Troubleshooting No Sound from CPU: Tips for Fixing a Broken Sound Card

[EL]

Have problem with my cpu, there is no sound.
After trying different speakers and no one worked, I came to the conclution that the sound card, which is integrated, must be broken. Hence I bought a new one and plugged it in.
The cpu seems to have had no problems with finding it and installing the right driver, everything seems fine with that. But there is still no sound!
Then I heard that maybe one had to kind of switch off the integrated sound card in BIOS before the new one could work. Now I have tried to switch on and off about everything that seems to have something to do with the sound in BIOS (without really knowing what I'm doing), but I still cannot make it work.
Can feel the frustration coming, and that's why I turn to you guys for help!
Anyone who has any suggestion what I could do to solve this?

 

[z-component]

At first glance, I thought of the possibility of disabled sound in the BIOS settings, but you say you tried messing with that. Is it possible that you chose to enable sound but forgot to save the settings in BIOS?

 

[EL]

At first glance, I thought of the possibility of disabled sound in the BIOS settings, but you say you tried messing with that. Is it possible that you chose to enable sound but forgot to save the settings in BIOS?

No not really, I did it carefully, and several times...
However I saw there where several things having to do with the sound. I guessed the changing should be done under a headline I think was called "Integrated components" or something similar.

 

[Anttech]

What OS are you using? Serious question here, sorry no offence, but have you checked if the line you are using is muted or not at the OS level?

 

[EL]

What OS are you using? Serious question here, sorry no offence, but have you checked if the line you are using is muted or not at the OS level?

I'm using Windows XP. Yes I have checked it's not muted! (Although it would be typically me to do something like that. )

 

[Ouabache]

You may want to double check the jack(s) on your new soundcard, to be sure you are plugging into the speaker output. I have even gone to the extreme of mapping each port on my sound card (on paper or text file) because I use several of them and always forget which is which.

Once you verify that, I would go back and enable all your audio settings in BIOS. Then toggle them one at a time and see what happens. Perhaps you can post the text of each audio setting you are seeing in the BIOS.

 

[The_Professional]

Have problem with my cpu, there is no sound.
After trying different speakers and no one worked, I came to the conclution that the sound card, which is integrated, must be broken. Hence I bought a new one and plugged it in.
The cpu seems to have had no problems with finding it and installing the right driver, everything seems fine with that. But there is still no sound!
Then I heard that maybe one had to kind of switch off the integrated sound card in BIOS before the new one could work. Now I have tried to switch on and off about everything that seems to have something to do with the sound in BIOS (without really knowing what I'm doing), but I still cannot make it work.
Can feel the frustration coming, and that's why I turn to you guys for help!
Anyone who has any suggestion what I could do to solve this?

Try this:
Click on Start--->All Programs--->Accessories--->Entertainment--->Volume Control

On the menu you'll see:
Play Control Wave MP3 MIDI Synth CD Audio Line-In

Then see if any mute box is selected. De-select it

 

[EL]

You may want to double check the jack(s) on your new soundcard, to be sure you are plugging into the speaker output. I have even gone to the extreme of mapping each port on my sound card (on paper or text file) because I use several of them and always forget which is which.

Once you verify that, I would go back and enable all your audio settings in BIOS. Then toggle them one at a time and see what happens. Perhaps you can post the text of each audio setting you are seeing in the BIOS.

I'm in control over which jack I should use.
Although I've played around in BIOS quite a bit already, I'll give it another shot as you said...

 

[EL]

Try this:
Click on Start--->All Programs--->Accessories--->Entertainment--->Volume Control

On the menu you'll see:
Play Control Wave MP3 MIDI Synth CD Audio Line-In

Then see if any mute box is selected. De-select it

Do I have to switch on my computer first? (Ironic)

 

[-Job-]

You could try going to Control Panel -> Sounds And Audio Devices -> Audio Tab and making sure that it is set to playback with the desired sound card. If you have a set of headphones plug them into your cd drive headphone jack, this might help you find the problem. Did you do anything that might have led to this? Did you ever have any sound before? Did it suddenly stop?

 

[EL]

Did you do anything that might have led to this?

Not that I'm aware of...

Did you ever have any sound before? Did it suddenly stop?

Yes, for four years until just a few weeks ago. I had noticed for some time before the sound disappeared that it had become somewhat worse. At first I just thought it was my old speakers which broke down, but now I have realized no other speakers works either.

 

[meL]

not all computers
have the correct drivers installed...

Even *new computers show
up with bad drivers sometimes.

Even the drivers offered by the
experts may fail.

Be careful :-)
Be ready to uninstall a new install(rollback)