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Thread ID: 76072	2007-01-19 21:36:00	Sound not working	Emsley (9394)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
517699	2007-01-19 21:36:00	My son installed XP over ME 2000 on an older computer and now it appears not to be recognising the sound card/hardware. Is there a potential fix on this or does he need to give up on the idea of running XP on a 6 year old desktop? Thanks	Emsley (9394)
517700	2007-01-19 21:57:00	Over it!! :horrified A clean install on a formatted hard drive is the correct way. He will need to install all drivers, sound, graphics, motherboard chipset etc. And yes a 6 year old PC may not run it well, you'll need a minimum of 256Mb. Why did he? Beats me why people think putting a newer O/S on older PCs does anything good.	pctek (84)
517701	2007-01-20 00:31:00	As pctek says, "He will need to install all drivers, sound, graphics, motherboard chipset etc." That will solve the sound problem. Good luck	bk T (215)
517702	2007-01-20 02:27:00	There's more advantages to running a newer OS than disadvantages. Hey Emsley, Go easy on your son, we learn from our mistakes, next time he does an upgrade like this, he should write down/print the list of devices that will need drivers, things like display adapter/graphics card, modem, audio, network/LAN/Ethernet, chipset, etc, it's also a good idea to download these first and put them onto CD so if by chance you don't have internet access after the install, you already have the drivers ready. First of all before I get you into the hard stuff, lets just go over the basics, is the speakers turned on (powered and volume up), and plugged into the right connector on the back of the computer, usually on the back of the sound card, they are colour coded, green is the audio out for which your speakers plug into to, if the colours are not present, then staring at the computer from the back it's either the left side, or the top depending on the way the mini-jack ports are going (horizontal/vertical). Don't be offended if this is child's play advice, I've been caught out by basic problems because you never suspect it from anyone. Is the volume control symbol in the bottom right of the taskbar when in windows, it probably won't be if there's no sound devices, so lets go into Start | All Programs | Accessories | Entertainment | Volume Control did Windows XP say no Audio devices found or similar message? Good, there definitely is no Audio device. If there is, it'll display the volume control and you should check that nothing is muted and the sound is up as well as for PCM/WAV (Wave), most likely everything can be top volume except microphone. If you have information on this computer, now would be a good time. If it's a brand computer, what brand and model. If you have the motherboard manual, what's the motherboard make and model, visit the vendors website, locate your motherboard and download the drivers you need. If no Audio Devices and don't want to open the case, We must try to figure out what the devices are, first of all lets go into System Properties. You do this by Right-Clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties, this should start you off in the General tab, where there's some interesting information about your computer specs below, though we want to go into the Hardware tab (left-click) and then left click on Device Manager. Just quickly scanning through the lists, you should see device(s) that have Yellow Triangles with a question/exclamation mark, these mean XP does not have the drivers for them or they aren't working correctly, if there's more than 1 then knowing which one is the sound comes down to knowing your devices. You should list the names of all devices here. We can solve this hopefully by downloading and installing Unknown Device Identifier. Found at www.zhangduo.com After downloading it, just run the program, it should now list all the devices, go through the list looking for anything related to unknown device or Audio. I wouldn't rely on this program to find the driver for you, usually I just right click on it and say contact vendor and it takes me to the vendor's website contact information page, from there I look for my device and driver from the vendors website by going into the support link or driver download. If you're going to have difficulty here in finding your driver, then providing as much information about what you have found out would help solve this problem. Opening the case could be a last resort if needs be, it's usually my first choice because it's quicker for me to see the motherboard make, model and version and also if it's a internal sound card what make and model. From there I just go to the appropriate websites and download the drivers for it. Cheers, KK	Kame (312)
517703	2007-01-20 03:09:00	Kame: That's a wonderfully informative post about sound problems & where on the comp to find possible solutions. I suspect many new users who use the forum's Search in future will be glad you took the time & trouble...	Laura (43)
517704	2007-01-20 04:41:00	er . . . just one more idea . . . I got caught up on this problem once because I had failed to click off the "Digital Output Only" box . The speakers were analog and they just cannot produce anything in digital mode . You won't see any yellow question marks with this mistake either . . . the puter thinks everything is well and good . It boils sown to operator stooooo-pidity . . . things which Windows cannot parse . . . . just a thought . . . . but I was deeply embarrassed .	SurferJoe46 (51)
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