No sound on PC - help required please

tigs78

I recently purchased a second hand computer, my brother set it up for me and it works perfectly apart from the fact that I have no sound (yes, I do have speakers!!).

I bought the computer from e-bay and on the listing it said that it had an “AC 97” sound card.

When I attempt to play something on Windows Media player or a normal music CD I get an error message saying “Windows media player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program or it might not be functioning properly”

I know very little about computers but I found my way to the devices section on the control panel. Under “sound, video and game controllers” the following devices are present and all say they are functioning properly – Audio codecs, Legacy audio drivers, Legacy video capture devices, Media control devices, Unimodem Half-duplex audio device and Video Codecs

Under “Other devices” there is a “Multimedia audio controller. Device type: Unknown, Manufacturer: unknown, Location PC1 bus 0, device 2, function 7. The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28).To reinstall the drivers for this device, click Reinstall Driver.” When I clicked the 're-install driver' tab it says that the software couldn't be found.

If anybody has any suggestions as to how to fix this I'd be really grateful.

Thanks in advance

Mr_Skint_2

AC 97 Is your sound card driver, and its saying that the driver is missing or needs to be reinstalled if you go to https://www.driverguide.com and sign up (its free) you can search the databases and get the required file for free, I would say its made by the sis corporation.

Try to find if the file is missing or just not working, try this,

Right click my computer Icon, Properties, Hardware Tab, Device Manager
if there are any yellow exclamation marks in there in means the driver should be reinstalled, so visit driverguide.

For older windows operating systems http://www.computerhope.com/win95er.htm

Whats your operating system? XP?

JimArnold

yes it does sound like the soundcard driver has not been installed nad Mr Skints advice is solid.
Apart from the small chance that you have a driver or motherboard cd already ? di you get any strange cds: other than that what is the motherboard ?

Mr_Skint_2

As above is correct also, but I dont know what OS, And yes the driver could certainly be on the "restore CD" or the "Application and Support CD", and all you would need to do then is insert the CD with the PC on and when it starts up just stop the CD i.e just close it down so you are back to your desktop.

Then do

Right click my computer Icon, Properties, Hardware Tab, Device Manager
if there are any yellow exclamation marks in there in means the driver should be reinstalled.

And you will have the option to reinstall the driver from that screen in device manager if you have a look at mulfuntioning device just right click it then choose the properties tab, then click it and then choose reinstall driver.
And the driver should be found automatically upon the restore CD and should install all by themselves.

Right im off to bed. (probably)

A picture below for thee.

Not working



Now Working

tigs78

Calling Mr Skint!!

Thanks for your help, I've managed to download the driver from the website that you recommended. I saved it in My Documents and Settings, the Hardware Update Wizard gives you the option to search for the best driver in a specific location so I entered the location where the file is saved and it came up with this message " Cannot install this hardware. The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software. Click back if you have the CD rom or if you know the location of the software." When I click back it just goes through the same steps above. If it makes a difference I use Windows XP.

(P.S I don't have any of the CD's, when it arrived I was very excited and ripped all the packaging off and threw it away. I didn't realise that that the jiffy bag taped to the side of the parcel with my name and address on had all the CD's inside. My brother found this out to his cost when he tried to install it for me!!)

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance

Mr_Skint_2

Ok Now a way around tis is to double click the downloaded program, if its zipped you will have to unzip it first

tigs78

I think it is zipped, how would I go about unzipping it?

Mr_Skint_2

Double click the zipped file and XP should unzip it, XP will ask you where you want to save it so remember where you put the file, My Docs is best, or download winzip from https://www.winzip.com

tigs78

Inside the file which is named a12112b there are lots of yellow folders, one of which is named XP so I am guessing that is the one which I need. There are also seventeen other files with various names. I double clicked on the yellow XP folder and inside there are 5 icons 'A3D.DLL' 5.0.0.6080 SiS A3D driver, 'sis7012.cat' Security catalog 46Kb, 'SIS7012.INF' setup information 97kb, 'SIS7012.sys' systemfile 261kb and 'Uninst2K.exe' Uninst2K MFC application Silicon Integrated Systems Corp

Maybe my files aren't zipped as when I double clicked it it didn't ask me where I wanted to save it. Apologies for being so dense but I really don't know very much about computers!

Again, any ideas gratefully received.

Thanks

Mr_Skint_2

A zipped folder will have a little Zip running down it in XP and winzip is like a G clamp.

Go back and choose to reinstall driver as previous and choose the file from a specific loacation in other words Browse for it, or choose, Start, Run, Browse, now navigate to the file and click open.

The file you should be opening is a .exe file (executionable) if you hover your mouse over the file it should pop up as a .exe file.


Or double click SiS A3D driver

tigs78

I tried re-installing and entered the specific location which is C:\Documents and Settings\Helen\My Documents\a12112b\WinXP. I don't think it is zipped as it just looks like a normal yellow folder. I just get the same error message as before.

I had a look on the driver website you recommended and it says...

An important step before installing:
Visit the control panel to see if that device is already listed with a yellow exclamation mark or a red cross. If it is, then you have to delete that listing before attempting any new installation. This is especially true of soundcards and modems which also tended to show up under the wrong category (usually "other devices").

Should I delete it as suggested, if I do then how can I attempt to install a driver on something which isn't listed as being there anymore??

Thanks