I used to have my speakers plugged into my computer and play Youtube stuff out loud. Now, it doesn’t work. I thought that I may have blown the speakers, but I went to Control Panel and clicked on the sounds, etc… file, and my 'Sounds and Audio Device Properties" has a 'No Audio Device" notation on it.
What happened? It used to. I thought that if the sound card failed, it would note that, rather than say “no device.”
I tried changing the speaker plug, but, no result.
It is about 5 years old, a Compaq Evo, and runs XP.
Can you help?
I just came across this two days ago on an old Windows XP laptop I wanted to run. I haven’t allowed it to connect to the internet for close to a year, so it can’t be a recent change. No idea when it broke, though.
I had just assumed it was a hardware problem, but now not so much.
While waiting for my answer, I found that some cases can be fixed by a free upgrade. Forget the term. Upgrade? No, update! There it is! I AM smart!
Didn’t read too much, since I came back and found out what I needed.
I’m having this same problem on an old PC, sound just doesn’t work anymore. (Windows XP also).
My WAG is that it seems that a driver is missing or now outdated. I haven’t had much luck working the problem out so far so any updates to this thread are appreciated.
Look in the Device Manager to see it there are any errors associated with the audio device.
To open Device Manager in Windows XP, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
Look for Sound, Video and Game Controllers, and click on the little arrow to the left to expand the category. If any of the devices have a yellow exclamation mark, right click and select Update Driver Software. If prompted, allow Windows to access the internet to located the driver.
I can’t speak for the others, but when I do this, none of the devices have a yellow exclamation mark, or shows anything that seems to be wrong.
When I go to Settings -> Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, all the options on the Audio and Voice tabs are greyed out, with something like “No playback devices” or “no Recording Devices” showing in the (greyed out) Default Device dropdown. On the Volume tab, it says “No Audio Device”, and the device volume is greyed out.
Clicking on Properties, it says it’s working properly. Use this device is selected.
I tried disabling the device, got a red x in the device manager. I re-enabled it, and the red x went away, but it still doesn’t work:
“Error Opening Audio Device…
A device ID has been used that is out of range for your system.”
Try uninstalling it, then go to the Actions menu and select Scan For Hardware Changes. Windows will discover the device and attempt to install it again.
Did this, everything worked like you said, but everything is still greyed out and I get the same error. It said it installed properly and was ready for use.
I’ll give it a shot. Before I did the uninstall/reinstall, I tried the rollback button, and it said there wasn’t an earlier one, so the driver it has must have worked in the past. Maybe it has a built-in obsolescence date.
Uninstalled the old, installed the downloaded driver, did the restart it requested, nothing’s changed.
i thought about damage, but it’s weird that in the hardward tab it says the device is installed and working properly, while no audio device shows up in the other tabs.