BleepingComputer.com: All audio has stopped working: On-board and sound card??

I have a self-assembled system:

MSI K9-A2 mainboard running
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual @ 3.2 GHz
3GB Ram
Dual ATI Radeon HD 4800 display adapters
Windows XP Home
Realtek High Definition onboard audio and/or Creative X-fi Xtreme PCI audio card
...Did I leave anything off?


The problem is that suddenly BOTH of my sound adapters are not working. I actually was able to use both at the same time, but now neither of them works. The devices show up in device manager with no exclamation marks. It says the devices are working properly, but if I go to "sounds and audio devices" in Control Panel, it says "no audio device" and none is available in the pull-down menu on the audio tab. If I try to open a file in Media Player, I get the message, "WMP cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device..."

I have deleted and reinstalled all of these devices from device manager, downloaded driver updates from Realtek and Creative...I checked the Windows Audio Service, and it is running as usual. There are no "trouble" devices listed anywhere in device manager.

Any idea at all? I am stumped and exasperated!

This may be a stupid question but what do you need two sound adapters for? Did you try uninstalling both, and only reinstalling one of them? Sounds like they are conflicting with each other.

right click my computer, choose manage, then click on device manager. On the right hand side, expand sound video and game controllers. What all is listed under this heading?

Did you recently add this video card or make any other hardware changes?

I would recommend disabling the onboard sound. You really don't need it, and trying to use both may be asking for trouble in the long run.

No, that's a good question. It just happened to work with two, so I used one for gaming and the other for Skype or other secondary applications. I have no problem using only one, but the fact is that I've tried everything - just the onboard, just the sound card, and I even swapped the sound card out with another. That's three sound devices, each tried on it's own, that did not work.

That mostly answers Wiggins' question - I've tried both the sound card and the onboard audio on their own. Then I set about to get just the onboard sound working - I've taken the sound card out altogether. I figure if I can get that working, then I can move on to disabling it and trying a sound card. There have not been any major hardware changes. It really just stopped working.

As soon as I'm back on that computer, I'll list the sound video and game controllers for you.

What could turn the sound capability off INDEPENDENT of the sound adapter? I'm so baffled.

This may be another stupid suggestion, but have you made any changes to the BIOS. Can you or have you tried disabling the onboard sound via the BIOS? If not the BIOS, I think some mobos have a jumper to disable the onboard audio.

If you can disable the onboard, you could then install the card, reboot, and try it.

God, help me!

I tried putting another card - a modem - into the PCI slot to see if the slot had any issues, and the modem seemed to work okay. Not a sound device of course. Then I turned it back on, went into BIOS to enable the onboard audio (I'd had it off) and booted up with no sound card - just the onboard audio. Now Windows starts with a "found new hardware" prompt and all it says to identify the hardware is "media". Earlier, when I turned on the onboard audio, this was not what it said - it said something more predictable like "sound device" or something. When I told it to automatically load the drivers for the "media" it failed, saying it could not find the necessary software, even though the MB driver disc is in the CD tray. I ran the setup utility for Realtek HD audio and it gave me, "Install Realtek HD audio driver failure !! [error code : 0xE0000227]. What on earth? Help!

My goal was to let Wiggins know what was in the "sound video and game controllers" group in Device Manager. Now it's just

• ATI function driver for high definition audio - ATI AAA01
  
• ATI function driver for high definition audio - ATI AAA01
  
• Unknown Device (with exclamation point)

Any further suggestions are very greatly appreciated.

As for Moby, my MB is an MSI k9a2 Platinum. I don't see a "sound jumper" and the manual (a very good one) doesn't mention it either. Yes, I did try disabling the onboard audio through BIOS and trying the card, and also of course removing the card and enabling the on-board audio in BIOS. I also tried another sound card altogether (with the onboard turned off in BIOS). Nothing worked.

Have you gone through the Windows Sound Troubleshooter?

Have you checked Event Viewer for errors that might shed some light?

Windows Audio service, Started and Automatic?

Run the Directx diagnostic?

