No sound problem- XP system

No sound problem- XP system

Hi Nick,

Having no sound on your system is a big headache, since majority of the day to day apps we utilize use sound in one form or another. I don’t know what steps you’ve taken to try and solve your problem but I will help you in any way I can. Please read on.

1 . You mentioned that “sound controls and the options are all greyed out”.  Probable cause is that the Windows Audio service is not running. To check if it is indeed not running,  click “Start”, “Run”, and enter services.msc to view all running services. Scroll down to Windows Audio and check to see if status is running or started. If not, double click on Windows Audio Service and change the startup type to “Automatic”. Reboot and reopen “services.msc”. Scroll down to Windows audio again to check the service (“Started”). You should be able to make changes now to the “Sounds and Audio Devices” on the control panel.

2 . Right click on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop, then click “Properties” and select “Hardware” tab from there. Look for “Audio, Video and Game Controllers” and see if there is a yellow “!” with a red “X”  next to your sound device. The exclamation mark indicates that the sound drivers may be having a problem, or not totally installed at all. Reinstall Sound drivers from install disc, or look for the manufacturers website to download the latest drivers for XP.

3 . It may be that conflicts have occurred with some other devices on the system. To check further, go to the “Hardware” tab on the “System Properties” page when you right click on My Computer and select properties. Then right click the conflicting devices in question to remove the device by selecting “delete”.  Reboot the computer and the system should redetect the necessary devices and automatically install drivers to correct the conflicts. Have your install disc on hand to use if windows asks for the sound driver install path.

4 . If all the above steps have been done and the problems remains, next thing to do is physically check the sound card by turning the power off and opening the CPU casing. Unseat and reinsert the sound card after cleaning the copper contacts thoroughly. Power up the PC to check if the problem has been solved. Configure additional sound options if enabled now.

NOTE: If sound card is built in on the motherboard and found to be faulty, don’t fret because you can always purchase either a PCI sound card or a USB type sound card to solve the problem.

5 . Assuming that the sound card has been determined to be OK and confirmed working, drivers installed  and the options remain greyed out, the last resort is to do a reinstall of the operating system anew with a fresh and clean install of all the drivers, sound included. This last resort should never be done without first completing all the previous checks to exhaust all possible means.