System gone haywire

  • Thread starter Thread starter CDuane
  • Start date Start date
C

CDuane

My system plays no sound (Device manager shows an
unspecified device that is disabled) and the drive letters
for the internal cd-rom and the external cd-r/w drives are
swapped when viewed in an explorer window. Are these
problems related?
 
Hi, CDuane.

What does Disk Management say about your CD/DVD drive letters? If you don't
specifically assign the letters here, then WinXP reassigns them at each
reboot, based on its own built-in algorithm applied to whatever drives are
connected and enabled at the time of reboot.

What kind of sound does your computer have? Tell us the make and model of
your computer and of any add-on sound card you may have added. Also, is
there never any sound at all, or does it fail only when you are trying to
play a CD or DVD?

RC
 
Thanks guys. The problem with the drive letters has been resolved
Further digging found a disabled sound device. When I accessed it in
device manager I got the following info
" Sound, video and game controller
Crystal Semiconducto
on Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode)"
Does this help? Do I need to replace my sound card
Again, Thanks much
CDuane
 
Hi, Duane.

(It would help us follow the context of the conversation if you will click
the "Include original" button when you Reply. Otherwise, we have to flip
back and forth between the latest message and earlier ones.)

OK, next obvious question: Do you have speakers? Are they plugged in? If
they require power, is the power cord plugged in? If they are plugged into
a power strip, is that turned on? Is the volume turned up? Did this
computer ever make sounds? What happened just before it stopped making
sounds?

PCs usually have a built-in speaker which is not good for much but beeps and
squawks, such as that first beep that tells you that the power switch has
been turned on. Do you hear that?

If these questions seem too simple - or like we think you're stupid -
remember, you can see and hear(?) your computer. We can't. All we know
about it is what you've told us. And we've all been there and done such
stupid things ourselves. That's why we think to ask you about them.

RC
 
Thanks for the lesson in etiquette
My system has speakers, all connections are properly configured, and everythin
worked fine until several days ago. The sound simply stopped. I've gone throug
the XP troubleshooters. The only indication of where the problem might li
was found in Device Manager which shows a disable sound device that previousl
was not there. When I went to the properties page the only information given was
"Sound, video and game controller
Crystal Semiconducto
on Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode)"
One more thing, the system was purchased used approx 6 months ago. I upgrade
from 98 to XP a month after purchase with few apparent problems. I installed a ne
hard drive 2 to 3 months ago (and the drive that came with the machine promptly
cratered). I also installed a new modem about the same time. The system worked fine
or seemed to, until this past Friday or Saturday. I've used several media players to play cd's
I've played games such as Age of Empires. The sound has been satisfactory until now

----- R. C. White wrote: ----

Hi, Duane

(It would help us follow the context of the conversation if you will click
the "Include original" button when you Reply. Otherwise, we have to flip
back and forth between the latest message and earlier ones.

OK, next obvious question: Do you have speakers? Are they plugged in? If
they require power, is the power cord plugged in? If they are plugged into
a power strip, is that turned on? Is the volume turned up? Did this
computer ever make sounds? What happened just before it stopped making
sounds

PCs usually have a built-in speaker which is not good for much but beeps and
squawks, such as that first beep that tells you that the power switch has
been turned on. Do you hear that

If these questions seem too simple - or like we think you're stupid -
remember, you can see and hear(?) your computer. We can't. All we know
about it is what you've told us. And we've all been there and done such
stupid things ourselves. That's why we think to ask you about them

R
 
You know this happened to me, and all I did was restore the system to what it was a couple of days before. (You may already know that XP has this system restore feature). I don't remember why my sound system just quit, but when I used the restore feature, everything was put back to normal. Restoring the system doesn't affect any new files in your system (in other words, the current day was a Thursday, and I had new files Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). I restored to a Tuesday status, and all those files that were new, were not affected at all - not like a restore from a backup

