ACER 5220 XP SP3 - no sound

this is a tough one. mainly because it is not my laptop, but was installed by someone
else about a year ago.

worked, supposedly, fine till christmas, then all of a sudden all sound output (but system
sounds) stopped.

did extensive virus checks, all updates incl drivers of whatever, but there simply is no
sound device - all is greyed out, wherever i look (mixer also missing). in systems/hardware
all look ok, no question marks on anything related to sound.

what i thought woud be 5 minutes of help turned in to a several-sleepless-nights nightmare.

any suggestions, any tips where to look? laptop is full-full-full, so totally re-installing XP is
not really an option.

greetings - heinz -

 

Well fresh install of windows xp would probably solve the issue...

As I could conclude all sounds are gone except those from windows (i.e. during log-on and shut-down)?

Did you try reinstalling audio drivers?
Try downloading the latest from the support site and check what will happen...

Cheers

 

>> Did you try reinstalling audio drivers? Try downloading
>> the latest from the support site and check what will happen...

sure did that, no change.

greetings - heinz -

 

Hi,

are you able to create a live USB drive with Ubuntu?
I would try this in order to see if the hardware is faulty.

What you could do also:
Make hidden devices visible: Device Manager Does Not Display Devices Not Currently Present in Windows 2000 (Article is for W2k, but also applicable to XP)
Then uninstall all references to the audio devices and reboot.

Michael

 

michael, excellent idea, this would eliminate the most (least ?) obvious fault - will do in the morning.

all (repeat: all) other standard things i really tried.

greetings - heinz -

------------

well, couldnt sleep over that one, and though it is 1am here, i tried it. and (un-?)fortunately, any live linux system works fine, full sound blasting out of the notebook.

as far as devices go, the soundcard and the fitting driver do show fine in systems/hardware - they just dont work.

would this indicate something and narrow it down? trying the Realtek HD Audio Manager, sitting in the task bar, there are some test sounds there, incl 3D moving sounds etc - ALL THESE WORK !!!

next step ... but really after some sleep.

greetings - heinz -

 

Okay. At least we know now this is a Windows problem, and not a hardware issue.

Have you already checked if you can find something useful here: Microsoft Fix it Solution Center: troubleshooting software issues?
For example this one: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/no_sound/

Last resort would be a fresh installation (or factory reinstall).

Michael

 

does nobody but michael have an suggestions/tips/directions for this? still hanging on.

greetings - heinz