My soundcard and speakers not working?

[adamD]

Ok guys here is the problem. I recently did a system restore on my computer. I went and put all my music back on my computer and when I went to play a song I got an error on Windows Media Player saying ---

"Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning properly."

I thought it was my speaker so I plugged them into my Ipod and they worked fine. I am guessing it is my sound card, and I am praying I don't need a new one. I don't know if the system restore had anything to do with it, but I just wanted to give all the info. Maybe I need to download a driver?? Any help would be awsome

[Aegis]

Yes, you checked your speakers independently, and you know they work.

Have you looked in Device Manager to see the status of your sound card?

In Win XP:  Start --> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> System --> Harware --> Device Manager --> Sound, video, and game controllers

Is there a yellow question mark (device not found) or exclamation point on yellow background (conflict)?

This will help establish whether you need to reload a driver -- most likely at this point.

[adamD]

I looked under sound,video and game controllers and the only thing there is:
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs

There is a yellow question mark for "other devices" and a few things listed under that but thats about it

[namesynombres]

I agree, look up the manufacturer on internet and get latest driver, more often than not you only get these errors when there is a driver problem !

[adamD]

the manufacturer of the sound card??

[Aegis]

In Control Panel, look under Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices.   Under the Audio tab, it should show the default device being used for sound playback.  What does that show, please?

[namesynombres]

yes of the soundcard.

REASON:  Often the hardware is on a shelf (X) period of time in a shop, meanwhile the manufacturer has made a few modifications and upgrades which you can download from their site, these will not necesarily be on the instalation CD with the  soundcard as that is a physical CD if you get me !

I always check their website to see if there is a more updated driver than what came in the box !  Sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes not, but worth a try.

Ofcourse, checking what everybody else is saying will also help detect the problem.

[adamD]

Under sound playback for default device it says no playback device

[Aegis]

That's it, Adam.

Are you using on-motherboard sound, or do you have a separate sound card?

If the sound is on board, maybe you can get the drivers from the CD that came with the motherboard or computer.  If it's a separate card, you should be able to get the drivers from the manufacturer.

[adamD]

Not to sure about that one I have an EMachine so I think it may be on the mother board

[Aegis]

Do you have any kind of recovery or other CD's that came with the E-Machine?

(If the lime green audio plug in is up near the other ports, like USB, parallel ports, and ethernet ports, it's most likely on-board sound.  If you don't have discs, there's probably another way to get the drivers.)

[adamD]

The only discs that I no of are the 4 restore discs that came with it

[Aegis]

Okay, now I have to be careful not to get you into trouble, here.

Do the recovery disks specify anything about motherboard or drivers?

I'm checking the E-machines website (or you can do this yourself).  It wants to know the series and model of your computer (which I assume is a desktop.)

[adamD]

Should I throw the disks in and check if they say anything about the motherboard or drivers

[Aegis]

Give that a try, Adam...see what's on the disks, if you can.

[adamD]

Ok without actually running the restore disks I normally went through them and on the first disk there is a file called drivers and there is similar stuff on the other disks. But to be honest I don't really know what I am looking for

[Aegis]

You done good.  Open that file called drivers and see if they have anything for Sound.  You may see something like AC97, which stands for Audio Codecs97. 

What you should be able to do is gp bacl into control panel under audio/sound, and in the Sounds and Audio Devices section, click the Hardware tab, click the Properties button, and then the Driver tab.

Under the Driver tab, you'll have an option to install or update the driver.  You should be able to use a Browse button to direct the system to look in that driver folder on that CD in the CD-ROM.

Let us know if this works, please.

Thanks,
Brian

[adamD]

Well under hardware there is a list of items that I can pick the properties for any specific one I'm looking for?

[Aegis]

Heck, I'm not sure -- what kinds of hardware are listed?

[adamD]

The list of devices given is as follows

HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8483B
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55N
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Media Audio Devices
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Video Codecs


Also when I was looking at the restore disks I couldn't find a file named AC97. O probably going to call the emachine support later on tonight

[Aegis]

Probably not a bad idea to call support, Adam.  I'm sorry I can't be more specific.  Maybe someone else will jump on here and help us out.

[adamD]

Yep I had to download the Audio Driver. I guess something screwed up when I did the restore. Thanks Guys

[Aegis]

No problem.  I hope I didn't lead you in too many circles before you found the answer!