No sound from PC

northern_munky

When I tried to play music on my PC earlier there was nothing coming from the speakers. I opened the control panel and looked in sounds and audio devices and the default device should be "soundblaster PCI 128" as this is the soundcard I am using but it has disappeared and been replaced with BLUETOOTH AV/HS AUDIO. I have tried plugging the speakers into straight into the motherboard speaker socket but still nothing. Any ideas please?

marleyboy

It sounds like youve lost the drivers for the sound card, I dont understand the bluetooth thing, but it sounds as if it has replaced the soundcard, or has conflicted with it. Go to driverguide.com and try reinstalling the drivers for your soundcard, you could always try and add the soundblaster card in add new hardware, to see if it re-finds it.

Conor_3

Installing the drivers won't work. You need to go into Control Panel, Sound, Playback Devices and select the Soundblaster as the default.

northern_munky

Thanks for the replies. Conor, I tried what you mentioned but Soundblaster has disappeared from the list altogether and has been replaced with the Bluetooth AV/HS audio.

I have just looked under device manager under system properties and 'other devices' has a yellow question mark next to it, when I expand it and look under 'multimedia audio controller' it says there are no drivers installed (code 28) and it says 'this device isn't using any resources because it has a problem'. Does this mean the sound card is knackered? Would it be replaced by the Bluetooth thing automatically if it was broken? How do I test a broken sound card?

PS I am having trouble getting a new downloaded driver to install.

Conor_3

Right click on the Multimedia Audio Controller and select Enable. It should then go off and download drivers from Windows Update if it can't find any on the HDD.

If that doesn't work right click on the Multimedia Audio Controller and select Uninstall. Let it do it's thing, selecting "Remove Drivers" if prompted. Once it's finished, still in Device Manager, select "Action" at the top, then "Scan for hardware changes." If Scan for hardware changes isn't shown, reboot the Pc. It should redetect the Soundblaster and prompt for drivers. Let it browse the computer and it should find them or download from Windows Update.

It would have automatically switched to the next available soundcard, the BT thing in your case.

The final option is to do a system restore to a point when you can last remember it working OK. That's found under, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. When it starts, select "restore my computer to an earlier point" and select a date in bold from the calendar when you know it was working.

johnmc

See if the card is there in Device Manager.

Delete ALL sound cards shown.

Plug your speakers in and restart your PC. It will find the card and reinstal the drivers.

northern_munky

Thanks for the replies, problem is now sorted. I ended up taking the side of the PC off and the sound card had popped out of it's slot. I pushed it back in, reloaded the drivers and I have sound again.

Still got the big yellow ? and ! in device manager under the multimedia audio controller though but at least I have sound.