No sound from Realtek AC97 audio device

I'm having problems with the audio from my Realtek AC97 device. I've checked all the usual things in the Device Manager and Control Panel and everything related to audio seems to be working normally. However, I get no sound out of my speakers, eg nothing from playing a Windows sound or from Windows Media player.

BUT if I go to the Device Manager, disable the Realtek device and then immediately enable it again, then the sound magically works fine ..... until I power off or restart the PC at which point the audio is lost again and I have to go through the same procedure to re-enable it.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be wrong or, more importantly, how I can fix the problem permanently please.

By the way, the audio was working fine until I had to do a Windows 'repair' to fix other system problems. The repair all went ok, I ran Windows Update to bring the system up to date - and then I had the audio problem described above. Everything else seems to be working ok. I'm running Windows XP SP2.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Paul.

 

Thanks PeteC. I'll try the latest driver from the Realtek site as you suggest. By the way, can you control whether Windows Update updates device drivers in addition to applying all the usual security updates etc ? I'm not aware of having updated the device driver this way but then its certainly possible since I just let WU do its own thing.
Regards, Paul.

 

I recently loaded WIN XP Pro SP2 on a new hard drive and when I did the Windows update I noticed there was a Realtek AC97 driver update. I choose not to install it and then noticed in device manager that the Realtek had an exclamation point - in other words, something was wrong. Since I had to reinstall WIN XP because I forgot to disconnect the 2nd HD, I decided to go back to Windows update and install the Realtek AC97 update before I reinstalled to see what would happen. Sure enough, the exclamation mark in device manager was gone.
Incidentally the Realtek update was listed as a critical one. I wonder if that may be part of your problem?

 

MS April 2007 update KB925902 broke a couple of things, one of them being Realtek AC97 audio. The recommended fix, download and install current drivers from Realtek.

 

reinstall the drivers
see if you cannot get the most current
who knows
a windows update might of done it
Also check your bios for the settings for the onboard audio
Sound and sound drivers can be a real bother

 

Thanks for the additional responses. It sounds like Windows Update could well be the casue of the problem so I'll certainly try downloading the latest Realtek drivers to see if that fixes it.
Regards, Paul

 

Audio problem cured

Following the advice received on this forum I finally got around to downloading and installing a new audio driver from Realtek (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/ ) and am pleased to say it resolved the problem.

Thanks again to all who helped with this, Regards, Paul.