Sound and Audio has no playback devices

This problem has come up before in many different ways, and I'm hoping that I'm not repeating something that's been out there..

I have lost all sound devices in Windows XP Home. I have a Soundmax device, and it shows up as Working Properly in both Device Manager, and in the Hardware Manager of the Sounds and Audio Devices section of Control Panel.

I have lost sound in XP, like I said, for everything from Windows sounds, to audio from Winamp, or streaming from a webpage. However, if I log into Dungeons and Dragons Online, I am able to converse with friends with my mic, and hear their voices. I cannot hear sounds in the game other than that. The playback device in the game is Soundmax Audio, and the recording device is Soundmax.

In Windows, though, I have NO PLAYBACK DEVICES and everything is greyed out in that section of Control Panel.

I can also open up the Soundmax Wizard, and play the test sounds. The white noise comes in clear as day, and it can do the panning effect from left to right, no problem. The speakers are working.

I have an Asus A8S-X board with an Athlon 64 XP Dual Core 3800+. I have the software from the website for that board and I removed everything from the system with add / remove programs, and used Drive Cleaner Pro to insure that everything was removed. I rebooted, and ignored the request for new hardware, so that I could reinstall the drivers with the ones directly from the website. I installed, rebooted, still no sound, everything in Sounds and Audio greyed out.

I've done Dial-a-Fix to see if there was any problems, it found some errors but it went through it's thing and afterward I rebooted, and still no audio.

I've gone into Services, and made 100% sure that Windows Audio is started and running at each and every step, and it always is.

I'm starting to think that this onboard audio chip has simply failed, and I wonder what people think about this, or if there's anything I should try that I haven't?

 

Delete sound devices from device manager intall and run (ad-aware) and (spybot search and destroy) then reboot and intall drivers.

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

 

I very much doubt this is a Malware problem trooper.

I had a similar problem while setting up my current rig, the thing is, i cant remember how i fixed it!!

I doubt also that any hardware has failed.

Let me think, hmmmmmmm it might have been something in Device manager, try
-Start
- Type in device manager

And look for any Yellow ! marks.

Also try this,

Go to control panel,

Click sounds, and then the playback tab (i hope its the same in XP, i cant remember!) Right click the speakers you have (hopefully they are there) and click test, then if nothing happens, click configure, and configure to your likings.

 

Just had a light bulb moment!

I think it could have been that the Sample rate was too high.

But maybe not, just a thought, cant do any harm in lowering it and trying.

I'll have a play about and see if i can make the sound not work, and try fix it again.

:-D:-D

 

There are no yellow exclamation points, or red marks in my Device Manager, and I cannot get into Sounds and the playback tab, because it is greyed out, as I said.

As I also stated, I can open Soundmax in the control panel and do the "test sound" patterns, so the speakers are not the problem.

 

In Device Manager are there any entries listed under "sound, video and game controllers"?

 

In my device manager I have the following:

Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Controllers
Legacy Video Capture Device
Media Control Devices
SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
USB Audio Device (My headset, when it's plugged in)
Video Codecs

...and they all appear to be working.

 

Okay, and now recently, I'm seeing Microsoft Kernel Audio Splitter with a yellow exclamation, and Microsoft Kernel Acoustic Echo Canceler, also with a yellow exclamation... don't know where they came from...

any ideas?