Sound Problems

[Trazza]

Hi all I am running xp home edition on a dell inspiron 1501laptop. Yesterday when i switched my laptop on there was no startup sound and i thought maybe it was in mute but when i checked it wasnt. I tried to play itunes but no sound, I then tried windows media player and again no sound so i put a disk in my diskdrive (mamamia dvd) and lo and behold my itunes started playing. I then switched the dvd off and the sound went again. I then put the dvd back in and minimised it (so it was playing in the background) and again my itunes and media player started working again. Rang dell and they flashed my bios(whatever that means) and everything went back to normal. Today I switch my laptop on and the same problem has happend again (no sound unless there is a disk playing in the drive) Rang dell again and they are now saying it is a software problem and I am not covered for software support. Can anyone please help as i dont want to have a disk permanantly playing as this would probably wear out my disk drive. Hope i have given enough information. Thanks in anticipation Trazza

[Tootech]

Hi Trazza,

 

Did you install any new software just before the problem started - so say an iTunes update, Windows updates or Service Packs etc ?

 

Have you tried a System Restore to an earlier time when you know it was working ? It's worth trying as a first solution.

[Trazza]

hi i have not updated anything to my knowledge and when i try to do a system restore it says RESTORATION INCOMPLETE your computer cannot be restored to 1/4/09 system checkpoint. could this be because dell did the bios flash thingy? by the way which forum is my message posted in please?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Trazza, I can't help with the system restore not working, but you may be right about the Dell BIOS flash perhaps, or may be a different problem.

 

Back to your sound problem, have you had a look in device management yet?

Click start, then run, and and type in "devmgmt.msc" without the quotation marks, then OK.

 

Once the window opens, then scroll down till you find "Sound,Video and Game controllers" Click the expansion x by the side, are there any yellow ! marks or red X?

 

If you double click on any item you will then get a small window telling you whether the device is working normally or not.

Try this for a start and we will see what we can find from there.

[Trazza]

Hi Plastic Nev have done as you suggested and it says that all my sound video and game controllers are working correctly :(

[Plastic Nev]

Hum, this is a puzzler. There may be something in the BIOS, considering it went OK after Dell did the flash, but I will leave it for someone else, maybe Dalo who will be here in the morning and knows a bit more about such things.

 

He will be better able to talk you through getting into the BIOS to check settings and what to look for.

[Trazza]

I have contacted dell again and am hoping that they will get back to me but I think I will be flogging a dead horse.

 

Is there anyone out there who has any idea whats going on?

 

Does anyone know if I was to reinstall windows xp if it would solve the problem or just makes things worse. I have all the disks that came with the system.

[BeeCeeBee]

The Problem with doing that Trazza is that you will lose all of your saved data with no guarantee that you will solve the problem. I would suggest that you explore all other possibilities first.

[Trazza]

I have an update.

 

After mulling (and searching google) for most of the day I decided to try a system restore in safe mode.

 

When it was complete and windows restarted lo and behold I got the sounds back on the computer. Everything is working fine (my itunes is working) so I have created a new restore point.

 

The only problem I can see happening now is :- If when tomorrow I switch on again and it doesnt work (hopefully though it will) will i be able to restore to an earlier time without having to go to safe mode. If not I have a seperate problem with my laptop and was hoping if anyone could tell me where would be the best place to post my question.

 

Im not trying to borrow trouble honest im not it just has the knack of following me around.

[BeeCeeBee]

At this point I would suggest that you continue on here unless and until it goes to far astray. Hopefully you will not need to try another restore overnight and, if you do, it may be symptomatic of a greater problem.

[Trazza]

Hi Bee Cee Bee thanks for your reply but what do you mean

 

it may be symptomatic of a greater problem.

 

You've got me worried now

[BeeCeeBee]

:) First thanks for the "thanks" that is often hard to come by.

 

My point is not to worry you. If all is well then, all is well. But if the problem persists and you cannot restore to an earlier point that you know exists. The we have to sort out why that is.

 

Right now you have used a restore point to resolve an issue and it seems to have worked. If that remains true this morning then why worry? If the problem has returns we can deal with it at that point.

