sounds & multimedia preferred devices empty

[Edward Scott]

hi,

my sound card seems to have stopped working. it worked fine last time I
tested it, although that was a month and a half ago.

the device is listed in the device manager. its drivers are installed
and there are no conflicts. if I go to the "sounds & multimedia"
settings in control panel, however, the "preferred device" lists in the
audio tab are all empty and greyed out.

does anyone know what could cause this? I have tried uninstalling and
reinstalling the drivers. I have tried removing the device from the
device manager and adding it again. nothing makes any difference.

any insight would be appreciated. thanks.

Edward.

 

[Edward Scott]

never mind. I solved the problem.

the problem wasn't with the sound card. or the drivers. the problem was
that I was using Remote Desktop. apparently Remote Desktop tries to
pipe the sound to the local computer using a Microsoft RDP audio
driver. If that is installed, that is all that appears in the "sound &
multimeida" preferred device list when accessed in Remote Desktop. if
that is not installed nothing is listed. when I access the machine
through VNC, however, it doesn't try any such sorcery. I see the sounds
& multimedia preferred devices just as I would if I were on the
machine, and it is all fine.

of all the problems...