"The power went out ..."
If you don't have your computer and everything that connects to it plugged into something that protects against damage from voltage surges and spikes, those things can damage the mboard and/or anything connected to the computer, including your sound chip.
In the case of power going out because of lightning striking the power grid somewhere, even if you were not aware of that, even such protection may not be enough to prevent damage.
You could try....
- OtheHill's suggestion - RIGHT click on the speaker icon in your task bar bottom right of your desktop screen - select Open Volume Control - turn up the main volume, make sure it is not muted. If you were trying to play a sound that has it's own control (e.g. Wave, Midi, CD ), make sure the volume for that is high enough and is not muted.
It is more likely there is somthing wrong with the data on the hard drive or the sound chipset is damaged than the speakers are damaged, but you can rule out the speakers. You could try ...
- plugging your amplified speakers into another computer or any jack in a device the plug will work in with to see if the speakers themselves still work.
- other amplified speakers.
Take a look in Device Manager.
(RIGHT click on My Computer - select Properties - Hardware tab - Device Manager tab).
Under Sound, video, and game controllers the sound device should be listed. Are there any yellow ?s or red Xs beside e.g. Creative something or SoundBlaster something?
If the computer was operating when the power went out, it is likely some data was damaged on the hard drive even if nothing was physically damaged. That may also explain your temporary iPod problem.
Run CHKDSK to repair possible data errors.
Start - Run - type: cmd (click OK)
type: chkdsk c: /f (click OK)
(a space between chkdsk and c: , and between c: and /f)
Several lines of text will display.
Answer Y (Yes) (press Enter)- chkdsk will run the next time the computer boots.
Close the window, reboot.
Let chkdsk run to completion.
Run System File Checker.
It will replace corrupted or missing system files if they are found on the Windows CD.
Insert your Windows CD in a CD drive.
Start - Run - type: sfc /scannow (click OK)
(a space between sfc and /scannow)
If that's not enough to cure the problem, try running an XP Repair Setup.
An XP Repair Setup will not harm your existing Windows installation, but it can only fix things Windows detects as wrong, and/or replace corrupted or missing Windows files that are on your original XP CD. If running it doesn't cure enough of your problems and/or the problems are caused by things not on the original Windows CD, you will probably have to make a clean install of Windows from scratch.
You will need a Windows CD of the same version as the one of your Windows installation, and the Product Key, preferably the one that was used to install it, but it can be one for the same version as the one of your Windows installation.
How to do an XP Repair Setup, step by step:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win...
If your Windows CD did not have SP1 or SP2 included, and you updated to SP1 or SP2, you may have to install that again to get SP1 or SP2 working properly again. SP1 or later is required for USB 2.0 and hard drives larger than 137gb (manufacturer's size; 128gb in Windows and most bioses)
