Replaced HD and have no sound

2112Rush

Member
Feb 21, 2008
75
1
71
I'm asking this for my brother so I may be missing some details. Was just wondering if there is anyone who can help from the info I have so far.

He used a hard drive from a laptop and replaced the one in his laptop. They were the same Acer laptop. They are at least 10 years old. I can get the model number if that matters. He has no sound. When he tries to update the driver for the sound, it says Windows 7 can't find one.

I'm not sure if something needs to be done with the BIOS or some other setting.

I can find out more info if you guys need it.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

damian101

Senior member
Aug 11, 2020
291
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Unless he went into the BIOS settings and disabled the audio there's no need to go in the BIOS settings.
It's most likely a driver issue. If you give me the exact laptop model I might be able to help.
There's also third-party software that automatically finds and installs drivers.
 

killster1

Banned
Mar 15, 2007
6,208
475
126
I'm asking this for my brother so I may be missing some details. Was just wondering if there is anyone who can help from the info I have so far.

He used a hard drive from a laptop and replaced the one in his laptop. They were the same Acer laptop. They are at least 10 years old. I can get the model number if that matters. He has no sound. When he tries to update the driver for the sound, it says Windows 7 can't find one.

I'm not sure if something needs to be done with the BIOS or some other setting.

I can find out more info if you guys need it.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
yea windows 7? first problem, second problem is you should be downloading your drivers manually not asking windows to find them.
 

2112Rush

Member
Feb 21, 2008
75
1
71
damian101, I will try to get a model number either tonight or tomorrow. Is the software freeware? Thanks for the help.

killster1, What's wrong with Windows 7? I know it's not supported anymore, but I've never had a problem with it. I'd rather have Windows 7 than 8 or 10.

I'm not sure how he looked for them. I'll have to ask. Thanks.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
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It wasn't entirely uncommon for some makes/models of mobos back in the day to use sound or network chips "of the week". The mobo vendor would provide multiple drivers on theitr site, and leave it for the customer to decide/choose.

BTW, OP, look under Device Manager at the "Sound", "Unknown", and "Other" device categories, and see if the devices shows up as present in the system. Look under "Hardware IDs", and post a pic here, and search for those ID strings, you may find some chipset mfg drivers for that device.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Also an aside, there are laptops in existence, that take a max of 4GB of DDR1 or possibly DDR2, but if you fill them with the max 4GB of RAM, the audio no longer works in Windows.

You need to soft-clip the RAM limit in Windows to 3GB. Weird, I know.

Did you perchance expand the RAM to 4GB as well, when you had it apart?

This may have been with Conexant Audio, which was popular back then.
 

2112Rush

Member
Feb 21, 2008
75
1
71
VirtualLarry, I don't believe any RAM was added. I will look under Device Manager and see what I can find.

The model number is Aspire 5742Z-4813
 

2112Rush

Member
Feb 21, 2008
75
1
71
I think I fixed it.

Unchecked the box for HDMI sound
Downloaded the driver for the Realtek Audio. I now have sound.

Only thing is when I went to download the driver, I got a message. Said something about the driver might not be right for the computer and could cause issues. Not sure why that would be. I'm not exactly sure what it said though. I'll have to have my brother let me know if it crashes or has other issues.

Thanks to everyone who helped!