Deleted Sound Card Drivers, How to get them back?

flyinggoatgirl · 12th January 2009

While making room on my computer I aparently deleted the drivers for my sound card.
When I try to play anything I get the error:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly.

When I go to the Control Panel, sounds and Audio Devices, It says I have no audio device. I did until last night.

So my question is...How do I know what my sound card is and where do I download the drivers to make it work again?

Thanks,
Susan

Okay so I figured out that I needed to go to the computers manufacturers web page,as long as it is not an aftermarket sound card, click on downloads and drivers,put in the pertinent info and it told me the hardware it had, and has the drivers download.

Sorry for the brain fart. Maybe it will help someone else.

**wildfire** · 12th January 2009

Hi Susan,

Long time no speak

Probably the easiest way to ID your sound card is if you can ID your computer make/model or your motherboard make model.

This may not be enough if your computer is self built or second hand but it's worth looking at as a starting point.

To identify your motherboard please download CPU-Z and save it to your Desktop. Unzip and run cpuz.exe.

Select the Mainboard tab and post the details that are in the Manufacturer and Model fields.

Evan Omo · 12th January 2009

Susan another way to find out what the name of your sound driver is, is to follow these steps. Click start< Run and type dxdiag and press enter. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool will open. Click the Sound tab and record everything that is listed. Let me know what the name of your sound device is so wildfire and I can find drivers for it.

flyinggoatgirl · 13th January 2009

Okay so I had it working for a little while but now it is not again. So I did what y'all told me to and here is the findings.
The dxdiag box said:
device name: Realtek AC 97 Audio
Driver name: ALCXWDM.SYS
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp

The CPUID said:
Motherboard: Acer F62V
never found sound info

Evan Omo · 13th January 2009

Perfect. Good Job getting the information. I have the same sound device on my system. Download your audio drivers from here, http://softwarepatch.com/utilities/ac97.html.

**wildfire** · 13th January 2009

Good call Evan,

It's all news to me but as I say you're always learning with computers.

Evan Omo · 13th January 2009

Yep thats 100% true.

Evan Omo · 21st January 2009

So flyinggoatgirl, have you tried installing those drivers for your sound device? Did they work? Let me know.

flyinggoatgirl · 21st January 2009

Yes and it worked for a while then stopped again...Any Ideas

It works now if you have the speakers plugged in....DER

Evan Omo · 21st January 2009

Could you please provide a little more detail. Did the drivers install ok? How did they stop working? Do you have the volume muted? Click Start< Control Panel< Sounds and other Audio Devices< Sounds and Audio Devices, is your sound device recognized there? Click Start, Right Click on My Computer and click Properties. Click the hardware tab and then click device manager. Are there any yellow exclamation marks next to any devices? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers? I have those same drivers installed on my system and I have never had a problem with them.

Evan Omo · 21st January 2009

Woops, I missed your edit. Is everything working ok now?

flyinggoatgirl · 21st January 2009

Yes...I installed the drivers and it works fine. I just kicked the speaker cable aparently so it was not quite in all the way. I did however check that the first time when they had stopped working. So your suggestions were what fixed it.

Thanks, now I can jam to my pandora.com station in style!!!

Evan Omo · 22nd January 2009

Great. Glad you got your problem resolved.

If you appreciated me helping you out then you can add to my reputation level.