Problems with sound

Baldie

All my windows XP sounds don't seem to be working. You know the ones, the start up and shut down sounds etc etc. When I go into control panel, sounds and audio devices, and try and fix them, the little play button to preview the sound at the bottom of the sounds tab is shaded out so that I cannot press it. My iTunes works perfectly. Also I cannot hear anything on you tube. I've searched the internet and microsoft.com looking for a solution, but I have found nothing. And I cannot view DVD's in windows media player, but I can hear them.

Baldie

Can anybody help? Is there any patch or something that i can download to fix it?

ethernet

Make sure Windows sounds have actually been enabled. Open Sound in the Control Panel. There's an option for scheme there AFAIK. Choose Windows Default then OK.

Double click the yellow speaker in the taskbar and drag up the sliders [make sure nothing is muted].

Baldie

I still haven't fixed this problem. Im am now thinking of reinstalling windows xp and if I do this then I will loose everything on my PC, and I don't want to do that!

Baldie

Is there any computer techies in here at all that can help?

Please, please, please, please....

Kimbot

Did you update your sound drivers?
When it was working what did you change that might have anything to do with the sound?

Baldie

jonny24ie wrote:

Did you update your sound drivers?
When it was working what did you change that might have anything to do with the sound?

I've reinstalled the sound software from the cd that I received with the motherboard, and updated the drivers. Im at my wits end now at this stage. I know it's the simplest thing but it gets annoying after a while!

Kimbot

Did you try a "Repair" install of XP?? As far as I am aware it will keep all your files intact and update any broken links within the windows files.

Baldie

jonny24ie wrote:

Did you try a "Repair" install of XP?? As far as I am aware it will keep all your files intact and update any broken links within the windows files.

I tried to do the repair function with my windows xp cd, but there is no repair function on the cd.... ???

Kimbot

Are you booting from the CD??
Is it a genuine Windows CD with the hologram look?

Baldie

It's a genuine windows cd alright. It doesn't have the hologram though. I got it one one of those packages with just a small booklet with it. I didn't boot from the cd. I inserted the cd into the drive and let it autoplay.

Kimbot

Ah..... its a restore disc from a branded PC like Dell.

It will only give you a repair option when you Boot from CD, when you power on your PC and the first splash screen is after passing you are given 2 settings, 1 is for "Setup" the other is Boot Options so hit that button and boot from CD!!

Baldie

I tried this last night, and I ended up installing a second operating system. I checked the sound on this operating system and when I went to play to play the sound in the control panel, i got a message saying that that the sound card was being used.

The first thing I did when I came across the problem was reinstall the sound card, and update the drivers.

Another thing, sometimes when I try and install updates or play videos (as I noticed last night) I get the message: "blah blah" is not a vaild win32 application, or something similar to that. I can't rememeber the exact wording right now.

Would this be causing the original problem?

Kimbot

I would advise a full clean install of windows!!

Put the disk in and boot up the PC and make sure you format the entire Drive when you are intalling Windows onto it again!!

Baldie

Won't that mean I'll loose everything? I have over 5000 songs, a few home videos and a few hundred photos that I'd like to keep...

Kimbot

Yeah. Unless you save everything onto DVD's first then do a clean install!!

Baldie

I have my 160GB hard drive partitioned, the C drive is 20GB (approx) and the rest is the Z drive which I use for all my media (photos, movies, games etc).

If I do a clean install on the C drive will the Z drive by affected. If not, then I could move anything "valuable" to the Z drive and do the install without running the risk of loosing everything. ???

Mountjoy Mugger

You can move whatever you like to the Z partition, but if you move programs or applications (including games), they won't work again, unless you reinstall. Music files videos, etc,. should be fine.

Kimbot

Baldie wrote:

I have my 160GB hard drive partitioned, the C drive is 20GB (approx) and the rest is the Z drive which I use for all my media (photos, movies, games etc).

If I do a clean install on the C drive will the Z drive by affected. If not, then I could move anything "valuable" to the Z drive and do the install without running the risk of loosing everything. ???

As Mounjoy Mugger said above if its only photos and videos and stuff like that on Z then they will run fine but if you have games installed on Z then you will have to reinstall them!! Let us know how you get on.

Baldie

Grand job. Im just tin the middle of backing up a few bits and pieces (just in case). I have to dig out my Windows XP code now..

I'll let you know how I get on.

Kimbot

Cool. Your XP code should be on the sticker on the case.

Baldie

Ok Iv'e tried doing a clean install of windows xp and I've ended up with two operating systems on my c drive. How do I go about clearing my c drive altogether?

Mountjoy Mugger

Format C:\

Baldie

Mountjoy Mugger wrote:

Format C:\

In DOS mode i presume?

Mr Mojo

Baldie wrote:

In DOS mode i presume?

Have a read of THIS link, I think it'll answer most, if not all your questions.

Good luck man!

Standard Toaster

Jesus....your formatting/re-installing because of no sound? :eek:

Sure, the windows audio service might have been turned off for all you know...30sec fix.


Are you still going ahead with the format or are you willing to give this another go?

Baldie

The_Edge wrote:

Jesus....your formatting/re-installing because of no sound? :eek:

Sure, the windows audio service might have been turned off for all you know...30sec fix.


Are you still going ahead with the format or are you willing to give this another go?

If you have another suggestion, go ahead. I've tried everything, as you can see from this thread.

Mr Mojo

It seems to me you've wasted far too much time on this issue already. I'd recommend either getting a mate round who knows his stuff, paying for a computer support person or do a clean install if you have the patience.

Again....., good luck man!

Baldie

Mr Mojo wrote:

It seems to me you've wasted far too much time on this issue already. I'd recommend either getting a mate round who knows his stuff, paying for a computer support person or do a clean install if you have the patience.

Again....., good luck man!

I think I'll be doing the clean install again. I know what I did wrong now. That link is very helpfull!!! Cheers!

Mr Mojo

No worries