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My sound doesn't work on my computer

dmharris

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We had an electrical storm and wonder if that's the cause. What should I check? When I pull the plug out of the CPU there is a sound as the metal tip touches metal. But my speakers won't play.
 

dmharris

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Gosh, no one has any ideas?! I updated the driver for the sound card but that didn't help.
 

K&PFitz

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I don't have any ideas other than the "insult your intelligence" kind you get from tech support. Like:
Turn the computer off, wait and turn it on again. (That's always the first suggestion they give you.)
Is the sound muted?
Go into device manager and see if the sound card has been disabled. Device manager should tell you if the sound card is working properly.

None of this will help, but it will keep you distracted until someone smarter replies.

Good luck.
 
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Don

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It's possible the storm blew out the sound card.

Do you have an earphone jack for the cd drive? You might plug the speakers in the jack for a second and see if they work there. (provided it fits.)
 

djs

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I don't have any ideas other than the "insult your intelligence" kind you get from tech support. Like:
Turn the computer off, wait and turn it on again. (That's always the first suggestion they give you.)
Is the sound muted?
Go into device manager and see if the sound card has been disabled. Device manager should tell you if the sound card is working properly.

None of this will help, but it will keep you distracted until someone smarter replies.

Good luck.

I'm going to take it a step further. If you look down at the bottom of your screen, is there a lind through what looks like a small speaker? If so, double-click on it and uncheck the "mute" box(es).
 

dmharris

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Nothings muted. All systems are open for sound. I'll try the other suggestions. Thanks!
 

Numismatist

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Differential diagnosis: Plug the speakers into someone else's computer and see if they work there. If so, it's your sound card, if not, it's your speakers.
 

dmharris

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It's possible the storm blew out the sound card.

Do you have an earphone jack for the cd drive? You might plug the speakers in the jack for a second and see if they work there. (provided it fits.)


I tried this, thanks for the suggestion. I have Dave Matthews singing to me through my headphones via the headphone port by the CD on the tower. Then I plugged the headphones into the speaker port on the back of the computer and Nada, nothing. The male metal tip of the wire from the speaker makes a sound when it touches something like the computer, the floor.

Now what?
 

Passepartout

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The first thing to do is uninstall the sound card driver. Then with the computer off and unplugged, reseat the sound card. (wiggle it out then back in.) Plug in and turn on the computer. It SHOULD recognize 'new equipment' (the sound card) and go about installing the driver. If this works you are good to go. If it doesn't recognize the sound card see below.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the sound card crapped out because it's unlikely that both speakers went bad simultaneously. If there was a lightening storm your 'puter was affected, and it just took out the sound card, consider yourself fortunate.

Unless you want to go super high end, sound cards aren't expensive and it's an easy DIY fix. I saw them online for $16 to hundred$. Or from +-$20 at BestBuy or WalMart.


Good luck!

Jim
 
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easyrider

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My Toshiba laptop did the same thing about 8 months ago. One day no sound. Speaker jacks would not work either.
I bought a usb headset and can hear through it just fine and in reality I use a head set to listen to music anyway.
 

PigsDad

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The first thing to do is uninstall the sound card driver. Then with the computer off and unplugged, reseat the sound card. (wiggle it out then back in.) Plug in and turn on the computer. It SHOULD recognize 'new equipment' (the sound card) and go about installing the driver. If this works you are good to go. If it doesn't recognize the sound card see below.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the sound card crapped out because it's unlikely that both speakers went bad simultaneously. If there was a lightening storm your 'puter was affected, and it just took out the sound card, consider yourself fortunate.
This assumes the OP's computer actually has a sound card. Most basic computers sold in the last several years have the sound chip / ports integrated on the motherboard. Usually only the higher-end computers have separate sound cards.

But the OP could install a new sound card even if the integrated sound is toast, so that might be an option.

Kurt
 

dmharris

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There is a sound card. Worked fine until the electrical storm that blew out the router too, but got that fixed first as more critical. I can live without sound, most days. Computer is an Asus using Windows 7. If the sound card were bad, would I be able to hear sound through the head set? My guess is the sound card would have to work to hear sound anywhere. So maybe the speakers blew?
 

dmharris

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The first thing to do is uninstall the sound card driver. Then with the computer off and unplugged, reseat the sound card. (wiggle it out then back in.) Plug in and turn on the computer. It SHOULD recognize 'new equipment' (the sound card) and go about installing the driver. If this works you are good to go. If it doesn't recognize the sound card see below.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the sound card crapped out because it's unlikely that both speakers went bad simultaneously. If there was a lightening storm your 'puter was affected, and it just took out the sound card, consider yourself fortunate.

Unless you want to go super high end, sound cards aren't expensive and it's an easy DIY fix. I saw them online for $16 to hundred$. Or from +-$20 at BestBuy or WalMart.


Good luck!

Jim

So take a look at my last post and please tell me if my logic is correct, or not before I take my 'puter apart. Thanks,
 

PigsDad

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There is a sound card. Worked fine until the electrical storm that blew out the router too, but got that fixed first as more critical. I can live without sound, most days. Computer is an Asus using Windows 7. If the sound card were bad, would I be able to hear sound through the head set? My guess is the sound card would have to work to hear sound anywhere. So maybe the speakers blew?
Not necessarily. You stated in an earlier post that hooking your headphones up to the speaker port in the back produced nothing. That would indicate the port is possibly bad.

But you could listen to sound through the front headphone port, right? Try plugging in your speakers to the front headphone port and see if they still work.

But it sounds like at minimum the speaker port of the sound card was fried. Most likely time to get a new sound card.

Kurt
 

Sandy VDH

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I have a laptop with a builtin monitor that does not work. External monitor hookup works fine.

Want to trade. :hysterical:

I think I would rather have picture not sound for 85% of work that I do on the computer. The 15% is my time.
 

artringwald

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If you have a sound card, and a spare PCI slot, try plugging the sound card into a different slot. If you haven't worked with computers before, the challenge will be to get the cover off the PC. If you can get the cover off, moving the sound card to a different slot should be easy.
 

dmharris

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Not necessarily. You stated in an earlier post that hooking your headphones up to the speaker port in the back produced nothing. That would indicate the port is possibly bad.

But you could listen to sound through the front headphone port, right? Try plugging in your speakers to the front headphone port and see if they still work.

But it sounds like at minimum the speaker port of the sound card was fried. Most likely time to get a new sound card.

Kurt


Kurt!!! It worked!!! :cheer: I put the speaker wire into the front headphone port and voila!! So does that mean the speaker port is bad? Now what? At least I can listen to whatever on my 'puter! THANKS everyone for jumping in. So do I need a new speaker port? Is this a trip to Staples tech center? Or can I do this myself? I've taken covers off computers, added more ram but that was several computers ago. I'm not afraid to "get my hands dirty".
 

Pit

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Go to the manufacturers web site and search/download the diagnostic software for your PC. You can usually troubleshoot hardware failures with the manufacturers diagnostic software.
 

Htoo0

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Powered off and with the side cover removed there should be one little screw securing the card. Remove it, rock the card out of the slot and install the new one. It may have an installation disk with a driver although your OS may take care of it for you. Either way it shouldn't be too difficult. BTW, there are several videos on Youtube (some better than others no doubt) which may help.
 
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