lost [sound and] volume [control] on my computer

I have lost the volume control on my computer, including the icon for the controls. Speakers won't work. It appears as if I have lost the sound card?
I was previously having Win32 problems but that has been resolved.
My son in law is afraid he is going to have to format the whole computer and start over. Everything else if finally running fine, Norton detects no spyware, viruss or anything else.

Not much good not having any sound coming out of your computer.

anyone have any ideas.

I am running Windows XP Professional, with Service pack 2

Thanks for you help and I hope I posted this in the right location, I haven't been on this site but a few times.

Ginny

 

Pete, mute is not checked, in fact it is not recognizing that there is ANY sound device. All the options are faded so I coud not check or uncheck anything if I wanted to (thus mute is not checked).

No icon on the desktop, where it used to be..........gone

Speakers have not been touched. I even tried to plug in a headphone into the headphone jack and notta............can't hear a thing.

Thanks
Ginny

 

Pete, at the control panel I do not having anything that says device manager. I have an icon that says "sounds and audio Properties" and when I click on it, there is nothing checked at all....I have the following headings there which are volume, sound, audio, voice, hardware.

The only other icon at the control panel which would pertain to this is the Sounds and Devices ..Game controllers and I have nothing there either.

That is all I can figure out your asking me. I have no game controllers on this computer, I don't play games at all.

 

Hi Ginny,

Device Manager can be found under Control Panel, then System, then Hardware, then Device Manager. Sound, Video and Game Controllers are listed there.

Good luck,

Carol

 

Thanks Carol!
There is a yellow exclamation mark out to the side of
" C-Media AC 97 Audio Device "

Ginny

 

one more thing:
I did the following...... start, all programs, accessories, entertainment and finally clicked on volume control.

I got the following:
There is no active mixer devices available. To install devices, to to control panel , click on printers and other hardware and then hardware.

Thanks

 

One can also get there by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties > Hardware > Device Manager

My best advice would include downloading and installing Everest 2.20. Then, use it to navigate to properties regarding your AC97 drivers (hint - Once open, Click on the computer and then the summary page. Navigate down to your audio chip and there will be a link just to the right of it which should get you to a motherboard or sound card driver update download site from the correct manufacturer associated with your audio chip. Download and install the latest drivers and you should be back in business. You can probably install them without too much worry about first uninstalling the disabled drivers. As another alternative, one could unpack the new drivers and go back to the disabled sound device in the control panel, right click and select properties and then update drivers by pointing to the extracted files. However, first check for an executable.



If it sounds confusing, post back.

 

Confusing to me, yes!
I sent my son in law a link to this board and will let him firgure it out from here, it is over my head. All other suggestions will be appreciated. I only know the basics!

Thanks
Ginny

 

Hi Pete,

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=65694 Ginny's Win32 problem.

Don't know how it was resolved.

Regards - Charles