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.