sound doesn't work

[Pirotech]

Hi all

I have a problem with the sound on my computer. It doesn't work. At all. It means that sound and audio settings are disabled. And every time I run my XP the window "new device found" appears and offers to install it via the installation wizard but failed to install every time I try complete the operation. In device maager the sound device is detected as several '?'.
I get this computer by right of succession from the friend of mine And actually I don't know whether it worked earlier. I thought this problem is related to drivers. But I downloaded and installed the driver from the manufacturer site and it didn't help
Can anybody help? Don't want to think the problem is in the hardware..

 

[hjo3]

You might try burning Knoppix to a CD and booting with it. If it's a driver (or other non-hardware) problem, you should be able to play sounds within the Knoppix OS. Once it's firmly determined that it's not a hardware issue we can try mucking around with XP.

Or if you want a really quick & dirty fix you could just disable the onboard sound (in the BIOS and in Windows) and buy one of those $20 "USB sound cards."

 

[Pirotech]

thanks, hjo3
I'll try and let you know of the result

 

[Lemon law]

Nothing wrong with trying knoppix---it can't hurt but may not help. But this could be any one of a huge number of other things. But is this an add on sound card or a onboard sound chip?
How do you know if your speakers work and are they powered or non-powered speakers? You can find your motherboard using system information and then download a manual. You may need to set jumpers on the mobo to get your sound to work. Another thing to try if you have an add on card is to remove it, reboot, then shut down and put the card in another mobo slot.
And your bios may be mis-set for the sound set up you have. You can also try your soundcard on another computer to rule out hardware problems.

Your problem is that you now know almost nothing---and troubleshooting involves finding out--step by step--whats good and whats bad. And if your sound card is bad---cheer up---most medium quality sound cards are really cheap.

 

[Pirotech]

It works now. Audio was simply disabled in BIOS. I thought I've checked this before and all worked right in BIOS but I went there today and sound was disabled! I turned it on and all works now!

Thanks to everybody!