My computer audio sorta broke!
 

Hi Folks,

I apologize in advance, as this question is 100% technology and 0% travel. I'm by no means a computer whiz (that's an understatement), so please take it easy on me.

Basically since this afternoon my desktop (PC) no longer plays audio with the exception of a song on my computer or that Windows "welcome" sound whenever I turn on my computer. If I try to watch a YouTube video or listen to anything online, I get no sound. I've tried my computer speakers along with headset speakers, and neither work.

When I go to the audio section of my control panel, it says "no audio device." The speakers are plugged in properly, and when I tried to use the headset that was plugged in properly as well.

Along the same lines, when I restart my computer, for the first few minues I'm using AOL or Internet Explorer it looks like a much older version with grey borders in my browser, but after a few minutes the borders become blue again like they usually are.

Any ideas?

Thanks!:)

What make / model pc do you have and what OS version are you using?

It's a Dell 8400 and I'm running Windows XP.

Right-click on My Computer and click Manage. Select Device Manager and in the right window pane expand Sound, video and game controllers section ... is there anything there with an exclamation point or a red x?

Do you have anything there that says Analog Devices or Creative Labs?

Thanks for the help, hdawg! There are no excalamation points or "x's."

I don't see anything either that says analog devices or creative labs.

you're quite welcome ... hopefully I actually end up helping :)

Any chance you can post a screenshot of what the expanded sound, video and game controllers section looks like?

Are there other exclamation points or red x's anywhere else in Device Manager?

Sure, let me get a screenshot. By the way, when I actually scroll over the things in the sound, video, and game controllers folder, I do see red "x" in the top of the window for "SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio" and "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," although scrolling over the "X" indicates that I'd push that to uninstall, so I guess that's irrelevant.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/...9358e6.jpg?v=0

There's a screenshot, hope you can read it. BTW, you can also see how the "bar" at the bottom is partly grey instead of the usual blue.

For hardware installed on my computer (like USB ports) I've been able to uninstall and have have the computer find it and reinstall it.

I have a Dell and often go to the Dell support pages. they have troubleshooters and drivers to play around with.

Also, Dell has diagnostics onboard. Reboot your computer and hold F12 then choose to run the diagnostics. It can take a while if you cycle through all tests, but can be fun if you have time to kill. It's like playing a video game in the mid 80's.

have you added / removed / changed any software or hardware since it stopped working?

The oddity with the start / window bar seems unrelated but odd nonetheless ... it looks like your XP theme settings have changed.

Also, if you go to Windows Update (http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate) does it show you needing a whole slew of updates, or are you patched with all the critical / highly recommended ones.

Also, try downloading and installing this: ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R94481.EXE

(newest Audio drivers available for your soundcard)

Try opening the mixer, I forget how you get there, but if you have a speaker icon in the system tray, that should be it. Make sure all the volumes are up and none are muted. You want the full mixer thing, not just the simple volume one. Somebody here should know how to get to it. If you don't have the mixer in your system tray, look in all the folders in your start menu for something like that. It might be in the control panel also, I forget.

Your sound is working, so it's not a hardware problem, I think. It could be a problem with the audio codecs (sw), or just that the mixer settings are wrong.

-David

Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get home this afternoon.
Thanks. I tried the windows update, and went for the express option (didn't show me how many). As I started installing the updates I got the message that some file ending in wstcodec.sys is still running and I'd have to close it before retrying.
Thanks David. I don't see a mixer in my system tray, but when I click on the volume button a message pops up which reads "There are no active mixer devices available. To install mixer devices, go to Control Panel, click Priners and Other Hardware, and then click Add Hardware." As far as the volume and everything, it's all "greyed out," so I can't really change them.

BTW, whenever I try to turn off my computer, "rundlll.exe" doesn't respond and I have to manually hit "end program." Not sure if that has anything to do with it....

hmmm, that sounds like that's related to your problem. So you don't see any devices when you go to the audio control panel? How about in the device manager?

-David

Try downloading the update from Dell. After downloading / installing that reboot.

Go back to Windows Update and choose the custom option

Troubleshooting Audio problems with Windows sucks on its own ... and doing it remotely adds to the level of suckage ...

Give these both as once over:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/307918

http://www.5starsupport.com/faq/sound.htm

Problem solved!
 

Thanks so much for your help, guys! I ended up googling the error message I got, and came upon this post. I followed the directions in the third post, and bam, my audio worked again. It seems like all I had to do was start the windows audio service.

Thanks so much for all the help, though. FlyerTalk is such an amazing community.^