Anyway, I hope this helps

----- CDuane wrote: ----

Thanks for the lesson in etiquette
My system has speakers, all connections are properly configured, and everythin
worked fine until several days ago. The sound simply stopped. I've gone throug
the XP troubleshooters. The only indication of where the problem might li
was found in Device Manager which shows a disable sound device that previousl
was not there. When I went to the properties page the only information given was
"Sound, video and game controller
Crystal Semiconducto
on Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode)"
One more thing, the system was purchased used approx 6 months ago. I upgrade
from 98 to XP a month after purchase with few apparent problems. I installed a ne
hard drive 2 to 3 months ago (and the drive that came with the machine promptly
cratered). I also installed a new modem about the same time. The system worked fine
or seemed to, until this past Friday or Saturday. I've used several media players to play cd's
I've played games such as Age of Empires. The sound has been satisfactory until now

----- R. C. White wrote: ----

Hi, Duane

(It would help us follow the context of the conversation if you will click
the "Include original" button when you Reply. Otherwise, we have to flip
back and forth between the latest message and earlier ones.

OK, next obvious question: Do you have speakers? Are they plugged in? If
they require power, is the power cord plugged in? If they are plugged into
a power strip, is that turned on? Is the volume turned up? Did this
computer ever make sounds? What happened just before it stopped making
sounds

PCs usually have a built-in speaker which is not good for much but beeps and
squawks, such as that first beep that tells you that the power switch has
been turned on. Do you hear that

If these questions seem too simple - or like we think you're stupid -
remember, you can see and hear(?) your computer. We can't. All we know
about it is what you've told us. And we've all been there and done such
stupid things ourselves. That's why we think to ask you about them

R
 
Thanks bball. There's one more problem. I can't access "system restore". Here's a description of that problem
System resore is turned off on my machind. I don't remember changing it, but now that I've bee
barraged by problems I find that not only is it not on, I can't turn it on

When I try to enter the System Restore wizard I get the following
message
An exception occurred while trying to ru
"shell32.dll, Control_RunDl
"C:\Windows\System32\sysdm.cpl", System

What does this indicate and what do I have to do to fix it
Thanks so much for the help, any help
C. Duan


----- bball wrote: ----

You know this happened to me, and all I did was restore the system to what it was a couple of days before. (You may already know that XP has this system restore feature). I don't remember why my sound system just quit, but when I used the restore feature, everything was put back to normal. Restoring the system doesn't affect any new files in your system (in other words, the current day was a Thursday, and I had new files Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). I restored to a Tuesday status, and all those files that were new, were not affected at all - not like a restore from a backup

Anyway, I hope this helps

----- CDuane wrote: ----

Thanks for the lesson in etiquette
My system has speakers, all connections are properly configured, and everythin
worked fine until several days ago. The sound simply stopped. I've gone throug
the XP troubleshooters. The only indication of where the problem might li
was found in Device Manager which shows a disable sound device that previousl
was not there. When I went to the properties page the only information given was
"Sound, video and game controller
Crystal Semiconducto
on Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode)"
One more thing, the system was purchased used approx 6 months ago. I upgrade
from 98 to XP a month after purchase with few apparent problems. I installed a ne
hard drive 2 to 3 months ago (and the drive that came with the machine promptly
cratered). I also installed a new modem about the same time. The system worked fine
or seemed to, until this past Friday or Saturday. I've used several media players to play cd's
I've played games such as Age of Empires. The sound has been satisfactory until now

----- R. C. White wrote: ----

Hi, Duane

(It would help us follow the context of the conversation if you will click
the "Include original" button when you Reply. Otherwise, we have to flip
back and forth between the latest message and earlier ones.

OK, next obvious question: Do you have speakers? Are they plugged in? If
they require power, is the power cord plugged in? If they are plugged into
a power strip, is that turned on? Is the volume turned up? Did this
computer ever make sounds? What happened just before it stopped making
sounds

PCs usually have a built-in speaker which is not good for much but beeps and
squawks, such as that first beep that tells you that the power switch has
been turned on. Do you hear that

If these questions seem too simple - or like we think you're stupid -
remember, you can see and hear(?) your computer. We can't. All we know
about it is what you've told us. And we've all been there and done such
stupid things ourselves. That's why we think to ask you about them

R
 
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