay in responding, I was busy all day Sunday.

Fortunately, I have a friend living not too far away who has a similar
machine. i managed ot get a recovery disk that allows you access to the
hidden partition which restores factory settings.

OK, I lost some programs but I have sound and a machine working as well as
it ever did. The internet has provided most drivers I hadn't got handy,
such as my HP all in one.

Thank you for all the help you have given. If anyone should drop on you
with a similar problem, contact me at (e-mail address removed) if they need
one of these recovery floppies, I am going to keep one at hand well marked in
my desk drawer from now on.

All best wishes KP
 
Keith, I had a somewhat similar problem: I installed XP Home and found I had
no sound.

Eventually, this is what fixed my problem: I opened Control Panel, chose
"Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices", on the next screen chose "Sounds and
Audio Devices", selected the Hardware tab. One of the items listed was
"Multimedia Audio Controller" (I believe that was the phrase). I believe I
clicked on "Properties" and found that there was no driver installed. I had
the system search for and install a driver. I had the CD that came with the
motherboard in my CD drive at the time, but I think the system found a more
recent driver elsewhere. I can't be sure of that. At any rate my sound then
worked.

Frank
 
Hi Frank,

Well it's been a painful journey, but I finally fixed things with a system
restore after I managed to get the activation disk from a pal.

Thanks for the tip, butin this case I had been there.

ALl best wishes

KP
 
i'm glad it's resolved. it was a tricky problem and you simply didn't have
enough information provided to you when you got the machine... good thing
for newsgroups like these....
 
I am going through the same experience as Keith Powel did and wonder if he
ever got his sound to come one again and if so how?
 
The subject or your post is "modems" (plural), in your post you mention only
1 modem, and you don't mention ANY software. How about providing us with at
least some useful information/history? Name of program, any errors your
receiving, did it used to work or a new install?

--
 
Take your computer and everything that goes with it to a comuter shop! It may
be a problem that's quite technical and you may have never encountered it. It
may cost some money to fix, but you would have your system back with no harm
done to it. Actually, I can't get my speakers to work either and they were
working perfectly. The trouble is obviously something more involved with
drivers that somehow aren't loading and I certainly don't want to ruin the OS
while troubleshooting the speakers. Get a repair store to repair it and then
you'd have your speakers back.
 
Hi,

I have a DELL Dimension 5100 with Windows XP Professional. I have had the
following problem for the past few days:

After starting the machine or rebooting I have the sound and everything
looks fine. After a while there is no more sound.

I then go to the Sounds and Audio Devices window in the Control Panel, click
on the Sounds Tab and then select any Program events to see if there is a
sound and what I get is the following error message:

"Windows cannot play the %SystemRoot%\media\Windows XP Error.wav file. It
may be damaged or may not be a valid sound file. Replace the file and try
again."

Everything else seems to be O.K. and unless I reboot I have no sound. Then I
have it for a while and again it disappears. I identified the Windows XO
Error.wav file and was wondering if I should delete it and if so how do I
reinstall it. Bless anyone who could help.
 
JackK said:
Hi,

I have a DELL Dimension 5100 with Windows XP Professional. I have had the
following problem for the past few days:

After starting the machine or rebooting I have the sound and everything
looks fine. After a while there is no more sound.

I then go to the Sounds and Audio Devices window in the Control Panel, click
on the Sounds Tab and then select any Program events to see if there is a
sound and what I get is the following error message:

"Windows cannot play the %SystemRoot%\media\Windows XP Error.wav file. It
may be damaged or may not be a valid sound file. Replace the file and try
again."

Everything else seems to be O.K. and unless I reboot I have no sound. Then I
have it for a while and again it disappears. I identified the Windows XO
Error.wav file and was wondering if I should delete it and if so how do I
reinstall it. Bless anyone who could help.
Click to expand...

Maybe something here:

Where did my sounds go?
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
 
I tried it but doesn't work. By the way the error message comes up for any of
the Program events you try, e.g. If you try the sound for "Low Battery
Alarm", you'll get:

"Windows cannot play the %SystemRoot%\media\Windows XP Battery Low.wav
file. It may be damaged or may not be a valid sound file. Replace the file
and try
again." etc. It all works only after rebooting, until it stops again.
 
JackK said:
I tried it but doesn't work. By the way the error message comes up for any of
the Program events you try, e.g. If you try the sound for "Low Battery
Alarm", you'll get:

"Windows cannot play the %SystemRoot%\media\Windows XP Battery Low.wav
file. It may be damaged or may not be a valid sound file. Replace the file
and try
again." etc. It all works only after rebooting, until it stops again.
Click to expand...

Try removing then reinstalling the sound card. This could help if the
drivers are damaged. Look on the OEM support page for updated drivers.
Lower hardware acceleration for sound Control Panel, Sounds and Audio
Devices, Audio tab, Advanced button, Performance tab. If this helps,
you probably need to repair or update your audio drivers.
 
Hi again,

It seems that uninstalling the Sigma Tel audio driver and re-installing the
latest version from the www.dell.com site did the trick. All the other things
I tried including anti Spyware utilities didn't help. So far so good. I am
crossing my fingers.
 
The problem is back. Very frustrating. It takes longer now for the sound to
disappear but after a long period of inactivity, I lose the sound and the
only way I get it back is by re-booting the machine. Any other suggestions.
 
Keith:

Your situation sounds like my present one. How did you work yourself out of
it. I suddenly lost my sound and cannot retrieve it. I tried many of the
remedies you did too.

Thanks.
 
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