sound?

clearingout

Quick question - I have an old PC (approx 8 years). Haven't had any sound for a while - have had a few PC-savvy friends look at it and we seem to be in agreement that it's a PC fault rather than small child pushed a button fault! I am assuming I need a 'sound card'. Can anyone give me a rough estimate of what it would cost to replace? I have a Packard Bell. I did a quick look on ebay (not the best place, I know!) and they seem to vary from about £2 to £200 so just trying to work out which end of the scale I need to be at before I go to my local PC repair shop and ask so he doesn't see me coming a mile off (as I suspect he did a few weeks ago!). Many thanks!

clearingout

I'm in the North West if that helps as to price? I assume it's cheaper to get things fixed here than in the south (I have recently moved from the home counties - life is most definately cheaper here!). thanks!

paddyrg

On an 8-yr-old PC, it isn't going to be worth much over £2 to get sound on it. You can buy USB sound cards from a few quid, and they don't require you to go into a repairer, you just plug them into a USB port, plug in your speakers, and away you go.

closed

are the soundcard drivers installed in device manager?

is anything muted?

are the speakers working and plugged into the correct port?

Hammyman

A few quid for a cheap PCI soundcard. You can fit it yourself.

clearingout

closed wrote: »

are the soundcard drivers installed in device manager?

is anything muted?

are the speakers working and plugged into the correct port?

nothing muted. everything installed as far as my (very) inexpert eye can tell. No speakers - but never did have speakers when it worked - I assume that sound came through the monitor as it has what looks like a speaker part at the bottom of it! Can someone give me a link as to what I'm looking at? could it be that the soundcard isn't the problem but the monitor is?!

thanks!

pcombo

clearingout wrote: »

nothing muted. everything installed as far as my (very) inexpert eye can tell. No speakers - but never did have speakers when it worked - I assume that sound came through the monitor as it has what looks like a speaker part at the bottom of it! Can someone give me a link as to what I'm looking at? could it be that the soundcard isn't the problem but the monitor is?!

thanks!

Go to a garage, Buy a gerri can, Fill it up go home pour it over the pc and get a match.... Job Done.

Hope this helps.

clearingout

NO. It doesn't help. As a single parent on very limited income, the loss of a PC which is working fine in every other way will hit me hard. As it stands, I am trying to set up skype so the children can speak with their father on a more regular basis which is why I need the sound to work. You may find such comments amusing but they only serve to upset and distress at a time when I am trying to put the children first. Many thanks.

boogiemaster

As long as the volume is turned up on your monitor you should get sound from your computer.

Try plugging in some headphones and see if any sound comes out?

If no sound comes out then uninstall the audio drivers and reinstall them and then check if you have sound?

You can also take a look in the bios to see if audio has been disabled as sometimes it can happen.

Then do the usual checks of making sure all volume levels are up and nothing us muted.

If everything turns out ok then it could be the motherboard audio gone then you need to go to a PC shop and pick up the cheapest sound card and install it.

Install audio card then install drivers and hopefully you have sound.

closed

when you look in device manager, are there any red crosses, or yellow question marks, does it say the sound card is working properly, which sound card is it? When did it stop working, did it coincide with a windows re-installation or a pc move?

The monitor still has to plugged into the correct socket - try headphones as above, and/or plug the monitor into something with a stereo out jack that sound comes out of.

Im_just_careful

It is slightly unusual to have a monitor with built in speakers, often they are seperate.

Try the headphones in the socket on the PC where the monitor sound connection plugs in.

The monitor will have a thick wire and a multi pin plug which does the picture and a thin wire which does the sound.

Assuming the thin wire is properly plugged in to start with then un plug it and try some walkman type headphones in the same socket.

Make sure all sound controls are turned up.

If it really is a sound card problem then I would go to a small local PC repair shop and see if they have a cheap, possibly second hand, sound card to put in and make it work.

Also try a walkman or similar on the sound plug for the monitor.

If you do that do you hear anything on the monitor.

This process should at least point out where the problem is.