Hey, I'm new here, first post and all.

What's happened is my computer won't play any sound; it just suddenly stopped yesterday night, and was working compltely fine before. There's not reason for it to have stopped, and I don't download any dubious stuff and anything I do download gets checked by my MacAfee anti-virus.

It's NOT the sound being muted, and it's not me accidentally turning the sound to zero; I've tried turning it up, watching videos on youtube, no sound, twiddling with the volume a bit, trying again, and alas, no change. i tried Windows Media Player, which plays no sound, and through my headphones for both sound from the internet and sound from WMP; both produced nothing on both the computer's normal speakers and the headphones. (I know the headphones AND the computer's inbuilt speakers both work because I tried the 'StickyKeys' thing where you press shift 5 times and it makes a noise and it made a noise, and my headphones work fine with my iPod so it's something with the computer).

Could anyone give me some advice on how to fix this? My computer is made by Acer, and it's a Windows XP; I'm not a very computer-y person so I don't know any technical stuff so could you explain everything relatively simply? Thanks a lot!

~Kyta

[eugene2k]

Try to reinstall the driver for your sound card.

1. What do you mean by the 'sound card'?

2. How do I reinstall the driver for it?

Sorry for sucking but I really don't know much about computers =\ if you guide me to the stuff I can do it but I don't know where to find it XD

[eugene2k]

1. To play sound a PC needs a sound card. Just like to show graphics a PC needs a graphics card. This will enlighten you a bit more, if you're interested: http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm

2. A driver is a special program that allows the operating system to communicate with the hardware. Thus if the driver is corrupted or missing the operating system (Windows in your case) cannot communicate with the sound card. As for how to install it...

Before you try reinstalling the drivers, do the following: click Start, right click on My Computer, choose Properties, click on the Hardware tab and click on the Device Manager button there. The Device Manager window should open and there probably are some entries in the list which have a question mark as their icon or an exclamation sign as part of their icon. See anything like that?

Nope, no icons with exclamation marks or question marks on any of the devices shown. I found what soundcard I use though I think, could it be Realtek AC'97 Audio?

Woot! My msn notifying-new-message thing is audible! Going onto Youtube now to test...

Yes, it works! I'll come back here if it starts acting up again, and thank you very much for the advice that you gave me because even though I didn't do anything when I just looked through that stuff on my computer the sound started working again XD Thank you very much =)

[eugene2k]

No problem

P.S. Yes Realtek Ac97 is the soundcard

[notohypocrisy]

I have an Acer Aspire T671 desktop (1GB RAM) with Vista Home Premium. I had the SAME PROBLEM. After many crashes (PC used to freeze, about once a week), it once crashed so badly that it would not even get reset. That's when the sound completely disappeared too. Acer asked to pull mains-plug out and press Start button for 5 seconds then put mains-plug back in. This reset the PC but there was no sound.
I had to send the PC back to Acer servicing centre to cure the sound problem (although they tried to persuade me to re-format my disk to cure the problem).
By the way, Acer re-formatted my disk and sent me the PC back the same day. The sound was there but so was the headache for re-installing all my software again (many days of work).

The PC still crashes about once a week - but the sound is there (so far, anyway). I have tried to get a credit note from Acer so that I can buy another model but they have refused. The PC is still under warranty. Any advices??

[eugene2k]

How does it crash? That is when you say it crashes what do you mean by that?

[notohypocrisy]

The crashes now are almost always such that the PC simply doesn't boot-up - the monitor screen keeps in its sleep mode although I can hear the PC-fan running. Other than that, only once recently, I witnessed a total freeze during during normal work.

[eugene2k]

Seems like your problem might be with the motherboard and not software related.

[notohypocrisy]

Yes, it seems either the motherboard or possibly a weak PSU. I have hardly got any freeware or shareware on my PC - a virus seems unlikely. Let us see what their Service Engineers say this time.
Thanks for your help anyway.

[GJCBORO]

a reply to eugene 2k and then post made on 09-Oct-2008, 06:48 PM

i have no sound on my computer and have followed your instructions upto the device manager part.

i have come across the question mark on "multimedia audio controller"... Now what do i do?

[eugene2k]

You need to install the drivers for your sound card. You'll probably find them on the CDs that came with your computer.

[manatrode]

First, what kind of headphone do you have or speakers. Have you checked if there plugged in? If so, try plugging it in another usb port. If that doesnt help i suggest you reformat your speakers. If nothing works, i would suggest calling the company that made the speakers.

[eugene2k]

If that doesnt help i suggest you reformat your speakers.

reformat the speakers???