rickolous

no i dont think it did Im not actually sure what version i had, but, the install dialog poped up, then it disappeared so quick that i presumed it had been happy weith my version that it hadnt changed anything. I will try that too.

Thats what i thought. tend to be pretty bulletproof these days dont they. Its motherboard-based Thats what i originally thought, seeing as it happened after the Civ4 install which also did a directx install. Ive been meaning for several months now on doing a clean build, and setting up regular partition backups. 'Meaning to' is a bit ineffective when the gremlins get there first isnt it. I think i'll find time for it now I'll do some more driver fiddling and then if that doesnt work, try doing a clean build and cross my fingers....will report back. Thanks in advance for all your comments and help everyone

Nope, SPDIF is off... I tried two restore points, both from when i know the sound was working. No luck I guess that means the OS is discounted, the speakers are discounted, so it must be the hardware on the motherboard, either the jacks or the sound chip? Which means buying a new soundcard i suppose. If you agree that this is the hardware, is this a sign the rest of my motherboards going to melt soon too?

yes i do have system restore enabled, its pulled me back from a sticky wicket a few times in the past. I was only going to try it if all else fails as ive only ever used it in an emergency in the past and im never quite sure what i'll loose by going backwards. is it basicly a registry backup? And if i create a restore point for now, then go back to a previous restore point, would todays restore point be accessible to come back to if things are the same?

Yeah, theres a 'Windows Audio Service' which is listed as running automatically. So that bit looks ok too...

Yeah i saw the bios idea mentioned elsewhere, and checked mine. I have the options 'auto' and 'disabled', its set to auto at the mo. As far as i can tell, i have C-Media chip and c-media drivers. This is where i got the ones im using now: http://uk.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Suppor...(Rev%201.x).htm the only difference between these drivers and the ones i was using yesterday is the slightly newer version number and the fact the 'digital i/o' settings are accessible now, where they wernt previously. is this lack of sound something civ4 could have done?

Hi guys, Usually, being a well-worn PC-fiddler, i can figure this sort of thing out using the type of actions in your troubleshooting guide but this one has me stumped. Basiclly, I have no sound from my PC. As if ive muted the master volume (which i havnt). theres no error messages, etc, but no sound either. Im on a gigabyte motherboard 8I915P-G, with a C-Media 9880 chip on board, with Creative Labds 5.1 speakers plugged into them. XP Home with all the updates applied. Last night i installed Civ4, collected the update from the website, installed that. started the tutorial. Up to this point the sound worked. I closed the tutorial, left PC on and wandered off to do something else. a few hours later, came back to PC, tried to listen to a streamed mp3 and found there was no sound when the embedded media player looked like it was playing the music. Figured it was probably an error with the website, turned PC off and didnt think about it again. came back this morning and still the same,no sound. this time i tried doing other stuff and discover its systemwide silence. I dont have sounds enabled on many things so i wont have noticed precisly when it happened, but i think its a fair assumption this happened between closing Civ4 and trying to listen to that streamed mp3. Actions ive taken... First, i assumed the cables had come out somewhere, so checked them. all fine. even unplugged them all and back in again, and the cmedia software detected my actions and assigned the speakers correctly when i plugged them back in. Still no sound. Next, tried another set of (simpler cheapo desktop type) speakrs. no go there either. and last time i tried them they worked. I can also hear the power pop on the creatives when i unplug/plug in cables so they are getting power. so ive discounted the speakers being the problem Uninstalled Civ4... virus/malware/spyware checked. next i did some googling and searching like i usually do. among other things, i found this post from here: http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t63275.html so followed the actions there. Downloaded the drivers from c-media drivers, uninstalled and installed new drivers. no go. Did same with drivers from gigabyte website, along with the UUA microsoft drivers. no go... googled and googled, still not found any thing similar to this. So now im stuck wondering where the problem is. Everything i do, across the various drivers ive tried (now have the newest versions installed), they install without a hitch and as far as windows concerned there isnt a problem. No crashes, error messages, lockup, ziltch. but still no sound... Pondered weather the chip itself had been damaged somehow, but i assume that would cause lockups/crashes. Then thought maybe the plugs themselves are loosing it, but the software detects me plugging the speakers into the plugs, so i take that as a sign that they work too. im confused!!! any pointers/ideas would be much appreciated...