Sound problems...

Hey all,
I am having some issues with my Windows XP MCE.
I have two users setup on my computer. My wife has a user account and I have one. All of a sudden my sound has stopped working. Subsequent tests have provided this information.
When I go to sound properties all controls are disabled, (as if the driver is corrupted). When I play pandora radio, system sounds, (like startup and shutdown sounds) are all silent. So I went to Dell service website and downloaded latest drivers for the sound system shown installed on my computer and updated the drivers. Still no sound..I went to bed frustrated and mad at my computer.
Today I was browsing the internet and found a video I wanted to watch. It opened in an IE window with Windows media player, WOW the sound worked! So I tried opening Windows Media PLayer and inserted a CD and it also gave sound.
My wife was on her profile on this same computer later today and as the computer opened her user account there was the startup sounds and all her windows sounds like closing windows and opening applications and such! I went to the Sound properties and found that all the controls were active.
So, naturally I thought I had it fixed and turned off the computer and restarted in my user account.
You guessed it, everything is as it was last time I looked and there are no system sounds on my user account.
Computer is a Dell Dimension E310 Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM and a 160 GBHDD
HELP!!!

Thank you in advance.
Mike

 

It sounds like you have a hardware problem. I'm pretty sure that you have integrated sound on that box but you can verify that at the Dell.com site. If so, there is little you can do other than abandon the mobo sound port and get a separate sound card installed.

It won't be the speakers or their connections since you say all the features are blanked out.

Next time you get the problem, look in the Device Manager under Sound and see if there is any Yellow flags there. Normally a hardware failure will show up as such.

 

Thank you for your fast response dude,
I think I have ruled out hardware problems as everything appears to be normal on my wife's user account. The system sounds and all. Even on my account, Windows media player seems to work the speakers just fine.
Still baffeled.

 

can i ask did you make some change on your system before you got this sound issue?? like install new application or some unusual BSOD

Seems your sound only works with the wmp , which is very strang, i'm not sure if its relatived,but you can try to check the sound properties to see if they are still disabled next time when you play wmp

Also , u can try to log on using a new account to see if you have all your sound back ,if so , it can narrow this issue in your account

good luck

Bob

 

OK here's the scoop.
I was poking around in my sound and audio properties control panel, On the "audio" tab the default playback had been changed from sigmatel audio to Line #1 modem sound device.
I have no idea how this happenned, but i know that my son has been playing around on my computer.
I cannot say for sure that it was him and my wife would kill me if I mention something like that. LOL you get the idea.
I have selected the correct default sound device in that window and all is well.

 

What a blessing! I had a son like that (he's grown out of it now) and he taught me a lot about how to fix things. Who would have thought I'd ever miss the fun of that.

All the best.