[Trazza]

Hi guys (and Gals)

 

Started laptop this morning and sound is present. :D

 

Dont know about the system restore as I am to chicken to try. :o

 

Have seen on internet searches that the problem with system restore is probably a corrupt file within system restore and to sort this out I need to disable it then reboot pc and this will get rid of the problem but it will also get rid of the fix point that I created. If I then switch back on and the sounds are gone again I am basically up the creek without a paddle.

 

Can anyone advise please, or should I just leave well alone whilst everything seems to be working.

 

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks Trazza :)

[BeeCeeBee]

Would I leave well enough alone? Yes. That being said there is no reason why you cannot look at your restore points in normal mode. You do not have to do a system restore in order to look. Just go as far as the calendar see what points are available and then exit restore. (cancel)

 

If its there, great, if not we can look into why you are losing restore points.

[Trazza]

Hi again BeeCeeBee Thanks for your reply.

 

I have never lost the restore points (when I go into system restore they are all there even the one after dell flashed the bios) the problem is that when i choose one in normal mode and tried to restore it said restoration incomplete no changes have been made to your computer.

 

Is there any other way to see if system restore is working other than trying it

 

If not I am going to leave it for now and hope for the best

 

Thanks for all your advice it has been greatly recieved and appreciated

[BeeCeeBee]

It seems some organization is offering to connect to your OS and diagnose all broken and corrupted files and repair them in one

Not that I know of.

 

If not I am going to leave it for now and hope for the best

That is for the best and you know where we are if there is a problem.

[Trazza]

Hi I am really hoping that your last reply was meant for someone else because otherwise I dont understand what you are talking about.

[BeeCeeBee]

Is there any other way to see if system restore is working other than trying it

I don't know how that happened. :D But the above is what I was what I thought I was quoting when I said "not that I know of". Sorry my capacity to edit is limited.

[Trazza]

Thanks for replying so quickly BeeCeeBee.

 

Now i understand what you mean.

 

As for the quote thingy I havent been able to suss that out at all, when i want to post a quote all i can do is paste then copy it on to my board so you are doing much better than me.

 

As it says after my name I am pc Illiterate (and I think that is probably an insult to the average pc user)

 

Once again Thanks very much for your time.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Trazza, unfortunately I have been busy since I was last here, however, I am glad to see that a system restore in safe mode, seems to have done the trick for you and your sound is working correctly again.

 

As for system restore, as Beeceebe said the only way to see if it is working is to try it. For the moment though best to leave well enough alone for at least a week.

 

If everything is still OK after that time, I suggest a new start in system restore. To do this, go into system restore and turn it off. Then re-boot and turn it back on.

 

This will delete all previous restore points but will create one fresh new one. By deleting all previous points you get rid of any bad ones that you certainly don't want to restore back too.

Nev.

[BeeCeeBee]

when i want to post a quote all i can do is paste then copy it on to my board so you are doing much better than me.

 

A long story, Trazza, and not worth the telling. If you want to quote in the quote box just do what you had been doing and then outline it and click on the small quote icon to the right of the envelope icon above. When you post your reply it will be in a box.

[Goku]

Hello Trazza. I seem to have missed all the action. :D

 

Coming to your problem, which has already been resolved, I think it might have been a registry issue. From your description, I gather that you had lost all the system sounds which is a common problem. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to resolve it too, though I don't think you need it now. Let us know if the problem arises again and I will link you the fix.

 

In answer to your other query, yes older and corrupt restore points can be cleared without damaging your most recent restore point. Here are the instructions to do so:

• Click on Start.
  
• Select Run.
  
• Type cleanmgr in the Open: field and click OK.
  
• In the corresponding window, select C: and click OK.
  
• A new window will open up after displaying a temporary loading screen. Click on the More Options tab and press the Clean up... button under System Restore.
  
• A message will pop-up similar to the one attached.
  
• Answer Yes and all but your most recent System Restore point will be deleted.
  
• Repeat the procedure for the rest of your drives.
  

Please note that this will clear all your previous restore points except the most recent one.

 

Hope that helps. :)

 

-- Goku

Edited April 11, 2009 by Goku

[Trazza]

Thanks everyone for all your help. Laptop is now working fine and I managed to delete all but the latest system restore, hopefully getting rid of the problems I had stored there :)

[maynardvdm]

Good to hear that. If you have any other questions dont hesistate to ask. Try some free games in the "Games Arcade" :)