Louis

You have done everything that I can think of to resolve this type of situtation, I believe you have a motherboard problem.

hamluis, on Jan 9 2010, 11:50 AM, said:

I did the sound troubleshooter. I have to admit that I'm not very impressed with those "troubleshooters". It's always things like "make sure the connections are secure" and "make sure you have the most recent driver" and whatnot. I understand that these are necessary to start with, but I always expect it to get around to fixing the trickier problem and it never does - it always ends with "troubleshooter can not fix your problem". Anyway, yes I tried it - thanks for the suggestion.

I'm not sure what to look for in event viewer - I've rarely gone in there without seeing a few little exclamation points and X's. I usually don't understand what the message means. There are several in there now - anything particular I should look for?

I did check the Windows Audio Service. Yes it is started and set to automatic - I tried restarting it, just to be sure, but there was no change.

DXDiag said "no sound card was found. If one is expected, you should install a sound driver provided by the hardware manufacturer". Pretty much the same thing I'm seeing elsewhere. Are there other options in DXdiag? I'm not VERY familiar with that tool. I usually just use it for system information.

Thanks so much for your help. What do you think? Moby suggests a motherboard problem. Any thoughts?

Anyone?

This post has been edited by ok computer: 09 January 2010 - 09:20 PM

I've got it back to "normal" again ... which is to say that I'm back to the original problem: Any sound card I install shows up in Device Manager and says the device is working properly, but in the Control Panel "Sounds and Audio Devices" it says "no playback devices". Likewise, Media Player tells me it "can not play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed ... "

Anyone have any other suggestions?

How To Use Event Viewer - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic40108.html

Errors are what provide clues...I'd take a look at the last 3 or so.

I would uninstall all audio devices reflected in Device Manager (not codecs, not legacy devices), run chkdsk /r on the partition.

Start/Run...type chkdsk /r (space between k and /) and hit Enter. Type Y in response to onscreen query and hit Enter. Reboot the system. Command will execute, then boot into XP.

I would then try to install the onboard audio drivers. If that function doesn't work, then I would try the physical sound card.

You may also want to do this, Remove Unused Drivers and Devices - http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Win...andDevices.html.

Louis

I've seen issues with the new ATI cards conflicting with sound card drivers. The problem is that your system doesn't recognize your soundcard as a soundcard anymore, resulting in the "Unknown Device (with exclamation point)" I don't know if the ati drivers are wiping out the Universal Audio Architecture or what, but every computer I've seen this in has an ATI radeon hd card so far.

Here's what I've done in the past to fix this issue.

If you have service pack 1 or 2, try this patch:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111
You have to request the hotfix download i believe, and they email it to you if I recall.

If you have service pack 3 then you need to trick your OS into thinking it has service pack 2 first. Here's how:

Start menu > Run > regedit (opens the registry editor) and navigate to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows
On the right side panel, doubleclick CSDVersion
Change the data value from 300 to 200.
Close the registry editor, and reboot.
Run the patch mentioned above. Windows should be able to recognize your soundcard now and you can install the drivers if needed. Next, you need to set the service pack key back to service pack 3, so go back into the regedit, and set that same key back to 300 and reboot again. If all goes well, you'll be enjoying some sound.

This post has been edited by Kalon Wiggins: 10 January 2010 - 08:54 PM

This is all great advice, but I think I've run to far astray from my original post. Of all the three sound devices, tried independently (onboard and two different sound cards) they all are detected without problems and all drivers are loaded by the operating system (or by the manufacturer's utility, when necessary). In device manager the given sound adapter is specifically shown, and the "properties" show that it is functioning properly. There are no exclamation points here or anywhere (including the system drivers - the bus drivers are there and "working properly"). One must go elsewhere to see that there is no sound. I.e. Media Player gives a "no sound device" error) and the sound properties in Control Panel say there is no available sound device... and of course I'm not hearing sounds. The KB888111 update is loaded properly, as far as I can tell, and I have removed it and loaded it again with no results.

Would the registry edit still help? I may also do the chkdsk - I haven't done that yet...

This post has been edited by ok computer: 11 January 2010 - 01:34 AM

the registry edit is only to make your os accept that update. if you are on service pack 1 or 2 then its unneccessary.

Do you no longer have the 'Unknown Device (with exclamation point)' listed in your device manager > sound controllers?