Trouble with sound

[Din]

Suddenly I have no sound.  I have done all the trouble shooting suggested, updating drivers, checking the volume, checking for conflicts, etc.  My system says all is working well.  What could be the problem.

Also, how do I know if my soundcard is separate or in the motherboard.  be gentle with your answers, I am a nurse, not a computer whiz..

Thans

[Zylstra]

What operating system do you have?
Have you tried uninstalling the driver?


A separate sound card would have a "card" inside your computer as seen here:
http://media.zzounds.com/media/feed/large/MDOREV71.jpg

An internal card is directly built into the motherboard.

Edit: Forgot to list possible causes

__
Bad driver (generic?)
Bad hardware

[Din]

I have Windows XP.  Yes I  have done the uninstall driver thing

[Zylstra]

The following document from ComputerHope covers one issue that is related with yours that you have not listed as trying yet
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000208.htm

[Din]

I did all of that.  Why does my system say that my sound card is OK?  I know I have not gone deaf.  The probleam actually happened when I was playing Montezuma's treasures  All of a sudden, the sound started to stutter and then it disappeared.  Could I have contracted a virus when I downloaded the game.  I have Norton Antivirus?

[Zylstra]

How did you "Download" the game, and what game is it?

[Din]

The game is Montezuma's Treasures and I downloaded it from either AOL Games or MSN Games.

[Computer Hope Admin]

I've encountered lots of issues with smaller games turning down the volume on the sound. Although mentioned in the above document I'd again make sure that all your volumes are turned up. Often if the the computer says no issues are being encountered with the sound card this is the cause. You may also want to reboot the computer if you have not already done so.

Finally, in addition to what was mentioned above you can identify if the sound card is on the motherboard or not by looking at the back. The picture shown in the link below is an example of a sound card that is on the motherboard. As can be seen the audio connections are next to all the other connections on the motherboard and not in a expansion slot.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/connect.htm