No mixer device

I have an old pc I built that my wife uses. Running Windows XP Professional. When I start it up or reboot I have sound but after about 5 min it quits working. When I click on the speaker on the task bar it says "There are no active mixer devices available. " When I look in device manager it shows no mixer/sound device but if I reboot its there again. Ive tried reloading the drivers and problem continues. The basic windows sounds are still there.

 

Go thru your startup menu and uncheck anything in there that isn't sound related; click Start > Run and type msconfig and press Enter. Click the StartUp tab and scroll thru it, disabling just about everything. You can re-enable stuff later if you need it. Click Apply, Click OK, Click Restart Now. After completely loading back to Windows, use the PC as usual and see if anything heppens to the sound. If it stays working, then you know something in that list is turning off the audio. So you can then go back to msconfig and re-enable items one-by-one (or just leave it alone if you like) until you find the offending program. If this doesn't work, we'll move to Plan B.

hopperdave2000

I was just thinkin'.... while in msconfig, maybe look at your Services tab for anything that may be interfering w/ the audio in there. I'm not sure exactly what to look for, but you'll probably know it when you see it.
Then again, it may be a faulty sound card....

 

Ok, sorry it took so long to get back, had to go out of town. I disabled everything when I ran msconfig. Sound still quit working. Changed out sound cards and sound still quits working. Seems like I remember reading something about a problem like this happening with XP but I cant remember where I saw it or what file name it was associated with. Any more ideas? Thanks.

 

Hmmmm.... I know that some devices likenetworks cards and modems have a Windows setting that's something like "allow Windows to shut off this device to save power". So, after a period of inactivity, the device is simply powered down. Maybe this is what's happeneing in your case, even though I don't think this power saving setting applies to sound cards. You said that you get the normal Windows sounds consistently, yes? But after about 5 minutes, any other sounds are no longer produced (like a game's sounds, or an audio CD), but the standard Windows sounds are still there; right? So if you were to play an audio CD, the sound just stops after 5min or so???? I need some clarification on this please I'm not as swift as I once I was; I've got a bad case of 'swiss cheese brain'....

hopperdave2000

 

Thats correct. If I reboot I can listen to sounds, music, etc. But after a while, sometimes 5 min, sometimes up to 20-30 min. the sound quits working. If I'm listening on myspace I can see the bars on the music player going up and down but no sound. If I try to play a cd it will not even start, and give me a message that there is a problem with my sound device. If I click on the speaker on the taskbar it tells me I dont have a mixing device. Checked the power settings, nothing abnormal there. Changed sound cards and loaded latest drivers yesterday still have same problem.

 

I am having EXACTLY the same problem, and it is driving me insane! I have done multiple virus scans, malware scans, etc. and I can't fix it. And nobody seems to know anything about it.

Also on my system, the moment when I lose my sound, my UI reverts to classic mode for a few seconds, then back to my normal zune theme. After that point, my sound is gone. Same thing: Windows sounds work, but nothing else.

Andy