Playing music without Soundcard!!

[Julie]

I have a Compaq notebook computer EVO N1020V running Win XP Home and 512 mb Ram that was working fine until last week. I could play DVD movies and music CDs on it.
Then suddenly it stopped having sound. When I popped a music CD in or try to play a MP3 on the harddrive, I get the message "No soundcard installed"
I can't understand how that's possible - I get the Windows bootup sounds and everything.
The HP/Compaq site was no help, and neither was Troubleshooter.
What's going on?
Can some kind soul please help?

[Lespaul20]

I would check device manager to make sure the soundcard is installed. What are you using to play the media?

[dchristey]

I would check

A) If it is enabled or not or
B) If the driver is installed properly.

Click Start > Run > type "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotation) and check under Sound, video and game controllers - if there is a red cross then it has for some reason been disabled (unlikey). If it has a yellow question mark then it 9 times out of 10 means that they drivers need updating/re-installing.

To update the driver you will need to either run a Windows Update or visit the manufacturers website - here is the Audio Driver for your laptop - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=240898&prodNameId=240900&swEnvOID=1098&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=hb-18341-1

I hope this helps - let me know how you get on.

[Julie]

LP, I'm using Windows Media Player to try play those tracks.

DChristey, I've gone thru the steps you advised - but no red cross, no yellow question marks.
Before I saw your reply, I downloaded a sound driver for that exact laptop model from the Evo site for Win 2k/XP and installed it.
I got the icon in the tray and everything but right-clicking the icon brought up a screen with the playback and volume control greyed out.
I thought maybe I had to enable something in the Bios - but there's no such option.
I will go download the driver at the URL you gave me and see what happens.
Can't do that till the weekend - a friend has borrowed the laptop (she doesn't need the sound).

Will keep you posted. Thanks.

[rjfvillarosa]

Have you scanned the laptop for viruses and malware? it is not unknown for viruses or malware to corrupt system files.

[dchristey]

LP, I'm using Windows Media Player to try play those tracks.

DChristey, I've gone thru the steps you advised - but no red cross, no yellow question marks.
Before I saw your reply, I downloaded a sound driver for that exact laptop model from the Evo site for Win 2k/XP and installed it.
I got the icon in the tray and everything but right-clicking the icon brought up a screen with the playback and volume control greyed out.
I thought maybe I had to enable something in the Bios - but there's no such option.
I will go download the driver at the URL you gave me and see what happens.
Can't do that till the weekend - a friend has borrowed the laptop (she doesn't need the sound).

Will keep you posted. Thanks.

Ok Julie let me know how you get on and I will troubleshoot further.

It sounds like a driver related issue.

[Julie]

Sorry for being so late getting back to you.
My friend had some major problems with her own computer so she kept
my notebook till yesterday.

Anyway I installed the driver you suggested but it turned out to be the same one from Evo.
So it's just like before - I have all the Window sounds, but can't play anything else.
How is that possible? How can I hear Windows sounds if there is "No soundcard installed"?

Also did a complete virus/spyware scan - nothing found.

[liambl]

So you hear the sounds Windows makes when an error pops up ect? If you go to Sounds and Audio Devices in Control panel, it says "No audio device"?

[Julie]

Yes, liambl, that's exactly what it says.

Incidentally, I can hear the Windows sound when the splash screen appears.
I don't know what else I can do. Enable something? Disable something?
Re-install Windows?

[liambl]

Take a look at DirectX Diag Tool (start - run - type dxdiag), and see if it says anything in the Notes section down the bottom.

[Julie]

Dxdiag was of no help.
But I was fairly certain it was software or drivers not hardware because I still had
Windows sounds.
So I guess I took the easy way out - I restored my system from a backup image I
made before the sound problem.
Now I have my sound back, but I have lost my antivirus/antispyware upgrades,
and of course I'll never know what the problem was in the first place.

Thanks to everyone here who offered help. I really appreciate it.