Ok, for all you techies out there I have quite a conundrum. My 2002 HP Pavillion 7845 with Windows ME decided that it would all of a sudden stop playing sound one day. So I went to the device manager to check and see whats up. The Audio codecs which came soldiered to the motherboard appeared to be in working order (there were no exclamation marks in the list) and when I checked it it claimed that "This device is working properly". So then I checked the driver details and those were all up to date. Then, I thought It might be my directX so I checked the status of that and it was at 9.0. So I'm not quite sure what exactly is going on. All I really know is that the little sound control thing in the system tray has completely dissapeard and my computer doesn't recognize an audio playback device. And yes, my speakers are plugged in and working and yes, I have tried rebooting. Is it just time to give in and buy a PCI soundcard or can you guys pull me through this one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ 05-07-2005, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: Piestrider ]

Well, I haven't got Windows anymore to test it on and I never used ME, but the next place to look would be in the control panel - IIRC there's something like 'Audio and Sound', something like that. There's an option under there to place the volume icon in the system tray and you should be able to make sure that Windows has the correct devices selected.

For some odd reason it won't even let me choose a device from the pulldown screen for audio playback

uninstall the on board sound card, restart, let your comp find it and attempt to reinstall

that may not work.

[ 05-07-2005, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: RevRuby ]

It is possible to mute your sound. You might check for that.

You might also make sure that the speakers are plugged into the correct outlets. I usually figure out which ones are correct by trying them all and stopping when I hear something [img]smile.gif[/img]

To test, I go into Control Panel, Sounds. Then I pick an event with a sound associated and click the test "play" button until I'm satisfied. It's a really quick way to test on demand, and if it doesn't work there, it won't work anywhere... :(

You might also try a Windows repair install. Your comment that the sound icon suddenly disappeared makes me think of that... could be useful.

Good luck.

Well, Shamrock unfortunately it won't let me select an audio playback device in the audio and sounds tab. Rev Ruby, I did what you said too but unfortunately no dice. Bungleau, I just checked all the cables, everything is where it is supposed to be but just in case i plugged it into each slot individually and nothing happened. I also checked mute and once again nothing happened. Finally, I went into the audio and sound tab again and it wont even let me play the sounds like asterisk and critical stop. Oh well, keep the tech advice coming guys, i'm sure we'll get this figured out. Oh yeah, by the way... does anyone know how to post screenshots. I took 2 to show what is going on but i don't know how to upload images in ironworks.

Did you reinstall the drivers already? They should be on your motherboard CD or you can find them on the manufacturer's site.

To post screenshots...after you have taken the screenshot paste it in something like Paint, or MSWORD. Then you need to upload it on a website (or mail it to someone who has online storage, and we will put it up for you.) Then you just link it with the [IMG] [/IMG] tags.

As for your problem, do you have a virus? Do you have the latest sound drivers? Have you installed any devices lately?

thanks for the info RoSs, I'll try to find someone with some space online. I tried to post it on my geocities account but unfortunately it has been deactivated. I'll run the virus scan software but I'm pretty sure I don't have a virus because I have run Norton after the sound went out. I do know for a fact that I have the latest drivers and I don't remember installing anything new lately that would lead to this problem. How would I be able to tell if there was a conflict?

FINALLY! I got the screenshots to work. See if this helps at all.
http://www.geocities.com/piestrider/screenshot1.bmp</IMG>
http://www.geocities.com/piestrider/screenshot2.bmp</IMG>