I bought a new tower a little over a year ago, and have never had sound on it. Other than not being able to enjoy all those delightful YouTube videos people send me, this has not been a problem, since I’m the type who leaves the sound off most of the time anyway.
Right now, though, I need to be able to turn on the sound for a job I’m doing, and so I’m finally going to do something about it. I figured hey, maybe they just didn’t put in a sound card when I bought the new tower (though why the hell it wouldn’t have a sound card without my specifically asking for one beats me), so I just bought anexternal adapter, which I figured would be good enough for my immediate needs.
I have tried two pairs of speakers and earphones with the adapter, nothing works. The speakers do work, because I was getting “boing” noises from one (incoming email, I think?).
This is a Compaq with Windows Vista, and yes, I checked, it’s not on mute.
Check in Device Manager whether you have got a sound card (frankly, it is unlikely that you don’t, but it might be misconfigured or need new drivers or something).
To find Device Manager, right click My Computer, select Properties, and click Device Manager at the top left (at least, that is how it is in Windows 7 - Vista is probably similar). Look in Device Manager for something like “Sound, Video and Game Controllers.”
You might also go to Control Panel -> Sound, and see what is set up there.
I am not sure what that “external adapter” thing is meant to do, but if you have a sound card there should be an earphone/speaker socket at the back of your tower somewhere. Normally they take a mini stereo jack plug, and are often marked in green. To actually hear any sound, you have to plug some speakers or earphones into that.
I am sorry if I am being too obvious, but from your post it is very hard to make out quite what is wrong, and how much you understand, or don’t understand.
Until someone who knows what they’re talking about comes along, try going to Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices.
I’m hoping you now have a dialog with several tabs, one of which is “audio.” Click that and see what (if anything) is set as the “sound playback” device. Does it match what you have? If not, try changing it.
Next click on the (same tab) “Volume” button. This brings up the Volume Control “mixer.” Click on “options” then “properties” and select the radio button for “playback.” Check all the boxes in the box below that then click “ok.”
Now, on the mixer see if particular channels are muted, or have their volume sliders down.
After trying this, say bad things about me while you wait for a real answer.
That’s all I’ve got.
ETA: Simulpost with njtt but I’ll leave mine in as an adjunct to his data.
you may not have a discrete sound card that mounts perpendicular to the mother board but have a sound card function on the motherboard and the output jacks will be clustered with all the other jacks to plug things into.
green is the common color for a headphone jack. speakers may not work in that jack unless amplified.
Device Manager/control panel/sound tells me I’ve got Realtek High Definition audio installed.
Control Panel/hardware and sound [don’t have “sounds and audio devices”]/manage audio devices/playback shows speakers with green check.
Adjust system volume: unmuted, sound at 100%.
I’ve got speakers hooked up at the back (this is the setup that’s not been working for the last year). The speakers have a USB type jack plus a headphone type jack, green. The latter is plugged into the green hole, the USB jack is plugged into one of the USB thingies at the back. (I have the old set also, which use headphone type jack only, also not working.)
And I’m not getting any sound out of the speakers, which are turned on and at maximum volume.
Can you post the model of your motherboard, or the computer itself? There are free software available that will tell you hardware information, such as CPU-Z.
Its unlikely that a recent retail computer would not have at least on-board sound. Have you checked the back for audio out jacks? It’s possible that you do have on-board sound and there’s some sort of conflict with your adapter.
OK, double click on that in Device Manager and the properties dialog should show up. Does i t say “This device is working properly,” under Device status on the General tab? Whether it does or not, you can go to the Driver tab and click “update driver” (if you are lucky, it will automatically download and install a new driver file from the internet, or if you have original disks it may want to get it from them, which may be more complicated).
By the way, before doing any of that, I would advise removing the USB external adapter that you bought, and uninstalling any software, including drivers, that came with it. They may be conflicting with your own sound card drivers.
Also, I am not sure why your speakers would have a USB connection. Mine don’t, they just plug into the green socket (and into the power - I suppose it is possible that they being powered over USB, but that seems weird to me).
Surely they have not been doing that for the past year? What set off this “ding dong” behavior?
Incidentally, how are you testing whether sound is working or not? The ding-dongs (if they are really coming from the speakers) show it clearly is working at some level. Are you testing with something like an mp3 file or a video?
Shouldn’t you be using either the USB connection to your computer OR the green hole with a cable to the speaker card in your computer? In other words, not both. Or if the green port on the speaker is just for a headphone, then be sure to unplug it or you won’t get any sound from the speaker. Other than that, it’s either faulty equipment or a bad device driver.
I downloaded an update for the software – but no, that didn’t work.
I unplugged the USB type jack but that apparently powers these speakers.
I’m testing with YouTube videos.
The ding-dongs were not functioning previously because I turned the speakers off since I wasn’t using them. They are being set off by updates of various sorts – a trillian update it wants me to install, incoming emails, etc.
I unplugged the portable thing when I rehooked up the speakers – there was no software download involved.
I downloaded an update for the software – but no, that didn’t work.
I unplugged the USB type jack but that apparently powers these speakers.
I’m testing with YouTube videos.
The ding-dongs were not functioning previously because I turned the speakers off since I wasn’t using them. They are being set off by updates of various sorts – a trillian update it wants me to install, incoming emails, etc.
I unplugged the portable thing when I rehooked up the speakers – there was no software download involved.
The “ding-dongs,” which are probably Windows system sounds of some sort, suggest to me that your sound system actually is working properly. Perhaps your real problem is with YouTube videos, probably with Flash player. Can you find some other sound file to test with, that will play in Windows Media Player, such as a .mp3 file or .wma file? (Just double clicking on files with those extensions should start Media Player.) Probably some sample sound files came with your computer, if you don’t have any of your own.
Whoa. iTunes and Windows Media Player both work – and running the widget I need to check that got me started on this (which I’m fairly sure is a Flash, but whatever) is running as well.
YouTube doesn’t work, but I have a proven ability to live without YouTube.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Many, many thanks to all of you who are doing such an amazing job of talking a technoboob through this remotely.
Okay, I updated Flash – yes, it was a very old version – but YouTube still doesn’t work. Looking at the settings isn’t doing me any good because I don’t know what I’m looking at.