No Audio Output Device Is Installed problem

Hi,

I've actually already had this issue before, but for some reason, it has come back again. It's been happening for the last week now; usually restarting the computer would get the sound back, but it's gotten to the point now where I have no sound at all and it constantly says 'No Audio Output Device is Installed' over the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I've tried installing a Realtek Driver since I couldn't update my current audio driver since I don't have one at all apparently, but that didn't work. It's an unusual issue in which sometimes the sound does work when switching on the PC, but like I said, the sound won't seem to work at all now and hasn't been for the past 2 days.

It should be noted that I had to do a system restore months ago so I lost the newer audio driver that I installed and it won't let me install it again for some reason (it says it isn't compatible with my version of Vista).

I will probably take my computer to a repair place since I think this might be an issue with the audio card, but I would like to see if I can get this fixed myself before I do that.

I've attached two files from speccy, the first being what my computer currently states now that I have no audio and the second one being what my computer used to say when I had the audio.

 

According to asus, you do not have a realtek card, it is an SoundMAX AD1988A card as shown here. Is this what yours looks like? The jacks for the sound are not on the I/O plate but on a separate card.

When you go into services, is Windows Audio started and set to Automatic?

The driver for your card is here. Use the drop down box for your OS. It should be Version 6.10.01.6110.

 

I'm actually not sure what the audio card looks like since I haven't opened up my computer and I'm currently unable to do that any time soon since I don't have any screwdrivers.

Yeah, I checked that and it's set to automatic.

I downloaded the driver you asked me to and tried to install it via the setup, but it said 'The audio driver files do not support your computer hardware. Note:If you uninstalled audio software without restarting your PC, restart now, then run this setup again.' (Restarting the computer did nothing)
I don't know if I'm doing something wrong (please excuse me, still a bit of a computer idiot), but I definitely downloaded the correct driver (double checked) so I know that's not the issue.

 

You do not have to take the computer apart. Look at the back. Do the sound jacks look like this?

http://www.asus.com/websites/global/products/vBZLIBtPzYB2bLcb/P5N32-E_SLI_Back.jpg

Are there any yellow exclamation marks in Device Manager?

 

Yes, they look exactly like that, the only different being is that the last picture is horizontal on my computer rather than vertical.

I had a look in device manager and no, there aren't any.

 

I am not sure what is going on as the speccy report shows your motherboard as a P5N32-E SLI which shows a vertical sound card.

Open Device Manager and select System Devices. Is there a listing for

Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator ?

 

Yes, there's a Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator there.

 

I am not sure what is going on with the audio hardware. Your chipset is Nvidia nForce 680i.

According to this link. http://techreport.com/articles.x/12104

It gives the audio as 8-channel HD audio via nForce 680i and Realtek ALC885 codec so maybe this is what you have as you state the jacks are horizontal and not vertical.

Is this computer an OEM like HP or is it custom built?

 

I am pretty sure the computer is OEM, but tbh, I'm not 100% sure. I brought the computer from PC World 3 years ago and I wouldn't think they have custom built computers...?

 

Is there any sticker on the case showing make and model?

 

Only one I can find is a somewhat dusty one that says:
Commodore
Model: DSG G9555

 

I could not find much on this computer but I will keep looking.

Go to Sound in Control Panel and right click the window and select Show disabled devices and also show hidden devices. Does your sound card show. If so, right click and select enable. The link shows the recording tab. You will be selecting the Playback tab.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/143447-audio-device-enable-hidden-devices.html

 

I tried doing that, but it doesn't show anything, just 'no audio devices are installed'.

Thanks for your help so far by the way.

 

Try installing the audio manually.

In Device Manager at the very top of the tree list is Computer or something other name to that effect. Click it and in the action menu select Add Legacy Hardware.

Then select Next
Then "choose to install the driver manually" (advanced)
click on sounds,video, and game controllers then Next
Look for something like either Soundmax or Realtek for the manufacturer in the list. Is Realtek or Soundmax listed there and what models are shown on the right?

 

did you try going in to your system info to see if the drivers are there.

 

Here's a thought, that I don't know if you've tried yet:

The P5N32-E SLI motherboard has an on-board sound chip, made by SoundMax, that's integrated into the motherboard. If you have a separate sound card installed after the fact, you need to go into BIOS and disable the onboard sound chip before the motherboard allows use of the after-market sound card. Even if you don't, I definitely suggest going into BIOS and look to make sure the onboard sound chip is enabled there.

If it is enabled ,but Windows can't see it, go the ASUS P5N32-E SLI download page, select your OS in the drop-down and get the latest audio driver there. Download the file, and double-click to run it manually.

 

Drivers for your board can be found here.....

http://support.asus.com/download.as... SLI&p=1&s=22&os=24&hashedid=vBZLIBtPzYB2bLcb

 

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I was rather pleasantly surprised to see that the sound has magically come back again when I switched on my PC, but like before, this is probably only a temporary thing (sound does come back for no apparent reason sometimes).

I've now tried to update the 'High Definition Audio Device' now that it's showing in device manager, but it said it's already up to date, apparently.

