Sound Issues

[BloodPark]

Hi all! I just wondered if anyone could help me?

 

My Advent laptop, with Vista has been running fine since I bought it a few weeks ago but yesterday as I logged on, I noticed I had a cross through the speaker icon in the bottom corner. Clicking on it, it told me I had no sound card installed. Previously, it had worked fine.

 

I just left it for a bit, hoping perhaps that it would fix itself... and lo and behold, when I logged on this morning, the initial Windows screen made its "Welcome" noise and there wasn't a cross through the speaker. But then whenever I tried to run a program/play music, nothing would come through. As I'm looking at it now, it has a cross through it again.

 

I was wondering if anyone knew what to do? I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I've recently installed Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (yay!) on the laptop and the program has shut down a few times. If it is anything to do with RT3, does anyone know if I can sort the problem without uninstalling the program?

 

I know I've gone on a bit, and I apologise sincerely. I just wanted to give you as much information as possible because I quite honestly have no idea what to do.

 

Thanks!

 

Leanne

x

[RandyL]

Hi;

What's the model number of the Advent? This might be a driver issue.

[BloodPark]

Hello! Thank you for replying. It's an Advent 5303. I didn't install the sound card myself, it just came with the laptop. I'm afraid my computer skills are somewhat limited and I greatly appreciate your help :D

[RandyL]

Right click Computer and click Properties. Click on Device Manager. Click the + next to Sound to expand the tree. Is there any question marks there? What kind of audio device is listed?

[BloodPark]

The device listed is Realtek High Definition Audio. I've clicked on it and it says it's working properly.

 

The overall problem status has changed though. I've just had to shut down the computer to install updates and when I logged back on the cross had disappeared again. So I tried to play a music file (Jilted John - Gordon is a moron... yay! Meaningless information is awesome) and it did play, but the quality of it was AWFUL. And by that I mean there was a lot of noise and fuzziness. Previously, all of the sound played has been fine.

 

Ha ha... it just gets more confusing! Sorry if you'd previously worked out a solution. The whole sound device just seems to have been screwed up. It's also become difficult to change the volume without the system slowing down.

Edited August 30, 2008 by BloodPark

[RandyL]

Try updating the drivers.

[BloodPark]

This popped up when I followed the instructions through your link:

 

"No Driver was supported in this driver package"

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Did you download the zip file Blood?

[Goku]

Sorry to jump in but do you have ffdshow installed? It is known to cause conflicts with Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and many such games.

 

-- Goku

[BloodPark]

Did you download the zip file Blood?

 

Yes, I both saved the download and opened it to see if I got different results. Both gave me the same message.

 

Randomly, could plugging in headphones have damaged the sound at all?

 

It's kind of annoying me now. If I get no joy out of this tonight, I might have to go down to PC World tomorrow and get them to have a look at it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Lea

 

Once you unzipped/extracted the file did you click the .exe file to install it?

 

By the way I hope you have a fat purse if you decide to take it to PC World Lea.

[Dalo Harkin]

Have you looked in the control panel and then the device manager and seen if there are any yellow exclamations next to the sound devices.

It's better that you have Vista - try doing an updates update - start - all programs - windows update -

there should be some updates in there under 'optional' updates.

Download them and then restart, let us know how you get on.

 

and as Wolfey says DO NOT TAKE it to PC WORLD as they will charge you a fortune!

[RandyL]

Goku could be onto something if certain codecs or codec packs are installed. See his #9 post. (malware codecs are a possibility too)

 

I think the device manager shows all is ok Dave. See post #4 and #5. Of course we have seen that showing ok many times and a driver update resolves the issue.

 

Using the Windows Update feature in Vista is a good idea to check for driver updates as Dave has pointed out. I would try his advice.

 

As Wolfeymole stated you need to save the zip file to a location and use the Windows Extract function to unzip it. You can double click the file to open it and see the exe file and click on it but you can not install via that method.

 

You need to right click the zip file after you save it and choose extract all. Then go to the extracted folder and run the exe file from there. You can not Open a zip file directly from a download link. You need to save it, extract it then run the exe from the extracted folder.

 

All good points everyone.

[Dalo Harkin]

I think that getting the disks that came with your laptop out and then uninstalling the drivers for the sound and then rebooting and then insert the CD that came with the laptop and then telling windows to search the D drive for the files may be worth a shot.

[RandyL]

An excellent point Daylo. It may be worth a shot.

 

Blood do you have the CD's? Are you familiar with or have you ever installed drivers by this method?

 

Dave, which option do you think best to try first? Running an exe is easier then reinstalling the drivers from a search or CD if that's an option but of course that would ensure the original drivers are correct.

 

Let us know please Blood so we can finalize the best options for you.

[Dalo Harkin]

Running an exe is easier but there are so many things that need to be right - I would try the Vista update method first and then I would try the CD Method - they then will at least work.

[BloodPark]

Everyone - thank you so very much for your time spent trying to help me fix my laptop. I did, however, take it back and attempt to get it fixed. The tech guys at PC World tried to swap the hard-drive to another, same-make computer, to find that computer had pixels missing, so I've had to get a new laptop altogether and manually restore all of my files, which is going to take days... but at least I have my sound back.

 

My dad paid for it, so I don't know how much it cost. Nor would they tell us what was wrong with the sound anyway, so I can't even give you that. Really, everyone, thanks ever so much for trying to help me though- I really do appreciate it and would bring you cookies. I know where to come if I ever have an issue with this new laptop!

[Dalo Harkin]

Thanks for letting us know - sounds like a combination of things to be honest if the pixels went too then the MOBO probably fried :(

[BloodPark]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a MOBO? :D Once more, I am shown to be uneducated in the wonderful world of computers.

 

Do you have any advice as to making sure this doesn't happen again? And am I going to be okay installing RCT3 on this laptop, as I did with the last one? I realise the last question is a little... odd... but to be honest, I'd rather not play it if it means things are more likely to break again.

[Goku]

Excuse my ignorance' date=' but what's a MOBO? :D[/quote']

A MOBO is an acronym for Mother Board. :)

 

By the way, glad you got it sorted. Feel free to ask any more questions or doubts you may have.

 

-- Goku

[Dalo Harkin]

Excuse my ignorance, but what's a MOBO? :D Once more, I am shown to be uneducated in the wonderful world of computers.

 

Do you have any advice as to making sure this doesn't happen again? And am I going to be okay installing RCT3 on this laptop, as I did with the last one? I realise the last question is a little... odd... but to be honest, I'd rather not play it if it means things are more likely to break again.

 

RCT3 is reknowned for problems - from last time I looked there are lots of patches available and there are LOTS of 'issues' with it on the web, If you have a new laptop WORST case scenario would be that you use the Recovery partition or recovery disks, BUT I must stress that I doubt the game was what was causing the problems it sounds like the computer was on its way out anyway and that its just a coincidence that it popped when you installed RCT3

Hope this helps :)

[BloodPark]

Thank you ever so much, to everyone! You're all ridiculously nice and know what you're talking about. I feel confident that if I have another issue, it's likely you can help me out. That's awesome! Thank you. :)