Lost sound when I moved comp across room

[Wheeler88]

This weekend I moved my computer from across the living room. I hooked everything up and I have no sound from my speakers. They have power, but I hear no static or any tone out of them. Widows shows that its playing the sound. I have the audio cable plugged into line in. But I've tried all the other plug ins also.
I have a Gigabyte mobo with Realtek on board sound. And Vista 64bit.

I tried another set of speakers and it doesn't work either. So that eliminated a problem with the speakers. So I'm guessing its a problem with the mobo sound jacks or that onboard audio. Anything I can do besides buy a sound card?

Thanks

 

[Swivelguy2]

Have you tried moving it back across the room?

Hee hee hee, I had to ask.

 

[Terzo]

Have you tried rebooting since the sound stopped working? I don't understand how the onboard sound would die in a simple move like that, but have learned computers often do inexplicable things.
Maybe open up your case and check all the connections? I don't think that would help with onboard sound, but I've had a sata drive "die" on me only to found out the sata connector had merely become loose (and this was without moving it...still don't know why it came loose).

 

[Wheeler88]

NO I didn't try moving it back across the room. Lol.

Yeah I took the case off and looked around. There are no wires on the onboard audio that I see. Still no luck. And yes I've restarted it several times.

Thanks

 

[Paperlantern]

Line in is not a sound output, just throwing that out there. However you said you tried all ports with no dice, so it pretty much rules that out. First make sure you have your audio cable plugged in ALL the way to the line OUT (almost ALWAYS green), other wise any troubleshooting you do will always produce silence. Also make sure any connections to a sub and satellite speakers are tight if there are any.

Then make sure all audio mixer entries are not muted.

Baring those things, go into the setup of Realtek and make sure the correct output is selected and configured properly.

Lastly, go into the device manager and just uninstall the audio driver completely and reboot, let windows redetect it, sometimes just reminding the system its there is all it takes.

 

[Wheeler88]

I think the onboard audio has died somehow. Now when I try different plug in jacks in the back, its not even recognizing that I'm moving it around. Yesterday every time I moved it to a different jack the audio settings pop'd up.
Guess I'll be shopping for a soundcard

 

[Paperlantern]

I think the onboard audio has died somehow. Now when I try different plug in jacks in the back, its not even recognizing that I'm moving it around. Yesterday every time I moved it to a different jack the audio settings pop'd up.
Guess I'll be shopping for a soundcard

Did you uninstall/delete the device from device manager and let the computer redetect it? Ive seen Realtek do this before and this has worked for me in the past.

 

[hiromizu]

Line Out->Speaker

not Line In-> Speaker

This is because Line Out is designed to connect to the speaker but not Line In which is designed for other purposes. Also DO try moving it back to the other room and see if that helps. Perhaps there's a step you've missed. It's a necessary logical step that is necessary in order to troubleshoot this issue, which is actually pretty common. Most people solve this by making sure that their speaker is turned On and NOT Off - with the software side volume up and Unmuted and NOT Muted.

Also try rebooting the computer and making sure that the cables are indeed connected. Sometimes they can get disconnected and you'll see the symptoms that you are describing which are often described as symptoms caused by cables being disconnected.

 

[Wheeler88]

Did you uninstall/delete the device from device manager and let the computer redetect it? Ive seen Realtek do this before and this has worked for me in the past.

I just tried this and it redetected it, but it still doesn't work.

 

[piasabird]

Try right clicking with the mouse on the little speaker icon on the status bar and see what playback device is being used. Select your speakers and then see what is being used.

I have Microsoft life chat headphones and when it is on headphones, the speakers do not work and you chan change it back to speakers/digital audio.

If you have a browser open then you might have to close it and bring it back up to get sound from the website.

Usually the speaker jacks are color coded and green is for speakers.

 

[Wheeler88]

When I right click on the speaker icon in the status bar, and go to devices, it lists 2 things, Speakers and Realtek Digital Audio. Speakers is grayed out and says Not plugged in. But there are speakers plugged in...

 

[Paperlantern]

When I right click on the speaker icon in the status bar, and go to devices, it lists 2 things, Speakers and Realtek Digital Audio. Speakers is grayed out and says Not plugged in. But there are speakers plugged in...

That sounds like a motherboard issue. The board seems as though its just not detecting that anything is plugged in. This can be a short in the cable of the device thats being used, but its rare. Though I would still suggest trying a different device, headphones or another set of speakers first just to rule that out. Finally a last ditch effort could be made by resetting the cmos on the board maybe (though i doubt this will have much impact, but maybe).

Having done all of this, i would almost say dead sound.

 

[Paperdoc]

Don't know if your on-board audio works like mine (ACxx on a ASUS mobo), but this is its standard mode. If I unplug anything from a port, then later plug something back in (with Windows running). a window pops up asking me to tell it exactly WHAT I just plugged into that port, with a default choice set. I MUST actually tell it an answer. If I do not, it will de-activate the port and it does nothing. This seems to be all part of a flexible system to allow re-configuration of all the audio connectors.

So, I have no doubt you unplugged everything in the move. If you started plugging things back in while it was running, or tried to unplug and change things around, this could have happened to you if that is how your audio system works.

With the computer running under Windows, try unplugging ALL the audio cables on the back. Then ONE AT A TIME, plug in one cable and look for a prompt to specify / configure the port you just plugged into, and actually make a choice for each. Then use your audio driver software utility to set the output mode (e.g., a 5.1 speaker system) and run a test to see if it puts out the right sounds.

 

[piasabird]

My guess is you have it plugged in wrong. Are the speakers getting power? Often it matters what order you plugged the items in such as speaker Line in (Input from non-computer source), Out (Speakers), digital audio, etc. Unplug all but speakers and then see if it show up after rebooting. By plugging in only one sound device your computer will tell you what it thinks is plugged in. Most speakers need power to work with a computer.