[Fixed... I think] Is my sound card shot?

[kittycatArcane]

So. My computer will not make sound. At all.

*Have tried both with my headphones and just the onboard speakers (thought it was my headphones dying at first, but it isn't)
*Unplugged/replugged headphones
*Made sure nothing was muted
*Tampered with various sound settings
*Restarted computer twice
*Went through the -entire- Windows troubleshooting process

...And all of this didn't fix it. It's been acting kind of funky over the last year or so as well - as I said, I thought it was my headphones at first, because it would do this sometimes, or sound would only come out one side, but it was always fixed with a restart. Friend suggested that either the sound driver is corrupted, or the sound card itself is shot.

I'm just looking for some confirmation before I jump to conclusions. This is rather important to me though, it's impossible for me to draw without music and hard to play NWN without being able to hear anything.

[Nekosan]

Pull the sound card out, remove drivers, turn onboard sound back on and see if your headphones/speakers work. If they do, reinstall the card as normal and see what happens, never rule out the ole "every pair of headphones i own is broken" pitfall.


edit: before you do that..... windows 7 is weird in that it has multiple volume controls and the secondaries arent covered by most troubleshooting guides, i found that out a month back after my mic stopped working in ARMA for no reason at all. go to control panel > hardware and sound > change system sounds > click your active speaker and then properties for it > "levels" tab, make sure that it maxed because you can have the normal volume control maxed out and levels has reset itself to 1% and you wont hear ****.

[Bicketybam]

Is it an actual sound card or the onboard sound? If it is the soundcard, you could remove it and then enable onboard sound within the bios and try that. If neither of those options work you can get cheapie USB soundcards eg Creative USB Sound Blaster and test if it works. They are about $20 here and from memory you're in the US so should be extra cheap there

If that still doesn't work I'm going to go with something wrong with the board itself (although even a reinstall of Windows might be an option to try before getting a new mboard).

[kittycatArcane]

edit: before you do that..... windows 7 is weird in that it has multiple volume controls and the secondaries arent covered by most troubleshooting guides, i found that out a month back after my mic stopped working in ARMA for no reason at all. go to control panel > hardware and sound > change system sounds > click your active speaker and then properties for it > "levels" tab, make sure that it maxed because you can have the normal volume control maxed out and levels has reset itself to 1% and you wont hear ****.

I'm using Windows XP, so I'm not sure if this will apply. I checked all the volume settings though, and nothing seemed out of place.

Is it an actual sound card or the onboard sound? If it is the soundcard, you could remove it and then enable onboard sound within the bios and try that.

...I'm actually not sure. It's always been referred to as if it has a soundcard, but they could've been mistaken.

I'll give these suggestions a try, thank you.

[steve_rogers42]

easy way is, if where your plugging you jacks into is toward the bottom, around your graphics card slot/expansion slots and not in the same rectangle that surrounds your usb/netowrk and keyboard/mouse input area than its a dedicated sound card, if its a 2x3 port stack at the bottom of the rectangle input panel at the back of the case (its the one with all the usb/ps2/serial/network ports) then its onboard.

I would go have a look in device manager (right click my computer, manage, then device manager should be thereabouts) and see if there is a yellow triangle near sound or media or iforgetwhatitscalledinxp... that would suggest its died/deaded/yup, bunged.

[kittycatArcane]

easy way is, if where your plugging you jacks into is toward the bottom, around your graphics card slot/expansion slots and not in the same rectangle that surrounds your usb/netowrk and keyboard/mouse input area than its a dedicated sound card, if its a 2x3 port stack at the bottom of the rectangle input panel at the back of the case (its the one with all the usb/ps2/serial/network ports) then its onboard.

It appears to be the latter, so onboard.

I would go have a look in device manager (right click my computer, manage, then device manager should be thereabouts) and see if there is a yellow triangle near sound or media or iforgetwhatitscalledinxp... that would suggest its died/deaded/yup, bunged.

Checked this, everything is showing up as working properly.

[steve_rogers42]

Well, good news is, soundcard are cheaper than new motherboards, and the sound quality they bring will make you wish you had one sooner. Now you will need to check to see if you have a free pci or pci-e slot free in the motherboard and a bank balance that can afford a card.... have a look at the auzen-forte or Asus dx cards. If you have headphones look for cards that support headphones as opposed to 7.2 Dolby setups... unless you play in 7.2....

[kittycatArcane]

There... may not even be a need, it seems. My sound has mysteriously started working again. o_o I'm very, very confused, but hey, I have sound now! If it goes out on me again I'll be sure to look into an actual soundcard though.

Thank you for all the suggestions and advice everyone

[MUG]

If it fails again and you want something basic and without the hassle of opening your case, you could always go with a USB sound card.

Just like a USB headset, without the headset.

[steve_rogers42]

Just thought, it might pay to check your cable's for any break's or kinks, pay attention to the end you plug it in and where the cable goes up into the headphones, worth a look.

[MUG]

Just thought, it might pay to check your cable's for any break's or kinks, pay attention to the end you plug it in and where the cable goes up into the headphones, worth a look.

From the OP, I believe the headset was eliminated as the fault.

[kittycatArcane]

Just thought, it might pay to check your cable's for any break's or kinks, pay attention to the end you plug it in and where the cable goes up into the headphones, worth a look.

From the OP, I believe the headset was eliminated as the fault.

That's right. The onboard speakers weren't working either - like the whole system volume was muted.

To be sure, I just checked the cable and it's fine. I'd have been surprised if the headphones were going out already, I've only had them for a year and they haven't taken much abuse besides the occasional fall off the desk.