A friend of mine here at work is trying to play a music CD. She claims that the computer played music before. in fact it should. it is a new Gateway. However, you can't hear it. I looked at the volume and nothing was mute. I speakers were on. I also checked the sound and it worked. I could hear the ticking noise Windows menus make as i went from menu to menu. it CD also appears to be playing in the media player. It is only that i can't hear anything. Do you have any suggestions? The only thing the comes to my mind is to check teh CD-ROM adn make sure the little cord is connected to the sound portion of the motherboard. The speakers are working fine. they are connected also.

You've obviously covered most things :) .
The audio cable is definitely worth checking - as long as the comp's warranty allows the case to be opened.
Just a couple of thoughts - how many CD/DVD drives? Usually only one is connected for CD sound. And has she tried more than one CD? I know it's unlikely but *shrug*.

1: You mention 'at work'. Is there admin priviledges that may have disabled sound?

2: If the 'tick' sound is there, the speakers are definitely working. If it worked before, the cable is still worth having a look at.

3: Did you go to Volume or Volume Control? The difference is you can open up more options in Volume Control and some things may have been inadvertently muted for some reason. You need to open Volume controls (98SE at least) then click on Options and Properties, then in Playback, look for anything that has to do with cd's and enable it so when you go back to the Volume Control ther will be a slider and mute option for the cd-rom.

4: Check Device Manager for problems with the multimedia or other possible sound problems.

5: There's a run command I am suffering a 'CRS' syndrome bout of that command that can diagnose some problems with your sound and other hardware/software configurations if you have any but as I said I 'Can't Remember $h!t' once in awhile... :p Must be age.... Something to do with dx? (Tapping fingers here till someone helps refresh my memory.... :rolleyes: )

Edit: dxdiag in the Run box then choose 'more help'. Click 'Troubleshoot' and see what you find. Please let us know.

Fruss Tray Ted:

What is CRS sysdrome? It sounds like something I might have.


Cosmin-Coral:

The audio cable from CD-drive to sound card is a legacy device that is not even needed on modern computers. The cable pipes sound directly from the CD-ROM drive to the sound card. If there is no cable, any media player can play an audio CD.

In this case, the media player appears to be playing the CD, but no sound is being heard.

maurices5000:

You are never going to score with this girl, if you can't even fix her computer. LOL.

Here's the Microsoft XP sound troubleshooter:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307918

If she has USB speakers, look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306706

Originally posted by gwallen4
Cosmin-Coral:

The audio cable from CD-drive to sound card is a legacy device that is not even needed on modern computers. The cable pipes sound directly from the CD-ROM drive to the sound card. If there is no cable, any media player can play an audio CD.You learn something new every day!
I'm afraid all my machines can be classed as legacy at the moment, & I've not had chance to open up anything newer :D.

thanks guys!:)