No sound - no apparent reason...:-s

[rickolous]

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...

Edited February 9, 2006 by rickolous

[OtherworldBob]

The only time I've had this problem is after Windows Update thought it knew best.

It didn't. It decided I needed to update my sound driver to C-Media.

The problem there being I don't have C-media sound card, I have Realtek AC'97. A reinstall of the proper drivers = problem sorted.

Since you've tried drivers, have you checked your BIOS settings?

Making sure on-board sound is enabled (presuming yours is built into your motherboard)

I don't see how it would have changed itself, but just an idea for you.

[rickolous]

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?

Edited February 9, 2006 by rickolous

[pawan]

Making sure on-board sound is enabled (presuming yours is built into your motherboard)

I don't see how it would have changed itself, but just an idea for you.

Also make sure that the windows sound service is running, as it can be disabled by a single registry change.

Pawan

[rickolous]

Yeah, theres a 'Windows Audio Service' which is listed as running automatically.

So that bit looks ok too...

[pawan]

Yeah, theres a 'Windows Audio Service' which is listed as running automatically.

So that bit looks ok too...

Now its time to format the system

Pawan

[TheFlash428]

Don't know if you have it running...but have you tried to do a system restore?

If you are able to restore your computer to a time prior to the loss of sound, and the sound comes back, then you will be able to pinpoint at least wether or not the problem is due to hardware or software issues.

(Many dismiss System Restore as a feature that should automatically be disabled, and I understand that argument, but if you do have it on, it can be a great way troubleshoot issues like this. Even if I'm not using system restore, I will usually turn it on a create some restore points before making any major changes to my PC.)

Edited February 9, 2006 by TheFlash428

[rickolous]

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?

[nmX.Memnoch]

Check the Advanced Properties in Volume Control. Make sure that "Digital Output Only" isn't checked...unless of course you have speakers that can use/are using the SPDIF connection.

[TheFlash428]

You can always reverse a system restore, and it won't remove any recent files you saved (as far as I know). It is basically a registry/system file restore, so loss of recent files isn't really a factor--like I said, I use it as a safety net whenever I install new applications, but I don't usually keep it on, so any time I have used it I wasn't really going back that far...

Edited February 10, 2006 by TheFlash428

[rickolous]

Check the Advanced Properties in Volume Control. Make sure that "Digital Output Only" isn't checked...unless of course you have speakers that can use/are using the SPDIF connection.

Nope, SPDIF is off...

You can always reverse a system restore, and it won't remove any recent files you saved (as far as I know). It is basically a registry/system file restore, so loss of recent files isn't really a factor--like I said, I use it as a safety net whenever I install new applications, but I don't usually keep it on, so any time I have used it I wasn't really going back that far...

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?

Edited February 10, 2006 by rickolous

[Grunth0s]

Doubt that it is hardware, is actually quite difficult to break a sound card without physically attacking it with something.

Have you another machine that you can test this card in?

It almost looks like a driver issue, or an application which has modified one of your driver files.

I would lay odds on a clean build of your machine restoring your sound.

[rickolous]

Doubt that it is hardware, is actually quite difficult to break a sound card without physically attacking it with something.

Thats what i thought. tend to be pretty bulletproof these days dont they.

Have you another machine that you can test this card in?

Its motherboard-based

It almost looks like a driver issue, or an application which has modified one of your driver files.

Thats what i originally thought, seeing as it happened after the Civ4 install which also did a directx install.

I would lay odds on a clean build of your machine restoring your sound.

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

[Grunth0s]

Did it need to actually do the DirectX install? I have seen plenty of times where DX installs that aren't needed have wrecked some other piece of software. In fact, my son had a similar problem a couple of days ago with a Star Trek game he was installing.

In the end he found a patch for it, which fixed his problem.

One last thing to suggest before you go for the full rebuild, perhaps you could re-install the latest DX version (think the redistributables are linked to somewhere on this board), and then install the latest motherboard drivers you can get, and see if this resolves the problems.

[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.