The sounds of silence - or how to restore computer audio

Factual Questions
1

I was happily listening to radio stations on the Internet - that is, until I made the mistake of downloading RealPlayer so that I’d have it for those stations that are not compatible with Windows Media Player. The RealPlayer worked the first time I tried it - then subsequent attempts to use it or Windows Media Player have been unsuccessful.

The station audio seems to load and start playing, but I can’t hear anything. The RealPlayer and Windows Media Player are not muted. My volume control is not muted. There’s just no sound.

Any ideas?

2

[ul]
[li]Is it possible that your speakers came unplugged around the same time that this sound problem occurred, and you simply haven’t noticed yet?[/li][li]Are you sure that there isn’t a hanging program that hasn’t told the rest of the computer that it’s okay to use the sound card? Sometimes if Winamp acts goofy on me and I close it improperly, it doesn’t release the sound card until I go into the Task Manager and end the process.[/li][/ul]
That’s all I can really think of for right now; hopefully one of the above will solve your problem and/or other people will come along with more comprehensive solutions.

3

With two or more multimedia devices, each one wants to be the big duck in the little puddle and sieze control of the audio if at all possible.

Check out all of the volume controls, mixers, et. and be sure that the mute box is UNchecked.

4

I hate real player. Be sure not to have it running at the same time as WMP, as conflicts could arrise and cause something to lock up as stated above.

I assume you’ve already rebooted? Sadly, that seems to be Universal Step #1 with Windows troubleshooting.