"Audio Device not Detected"

Doesn't everybody LOVE that phrase? I know I sure do. I've been living with it for a year, and it's finally getting on my last nerve.

2. "My sound just stopped. Please help." essentially sums up my problem, but I'll get more specific for you. Recently had a virus, ended up wiping and reinstalling (by a "professional") everything was fine, but whenever I play a game, and maybe if I ALT-TAB or maybe if I don't... it seems to be finicky... but whenever I play a game and exit out, the audio device suddenly vanishes. It's happened once or twice in other ways, but it almost ALWAYS happens when I'm playing a game, whether it's in fullscreen or windowed mode or whatever. 90% chance to occur I'd say.

Rebooting the computer/restarting windows fixes the issue until it decides to occur again.


3. I believe I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 2 if memory serves correct. Just as a reference point, prior to the virus I had the same OS and Service Pack and everything worked fine in the audio department. Also, it's an onboard sound device. No clue what my MOBO is since it's a custom built machine I paid the above mentioned "professional" to put together for me. I would've taken it to this guy to get it fixed, but I really don't want to pay for it, and I didn't want to be PCless while I was waiting on him to fix this issue whether for free or otherwise.

4. I've already tried the following:

I downloaded some sort of "Windows Hotfix" thing that has to do with Realtek audio, installed it and I don't think it helped.

I've made sure things are enabled in my BIOS.

I've made sure that the UAA or whatever it is under the Services thing is set to Automatic.

I've also uninstalled Realtek drivers and then Reinstalled it with the absolutely latest version of the drivers.

Hopefully somebody out there can help. This is my first time ever asking for help on a forum, so hopefully I've followed all the rules and outlined my problem to the best of my ability.

 

:wave Welcome to MajorGeeks! :major

First, download and install your chipset drivers from this link. Restart the PC when it's done, then uninstall any sound drivers you currently have installed. Go to Add/Remove Programs (click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl and press Enter), find the sound/audio drivers and remove 'em, then restart again. Download and install the UAA driver (you said you did it before, but lets do it again for fun ) from this link. Then download and install your sound drivers from this link. Do NOT restart right away, even if prompted to. Click Start, click Run, and type services.msc and press Enter. Make sure the Windows Audio service is Enabled and set to Automatic. If it isn't, right click it, select Properties, and make the appropriate changes. Then restart the PC. That should do it! Let us know how it goes!

[dlb]

(BTW- for future reference, you have an Intel brand motherboard, model DG31PR)

 

I did everything as asked. Played some Fallout 3, did a bit of Alt-Tabbing, and unfortunately it says

"There are no active mixed devices available."

whenever I click on my sound icon in the taskbar, and the devices are all greyed out now.

I go under Sounds & Audio Devices and the device status says it's working fine. So... I disable my "Realtek High Definition Audio" and then re-enable it and the device status is listed as:

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

 

I'd edit my post but it won't let me.

Is it possible that I uninstalled the drivers wrong or I have to go some extra mile to fully remove whatever is causing the goof up? It seems like something is just conflicting/preventing the device to work after it's being used in a game, like something just triggers it as "in use" or something and the audio device just stops working all together.

I'm beginning to think buying an actual sound card would be easier than the whole year I've been trying to figure out this issue.

 

In my post above, I suggested that you try this:

Did you try this?

Does the sound stop after playing all games, or just certain games? Also, I don't see how Alt+Tab would affect the sound, so I think it may be just a coincidence that the sound has gone out occasionally when using Alt+Tab. If the problem occurs only after playing a certain game, check the developer's support page and see if it's a known issue. Most (if not all) games have patches and updates you can download that will fix certain issues. For example: last night I was playing Serious Sam 2 (yeah, it's old, but it's too freakin' fun!!) and at one point in the game, it would just lock up. It never did this when it was running on my previous setup (I recently upgraded my motherboard and CPU, and installed Win7 X64 instead of WinXP Pro). So I did some quick research and found that it was a known issue with multi-core processors. I downloaded and installed two separate patches, and now the game runs perfectly. If your problem happens with all games and after running other things too, then you might just buy a sound card. For most people, a basic PCI sound card is fine. Your local independent PC store should have one for under $30, and may even sell a used or "pulled" sound card for $5 or $10. Check out this link for a list of sound cards under $25 at Newegg. I have personally installed roughly 10 of these cards and never had any negative comments or problems. Just be sure to disable the on-board audio in the system BIOS before installing the new PCI sound card. Good luck! Let us know what you decide to do.

(if you decide to get a used sound card, don't forget to ask for drivers for your version of Windows)

 

I did try the "Automatic" thing with services.msc, and it was set to automatic. It appears to occur with "all" games and I use that term loosely as I've only really played Fallout 3 & Sims 3 on my PC, but I'd imagine it would occur with other games too. I think a sound card is my best bet simply because those seem to a heck of a lot less troublesome for most people, and onboard sound always seems to be a hit or miss nightmare from what I've read over the years.

I'll keep you guys apprised of what happens in the end.

 

Something I noticed while "crashing" out of Fallout 3 (the publisher is infamous for its crashes.) I saw that FFDShow Audio was running in the background. So I was thinking to myself "Hey, I wonder if that's messing with my audio devices and/or conflicting with something." Is there any "safe" way to test that out? Is there a way to disable/uninstall it with relative ease? I'm going to try running a movie clip (while using ffdshow) on loop all night and see if that effects the audio or not.

 

Just a fun update. I bought the sound card and it's on the way in the mail. I got fed up with the onboard sound not working.

So... conspiracy theory time... the following are the games that have caused my Audio Device to just quit working and my suspicions as to what the problem may be.

AudioSurf loads .mp3 files and it caused problems.

Sims 3 loads some sort of seperate audio file for it's Radio & TV Stations.

Fallout 3 loads audio files for it's Radio stations.

Perhaps it has something to do with these types of files and/or whatever process is involved with loading/reading these files?

I also tried uninstalling Windows Media Player 11 in a strange attempt to fix things. No such luck.

I have a feeling a Windows Update of some sort caused a conflict somewhere with something, as I never had this problem when Sims 3 came out, we played it for a month or two with no issues, then it suddenly started happening all the time.

 

<expletives> my audio devices STILL disappear, even when using an actual sound card and NOT on board audio.

It didn't solve anything! :[

It also makes my USB mic stop working. Like... ALL audio devices cease functioning!!!!

 

FINAL UPDATE:

Okay. I went to get it repaired, and believe this crap or not, NOBODY guessed this anywhere...

MY VIDEO CARD DRIVERS WERE CAUSING THE ISSUE!

Yeah, the video was messing with my audio. I GUESS it makes sense since it only happened in 3D related games as opposed to 2D games. But like... damn... it just seems so ridiculously stupid now that I paid somebody 80 dollars to update my Video Drivers, haha.

 

I suspected that when the guy was talking to me and said it was doing fine after he updated the video drivers and fixed something in my registry that prevented me from installing SP3. I was just like "Are you serious? That's it?" I instantly thought "Maybe because he doesn't have all my accessories plugged into the USB he's not having the audio issues." But, I have everything plugged in at home and it's not causing any issues. So... I'm not sure. :-/