No sound, NOT a hardware issue.

[HAL9000]

OK, when I come up with a strange one, it's the best of the best, hopefully somebody has the answer. As per the title, I have no sound. The speakers work, the speaker cable is fine (all tested), I have deleted and reinstalled the drivers, yes, the sound is turned up within windows and on the speakers themselves, here is the kicker... I even tried a repair install of Windows 7... upon initial boot, there was sound... but then upon going into my, or my wife's or daughter's profiles... no sound. See the link... you will see that supposedly, it is outputting sound, but there is nothing at the speakers. It doesn't matter whether it is a Windows sound, CD, DVD, etc, none of it works.

ASUS P5Q motherboard using the onboard sound, Win 7 Premium 64 bit.

http://www.midnight-x.com/1128/nosound.jpg

[EzyStvy]

What's the history behind the problem?
Did the sound ever work?
Does Device Mangler show any boo boo's?

[HAL9000]

Devince manager is clean
Sound previously worked... and works for that brief instant during a repair installation
Just using internal monitor speakers, tested, they work, not very loud though, wife tried plugging in other speakers to watch a movie and get more volume.. she "says" she didn't mess with any settings... but... well, you know... most people won't admit to what they have touched.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Maybe it was Windows Updates. The picture doesn't come up, BTW.

[HAL9000]

I tried looking at a driver rollback, no option to... it's greyed out... pic should work... works fine on this end.

[Nuclear Krusader]

How about uninstalling the driver, deleting the driver files and installing it again?

Have you disabled everything in msconfig and tried to boot with the barebones?

[HAL9000]

Been there, done that for both.

I see the Realtek site has some very recent drivers... downloading now (slow) and will be giving that a try.

[Nuclear Krusader]

OK. Enjoying the snow, Dave?

[HAL9000]

No... and the new drivers screwed up my display???? Rolling that back.

Hal, this is a long shot but have you checked under "service's to ensure "Windows Audio Service" is turned on? Should be set to auto by default but when it's off, device manager will still show your audio device's as functioning normally, just a thought.

[HAL9000]

Interesting thought... but it's running.

Check to see what your default setting's for sound are. I installed Nero 10 a few weeks back and didn't un-check "Let Nero manage your setting's". After the install I had no sound, same issue as you, looked like I was getting sound but nothing, reloading drivers didn't help either. I uninstalled Nero, r&r'd my driver's, got my sound back, re-installed but didn't allow Nero to manage anything and haven't had anymore issue's.

[HAL9000]

Nothing new has been installed in a very long time... months... took out a few things just to try it... no go.

[Nuclear Krusader]

System restore?

[HAL9000]

Tried that before I tried a repair install... no go.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Nuke and pave looks like the only option now then. Unless you have a spare sound card lying around.

[EzyStvy]

Was the pc running when the wife switched speakers?

[HAL9000]

Yes, it was running, but I know the speakers, cabling and onboard sound are good. As I mentioned in the initial post, if I do a repair install, upong the initial boot before logging into a profile, the sound works giving the windows start sound... then upon logging into the profile, no go.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Make a new profile?

Have you looked into that profile's registry entries to see what's wrong?

Do you have sound in the administrator account?

[HAL9000]

Tried a new profile, no sound in any, including the administrator accounts.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Jeez, HAL, you musta been awake all night working on this.

How about the registry?

[HAL9000]

Not even sure where to dig for this one.... nuke and pave is under serious consideration... although, that might have to wait until next weekend... I still have a computer here that I have to finish building and load up for a friend.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I'm out of ideas. Dug into the registry but couldn't see anything in the listed profiles that may solve the problem. If you have already disabled everything that starts up at boot and still no go, I don't think the list under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run will help any.

I also looked under HKLM/Software\Microsoft\Windows NT but couldn't find anything there that helped (mostly because I really don't know what the problem is, though I suspect a misbehaving program or bad driver).

I guess it's time to pull out the backup drive and kick the machine in that special part (after doing backups of course).

[Hpro]

Hal,
I know you will not believe me but I can assure you that's the DRIVERS which don't work.
Install them manually and you will see it will sound on the spot.

Windows will install it's own drivers and override the one you select - if you do not disable the automatic install. Try it..

Use the drivers which came with the SOUNDCARD. Windows 7 is can be nasty sometimes - especially the 64Bit versions. There is another way - after you have installed the drivers - use UPDATE through internet with Windows 7 this has helped me many times..
Regards Hpro

I'm sure you've already done this Hal but right click desk top, personalize, sounds, playback, make sure the speakers are set as default.

[HAL9000]

Originally Posted by usnavyretired I'm sure you've already done this Hal but right click desk top, personalize, sounds, playback, make sure the speakers are set as default.

Yup... been playing there a lot with no luck.

Originally Posted by Hpro Hal, I know you will not believe me but I can assure you that's the DRIVERS which don't work. Install them manually and you will see it will sound on the spot. Windows will install it's own drivers and override the one you select - if you do not disable the automatic install. Try it.. Use the drivers which came with the SOUNDCARD. Windows 7 is can be nasty sometimes - especially the 64Bit versions. There is another way - after you have installed the drivers - use UPDATE through internet with Windows 7 this has helped me many times.. Regards Hpro

OK... get this... been to the ASUS site many times and could never find updated drivers for my board.. just the Vista 64 bit which will will not install on my system... I go there today and search for my board... and there are Windows 7 drivers... ok.. gonna try this out.

Hpro... the only thing I will doubt is if somebody tells me it's defective hardware... which I know it isn't... gonna try these drivers and see what happens.

[HAL9000]

OK... Realtek driver files direct from ASUS... installed... no noise.

[Nuclear Krusader]

No noise as in not even the sound you were hearing at boot?

If Arsus had no Win7 drivers, how come you were having sound? Which drivers were you using in the first place?

[HAL9000]

It was always using the windows drivers... I've never installed anything else for it. No sound anywhere... although, I do hear a "click" like it is initializing.

[Hpro]

Hal,
Interesting. Ok let me Know followings

Board seems to be Asusu, right? Then give me the Model Number.
You are driving Win 7 64 Bit. Supposedly the Card is Onboard.

I'm sure that you know how to get the Admin account working, but just in case here the Mssoft way.
Desktop - SEARCH -Input CMD - when you see CMD appear on top then - Right Click - Select - RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR - now you got to the Prompt

Type: NET USER ADMINISTRATOR /ACTIVE:YES and press enter. The Administrator Account has benn Created. To deactivate Admin Account just use the same string with NO for the last word.

Shutdown & Reboot

Enter Bios and disable the Card. Start the computer with the disabled Card and Enter SAFE MODE,then logon and use the Administrator Account which is now also shown at the logon Screen.
IN this Account there are all UAC disabled.

Got to Control Panel and open Device Manager - Kill all the old drivers out of Device Manager. If neccesary - enter the Registy and kill everything with the name REALTEK. There may be some entries you need special Permissions, let those entries as they are.

If the Card is a ADD ON Card then REMOVE THE CARD OUT OF THE SYSTEM and do the same as for a Onboard Card.

In the Card Properties - of Windows check out what kind of INF the system is using to determine the card. REMOVE this INF.

Restart to regular Windows Mode. When windows is asking for to install the drivers just CANCEL and then manually Install the Drivers you want.

I'm sure this will work.

HtH

Hpro