In reply to tgell, I couldn't find SoundMAX on the list, but I found Realtek which is: Realtek High Definition Audio Device Version: 6.0.1.6299 [30/08/2011]
I haven't installed it though since I've installed it before and it didn't seem to have any effect on the audio, plus it apparently didn't work properly (got a 'code 10' error code) so I uninstalled it.

In reply to snipermike, I had a look and yes, the audio seems to be there (comes under High Definition Audio Device), though since my audio is working at the moment, I'm not sure if that would change when the audio dies again (it's bound to). I'll have another look when my audio isn't working again.

In reply to Mimsy, still being very much a novice to computers, I don't really know how to go into BIOs to be honest, but I'll google it.

Thanks to iain.t for the link.

 

Nice to know you got your sound back and thanks for the feedback. I was just wondering if you could go to Device Manager and right click the HD audio device. Click the driver tab and post back the Vendor and Device ID. I would be curious to know what hardware this is.

http://www.askdrtech.com/solutions/image.axd?picture=2010%2F3%2Fhardware-id-02.jpg

 

On ASUS motherboards, you hit Delete to get into BIOS. Make sure to hit the key before the POST message star scrolling, to make sure you don't miss the short window.

 

I was thinking also,with this being a reccuring issue, that this may be a malware issue also?? as certain types of malware can affect audio in this way, it will not harm if you have your system checked here.... http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35 .... by running through "Read and Run me First".... http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 .... try to all of the scans and follow any instructions that are given by the malware experts, to get a clean system.

 

In response to tgell, here is what I got from the driver: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_11D4&DEV_198B&SUBSYS_104381F2&REV_1003

In reply to Mimsy, thanks for letting me know.

In reply to iain.t, alright, I'll give that a try, thanks for the links.

 

According to PCIdatabase you do have a ADI soundmax card

0x198B
Chip Number: AD1988B
Chip Description: SoundMAX AD1988B 8channel CODEC

The driver I referenced in post #2 should have worked. Obviously as iain.t suggested, there is more going on than just a driver problem as you say it is a reoccurring issue. If you Google "Vista + Audio Device not detected" you will notice that it is a common problem with Vista.

 

Well, I downloaded the 'Malwarebytes Anti-Malware' from the forum/board iain.t referred me to. I have so far only done a quick scan since I don't have enough time to do a full scan at the moment (it would likely take over 2 hours with my computer); it did detect two viruses which I of course removed, but I don't think they were in relation to my audio driver since one of them was in my downloads folder and the other in my 'App' folder I believe.
I'll do a full scan either later or tomorrow and see what if it picks up anything else.

It's a pity Vista tends to get a lot of issues, I've had several other problems with this computer before such as the CD Drive not working, but thankfully, I managed to get them fixed and they haven't reoccurred.

 

I did a full scan on my computer today, it was a lot quicker than I expected it to be (about an hour and a half). All I got though was just one virus that was apparently in some 'app' file, similar to the one I got yesterday. I made the option for 'view hidden' files so I am pretty sure everything was scanned.

Not too sure what to do now, though my audio is still working again today which is the third day in a row, so HOPEFULLY it might be fine now, but I'm still sceptical.

Anyway, I know I've already done it before, but I just want to say thanks to everyone who spared their time to help me on this issue.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Now that your sound is good you might want create a system image using a program like Macrium or Todo Backup. Just make sure the Recovery CD that the program lets you create can see all of your hard drives.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll check out those programs as soon as I have enough time.

 

Hi, did you submit "ALL" of the required scan logs in the malware forum so that a malware guru could look through them ?? if not then I strongly advise for you to take the time to do so, malware can hide itself very cleverly on your system, this is why we ask that you follow "ALL" of the instructions for removal in the Read then Run me that is set out for your OS (vista), it can be time consuming to do BUT worth it to get a COMFIRMED clean system.

 

No, not yet, but I'll do that in a couple of minutes. I really do hate to make excuses, but I've been busy and haven't had a lot of hours of free time on the computer, which is the one of the main reasons why I haven't done everything listed in the instructions.

I should probably note that my suspicions of the audio dying again was indeed correct since my audio has once again died when I switched on my PC earlier, though restarting the computer twice managed to bring the audio back.

 

I got a phone call yesterday and had to leave without warning so I didn't have time to check out the malware forum like I thought I would.

Anyway, it may seem like a stupid question, but do I need to create a new thread to submit the logs? And the logs I need to submit are the logs found in the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware I'm guessing? I am pretty sure I completely read through the thread you gave me in the link, but I may be overlooking something.

I also just want to say that I managed to install the SoundMAX driver today. Since my audio was working, I decided to try and install SoundMAX again since the only times I tried to install it before was when the audio was dead. I am really hoping that solves the issue for good now, but only time will tell I suppose.

 

Yes, create a new thread in the Malware Removal Forum if you have not done so. Look at the sticky post and it explains what to do first and how you attach your logs. Along with the Malwarebytes log, there a a couple of other logs that need to be attached as explained in the sticky.