Sound of Silence!

[cresser]

Hi all,

Hope someone can help me here, I have apparently, `Lost` the sound on my pc. I have checked the connection, and the mute is not used, any ideas how I can get the sound back? Cheers, cresser.

[Elizabeth Herts]

I had exactly the same problem yesterday and scratched my head for a while. My 3-year-old grandson had been visiting and watching things with me.

Finally, I discovered that although the mute button wasn't on, the volume control was switched right down!

[cresser]

Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for replying, I should have said originally, but the volume is at full blast, sowhat has gone wrong I have no idea. Cheers, cresser.

[DavidNewton]

If you have more than one playback device, e.g, speakers via mini jack and high definition audio via HDMI the the default playback device may have been changed - I don't know why. If you have a speaker icon in the system tray then right-click it and choose playback devices to see the current default and change it if it is the wrong one.

[cresser]

Hi David, Thankyou for your help. I have only speakers that are in the monitor thats all, but I did look as you suggested, and the options were; Speakers, a Digital Output Device or Headphones (which I do not use), so I clicked on the speakers icon and there is still nothing, so I tried the D.O.D. Icon, but again nothing. I don`t mind that much about the lack of sound, but the option is nice!. Cheers David, cresser.

[PeteW1959]

First thing to do is find out if it is the speakers, the lead or the computer. Easiest way to do this is plug headphones into the PC and see what you get. If you don't have any headphones, Poundland sell some really poor quality ones, but they will be good enough to test the output.

If you get sound on the headphones you can rule out the computer and look to the lead or the monitor for the fault (although it is highly unlikely both speakers would fail at the same time).

If you get nothing through the headphones then the problem lies with the PC. Again unlikely it would be a hardware fault affecting both channels at the same time, so you need to look to driver settings.

The settings are highly dependent on your sound card. But as already mentioned right click on the speaker icon in the system tray is the best place to start. If you select 'Open Volume Control' from the right click, you should get a window with several sliders. There should be a 'Master' channel on the left, with several other channels. Make sure none of the 'Mute' boxes are checked, and the sliders are all the way up.

Without knowing your exact hardware setup, it is difficult to give any more advice.

[cresser]

Hi PeteW1959, I have just tried your suggestion, and there are two slides, one just says `speaker` the other `windows sounds` and both are set to maximum, so I think it must be something to do with the computer. Thankyou though for taking the time and trouble to offer advice, I do appreciate it. Cheers, cresser.

[Grimsqueaker]

If the speakers are built in your monitor then the monitor WILL have its own volume control.
This will be either a dial, a pair of buttons or a menu function.

[cresser]

Hi Grimsqueaker, Thanks for that info, but I have checked that and it is set to full volume, as are all the volume settings. I think either I have done something to mess it up - don`t know what though - or its cream-crackered. Appreciate your help, cheers, cresser.

[Grimsqueaker]

Do you have a phone or an MP3 player that you could plug the speakers into to test if they are working??