unknown sound problem on laptop

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by MichaelH, Aug 23, 2007.

  1. MichaelH

    MichaelH Private E-2

    firstly Hi, haven't posted here for years, but remembered you guys were great when I had some problem or other before, so....you better be useful this time or the rose-tinted specs are shattered:D

    OK - have been having a problem with my laptop for a while. It's a mid-range WinXP Packard Bell (could be more specific if needed, but I'm no techie so will have to go check!) and the sound keeps disappearing. Have been noticing it for a while, try to play an mp3 in Media Player and get the message "Media Player cannot play this file because there is a problem with your sound device" - try to play a vid or movie through WMP or Creative and it just plays with no sound. Annoying. To start with it was easy - when it happened I'd run a system restore, reboot and the sound would magically be on again. To start with it could be weeks until it happened again, I could live with that.

    But lately it's got to the stage where I run a restore, sound comes back, then when I switch it on next time, it's gone again. I've got a SoundMAX system that was in-built, and when it's not working, there's no obvious sign of it - the volume control is still accessable, have looked at the device manager and it says it's working properly. So far I've:

    -fiddled with the volume control
    -trawled through the trouble-shooter with no end result
    -CONSTANTLY fiddled with the SoundMAX/sound properties to try and make it work, muted/unmuted, etc.

    The only way I can get the sound back on is by system restoring, but now that only works very briefly.

    It's quite a new machine and hasn't had that much use, so I'm scratching my head here. Any help would be great, so thanks in advance guys!
     
  2. studiot

    studiot MajorGeek

    Hi Mike, welcome back.

    Although it has been cured by sytem restore it sounds very like a hardware problem in the volume control/speakers and wiring thereto. The PB front mounted thumbwheel vol control is a right pain. It might be a faulty capacitor in the circuitry which is temporarily discharged when the pc restarts during your restore.

    On the software side what is shown in device manager, against the audio devices both when it works and after it stops working?
     

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