Name: Curtis Date: June 23, 2003 at 13:40:23 Pacific Subject: Total loss of sound- - - ->long OS: Windows ME CPU/Ram: Pentium III / 256 Megs of
Comment:
As of yesterday evening I have lost all sound from my computer. No audio from CD's, Mp3's, Games, Windows Startup/Exit, Etc. Whenever a sound should be audible (such as when playing an audio track)I recieve no error messages at all, It simply continues to supposedly play, yet there is no sound emanating from my speakers. I'm not sure how relavant to the problem it is, but this problem first began yesterday after I had installed the demo of Wipeout XL for the PC. When the demo first started It gave several options for sound, such as Mono, Dolby Surround, and another. I selected Dolby Surround, and while I was playing (unrelated or not) experienced some problems with the ingame music going out. When I exited the demo however, I soon noticed that the sound for all programs, music, etc. was gone. I have sinced unistalled the demo, on the off chance that it would help. I have checked all that I could think of: speakers are on/plugged in, sound drivers are as they were before the problem (all up to date), Volume is not muted, System/Device Manager/ Sound Video and Game Controllers-everything is reported as working fine, and nothing hardware or software related (aside from the demo that is) has been changed/installed/removed since before the problem. I suspect the demo was somehow involved since it was the ONLY thing on my computer with working sound once the problem started. I havent been able to detect any viruses, I did a system restore to a full month before the problem but to no avail. So, short of doing a full factory restore/complete wipe (would that even help?) I am completely at a loss as to what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My specs are: Compaq Presario 5000 series (5127SR to be exact, I believe) Pentium III 1Ghtz 256 RAM Windows ME Sound device is the default ESS Allegro If there's anything else relavant, let me know and I'll post it.
The head set connected to the modem can prevent sound coming from the speakers connected to the sound card.It is one or the other, not both at the same time.If you have those..connected.Good luck.
I had a similar problem with Win ME. But my speaker icons will not appear on the System Tray > i could not hear the sound at all even after reinstalling the drivers and moving the sound card toanother PCI slot. Finally I tried editing the System.ini file. This was coorrupted. After replacing the file with old version of the file from the back up folder the problem was solved.
Re 1: I'm not using a headset at the moment so I can pretty safely rule that outas the cause.
Re 2: Thanks for trying to help, but as the post says, I have already tried/done all of those.
Re 3: About the system.ini file.. while going through the windows sound troubleshooter it had me check to see if these two lines are in the system.ini file- midi=mmsystem.dll wave=mmsystem.dll (which they are in there) Is this what youre talking about when you say corrupted, otherwise, what do you mean buy corrupted/how can I tell if it is? Also, where what "back up folder" did you get the old version of it from?
After you have tried troubleshooting this problem from the sofware/drivers , and checked all of your connections throughly. Then its maybe time to look at the possiblty of a hardware failure ,via your sound card ! A new sound card is very affordable It still seems that the uninstalling of that software may have removed a Windows/System file needed for your sound to work ? However I would think a system restore, would correct that ? Good Luck Nick
Run DirectX diagnostics, (Start|Run|dxdiag|Music tab) and test the ports, hear anything, any messages?
In Control Panel|Sounds & Multimedia, check out Properties of the installed components - Any messages like "Driver is enabled but inactive owing to an unknown problem"?
