Sound suddenly not working, please advice

[Dex203]

Hi, I'm having a strange problem with the sound on my PC and I'd greatly appreciate any of your advice. I realize the text might be a little too long for someone (I tried to be as thorough as possible) so I've written a short version of the problem as well.

 

 

Short version:

 

Ever since waking my computer up from hibernation yesterday, all my sounds are muted to about 5%. I'm using W7 64bit Home SP1 and my soundcard is Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1. It happens with both the speakers and the headphones (connected to either front or back, doesn't matter) so it definetely isn't either of them. I googled the problem and found several possible solutions, including a reinstall of the soundcard drivers and a PC restart with the unplugged speakers/headphones, none of which worked. The sound randomly came back three times for 1-2 hours but then just as randomly muted again. Two days ago I plugged a USB stick to the PC after which the sound muted to about 50-70%, after unplugging it it came back to 100%. So obviously I've plugged and unplugged the stick several times since then in hope that's the cause but without any result.

 

 

Long version:

 

Two days ago I've put my computer into hibernation just like any day, without any problems with the sound whatsoever. When I turned it on again yesterday I've found out that I'm not getting any sound from any source (meaning music, videos, games etc.).

 

I'm using W7 64bit Home SP1 and my soundcard is Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1. It happens with both the speakers and the headphones (connected to either front or back, doesn't matter) so it definetely isn't either of them.

 

Only when I boost the Windows sound up to about 100% and do the same with the speakers hardware controller I can hear the sound but it's still pretty low, and is of a very bad quality as it always is whenever I boost the Windows sound that high (I believe that is a usual thing to happen - makes sense that it's better to turn the volume up via hardware rather than software).

 

Two days ago I plugged a USB stick to the computer's front panel to do a Windows Backup (first time using USB stick) and it muted all sounds to about 50-70%. When I unplugged it it went back to 100% again. So although right now it's muted to much more, say 5%, I obviously tried plugging and unplugging the USB stick several times but it did nothing.

 

Also while going through the Windows Sound settings I've noticed the mute-while-placing-or-receiving-phone-calls options in the Communications tab. It was at 50 or 80%, so I changed it to 'Do nothing' in hope that it somehow mistaken the USB stick for a microphone or something and that it thought that it's still plugged in. Didn't help.

 

The strangest thing is that it suddenly started working again about 20 hours ago for about an hour but then, out of the blue, without any interaction from me, while watching a video, it went back to the mute state. This happened again (also while watching a video) about 12 hours ago, again for about an hour.

 

I've of course googled the problem and came up with several possible solutions from which I've all tried and came up unsuccessful:

- using AVG TuneUp to clean up the system

- scanning the system with an antivirus since I read somewhere it could be a virus

- reinstalling the soundcard's drivers

- unplugging the speakers/headphones and restarting the computer (either this or the drivers reinstall might've actually helped for a while, more about that in the following paragraph)

 

After the mentioned restart of the PC I thought it fixed it (that or the reinstall of the drivers which happened at the same time) and it was ok for about two hours but then again it muted. However this time it might have not been so randomly as I was playing a game (sounds like I do nothing else than watching videos and playing games lol but actually it was just my day off) and it muted right at the time when there were a lot more sounds (lots of voices and other sounds at the same time) than before.

 

I'm not sure if this is relevant but often (once or twice a day) before this problem occured, my sound would become really noisy (interestingly pretty much only during videos, very rarely while playing music or games) but I've found an easy fix for that by selecting a different default format under Sound/Speakers/Advanced. After that the sound would immediately become clean again so I didn't investigate the reason why it would do this.

 

Thank you for reading this and thank you for your help.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

This sounds like one for Nev ( if you will pardon the pun :) )

 

However, try a System Restore to a date just before your problem started.

 

You should be able to simply type "System Restore" in the search box after clicking on Start.

 

Your data / photos etc will be fine.

 

With a bit of luck Nev should chip in if this doesn't work for you.

[Dex203]

Hi, thank you for your advice.

 

I never had to use System Restore before but from what I've read, the restore points should automatically be created every week, however, I only have two of them, even when I check the 'show more restore points' checkbox. No idea why. :( They're both from the time just before the driver reinstalls (had to reinstall them twice because the first time I accidentally chose an incorrect speaker amount). Tried to restore the first one, but as one might expect, it didn't work. Is there any way how to, um, restore the missing restore points or weren't they simply for some reason created so there's probably no data?

Edited July 11, 2011 by Dex203

[KenB]

If the restore points don't exist we cannot select them.

 

Download MBAM > Install > Update and run it.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_pro

Click on "Products" and d/l the free version.

 

If it finds anything post the log here.

[Dex203]

Hi, sorry for the late response. MBAM found one registry trojan during a quick scan, a full scan later didn't come up with anything. Here's the log of the quick scan:

 

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.51.0.1200

www.malwarebytes.org

 

Database version: 7082

 

Windows 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1

Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421

 

12.7.2011 4:11:36

mbam-log-2011-07-12 (04-11-28).txt

 

Scan type: Quick scan

Objects scanned: 180863

Time elapsed: 2 minute(s), 20 second(s)

 

Memory Processes Infected: 0

Memory Modules Infected: 0

Registry Keys Infected: 0

Registry Values Infected: 1

Registry Data Items Infected: 0

Folders Infected: 0

Files Infected: 0

 

Memory Processes Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

Memory Modules Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Keys Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Values Infected:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\sysinfo (Trojan.Downloader) -> Value: sysinfo -> No action taken.

 

Registry Data Items Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

Folders Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

Files Infected:

(No malicious items detected)

 

The problem remains.

[Starbuck]

Thanks for 'heads up' Ken. http://fc07.deviantart.net/images3/i/2004/146/9/1/Two_thumbs_up.gif

 

Hi Dex203

 

There was definitely an infection on the system:

Trojan.Bedrill is a Trojan Horse which downloads spam, then emails it in batches from an infected system.

We should rule out any other infection as a possible cause of your problem.

If your system restore is turned on, OTL will make a new restore point.

If the settings are being blocked, we should also be to see this in the report.

 

• Download OTL to your desktop.
  right click on the link and select 'Save Link/Target As'.
   
  if you have problems, try this download link:
  OTL
  
• Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
  
• When the window appears, underneath Output at the top change it to Minimal Output.
  
• Check the boxes beside LOP Check and Purity Check

.

 

.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/new/Otllatest.png

Now copy the lines in bold below.
 
netsvcs
msconfig
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.*
%systemroot%\system32\Spool\prtprocs\w32x86\*.dll
%systemroot%\*. /mp /s
%systemroot%\system32\*.dll /lockedfiles
%systemroot%\Tasks\*.job /lockedfiles
%systemroot%\system32\drivers\*.sys /lockedfiles
%systemroot%\system32\*.exe /lockedfiles
%systemroot%\System32\config\*.sav
%PROGRAMFILES%\*
%USERPROFILE%\..|smtmp;true;true;true /FP
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
hklm\software\clients\startmenuinternet|command /rs
hklm\software\clients\startmenuinternet|command /64 /rs
CREATERESTOREPOINT
 
 

• right click in the Custom Scans/Fixes window (under the blue bar) and choose Paste.
   
  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/new%20forum/scan-fix.png
  .
  
• Click the Run Scan button.
   
  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/starbuck50/runscan.png
   
  
• Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
  
• When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
  
• Please copy (Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy) the contents of these files, one at a time, and post them with your next reply.

 

Thanks