Windows XP....No sound at all

[poordevil]

My speakers working fine this morning. Tonight I sit down for some Red Baron 3D and there is no sound. I rebooted and there was no sound when XP came up. There is no sound when I play my music CD, no sound with games, no sound at all.

I share this comp with my 12 yo son. It was working fine tonight when he sat down with it. He had a USB headset plugged in and was using it to listen to the internet and music CDs. He says all was working fine when left the keyboard. That is all he can tell me. When I sat down to the comp. a few minutes after he left, there was no sound. That is all I can tell you.

I checked and rechecked my speaker connections. I have power to the speakers. I checked all the settings that the XP Sound Troubleshooter told me to check. Nothing was muted or turned down.I looked for conflicts or anything weird in device manager; everything looks fine.I tried unplugging my speakers and plugging in a different set of cheap desktop speakers into my sound card, but no sound out of them either.

I don't know what else to try outside of reformating and reinstalling XP. I am feeling about that desparate. Any ideas?

Win XP Home OS
Audgidy 2Zs sound card
Klipsch 2.1 analog satellite speakers

[mjc]

Before doing all of XP have you just tried reinstalling the sound card drivers?

[poordevil]

"Before doing all of XP have you just tried reinstalling the sound card drivers?"


Yea I did. I reinstalled them with the installation CD that came with the sound card.

I just reformated this blasted computer last night! I was up till midnight getting XP installed and all the drivers installed and on the phone with MSN customer support getting MSN back up and running. The computer was fresh as a daisy and running fast and smooth with the clean install. Sound was working fine with the CD drivers and everything. Now, less than 24 hours later, the sound just quits...

[jabarnutcase]

So, even rebooting Windows produced no default windows .wav sounds?

I assume you've been to "Sounds and Audio Devices"/(Properties) in Control panel too? (In addition to device manager)

When you pick a "program event" for Windows sounds, (within the sounds tab) are the .wav files grayed out? (Or are they "bold" and appear to be playing when you hit the test play button?)

Also notice there are a lot of other settings and mute buttons in addition to the "advanced" tab which brings up all the volume controls for your sound card.

Forgive me if you've already checked every software setting possible...Just checking.

And these "USB Headphones". Are they designed to automatically cut off your speaker volume? Can you still get sound through them?

Not to get your spirits down, but if the Windows default .wav files are grayed out in addition to no other sounds either, a repair install may be the only fix......At least it was when It happened to my sons Computer.

I do always ask myself though, "what was changed, added, or removed just before things stopped working?"....It seems the headphones are somehow related.

The fact that you just reformatted does not show hope for a System restore, but there may be a restore point anyway (even if it's the same day the problems started-Since it's "tomorrow" now!), that you could try.

Also, for the heck of it, boot into safe mode and pick "last known good configuration"....I realize this is a brand new install, but anything is worth a shot.

[bassman]

Yes, Yes. Is there sound through the headphones? Also, have you unpluged these offensive little monsters? :D (sorry, watching cartoons with my son)

[poordevil]

"So, even rebooting Windows produced no default windows .wav sounds?"

Yea, that is correct.

"When you pick a "program event" for Windows sounds, (within the sounds tab) are the .wav files grayed out? (Or are they "bold" and appear to be playing when you hit the test play button?)"

Nothing is greyed out, everything looks normal.

"And these "USB Headphones". Are they designed to automatically cut off your speaker volume? Can you still get sound through them?"

They are a Logitech head set with a mouth piece. My son picked them out for communicating online with Call Of Duty multiplayer. They quit working at the same time as the PC speakers. No sound through the headset either.

"The fact that you just reformatted does not show hope for a System restore, but there may be a restore point anyway (even if it's the same day the problems started-Since it's "tomorrow" now!), that you could try."

I gave system restore a shot but no go. Still no sound.

"Also, for the heck of it, boot into safe mode and pick "last known good configuration"....I realize this is a brand new install, but anything is worth a shot."

I will try that. How do I boot into safe mode?

[poordevil]

Okay I fixed it. Had a virus and had to reformat and reinstall XP. Reinstalled the sound card drivers and everything seems normal.

Before resorting to reformating I tried runing an anti virus program to get rid of it; but either I couldn't run the program properly or the program couldn't delete it because I finally had to go with the BIG AX and do a clean install.

Now that I have a clean version of XP anyone with suggestions with how to keep it that way for longer than 24hrs? Good anti virus firewall type stuff. I have nothing installed right now. I am sitting duck here with a DSL modem and an internet connection....

[bassman]

AVG (www.grisoft.com). It's free and great!!!!
Zone Alarm (www.zonealarm.com). It's free and great!!!

:cool:

[poordevil]

Thanks bass!. You're my kind of guy !