What if you turn on your computer one day and you have no sound? You used it yesterday and it was working fine but today you discover that you are getting no sound. In this article I will show you how to troubleshoot your computer when it has no sound.
No sound issues take place all the time because one simple change and the sound may not work. We can unknowingly turn off the sound without even realizing it. Some of the steps to troubleshoot no sound issues may seem elementary but you would be surprised how we can ignore the obvious.
First thing you need to do is to check your sound connections. Are your speakers connected and turned on? Are your speakers connected to the correct sound card ports? You could have a small child or pet that could accidentally pull the wires loose. When it comes to small children they do get into things and could unplug you without you even being aware of it. I once new a lady whose child put a small toy inside the floppy drive. Naturally the floppies would not insert at all with the toy inside.
One quick way to check if its your speakers and not your sound card is to plug a headset directly into the sound card port. If you hear sound than you know the problem is in your speakers or connection.
If you determine the problem is in your speakers than check your volume controls on your speakers and sub woofer if you have one. If you hear sound than the problem is solved. If you still don’t hear sound your speakers could be faulty. If your in warranty your computer manufacturer would send you a new set.
If you plug your headset into the sound port and you get no sound than we must check Windows configuration. The most obvious things to check first would be the volume controls in windows.
On your task bar you should have speaker icon. If you don’t than you would go into the control panel and find the sound properties. If your novice you would click start|control panel|sound and audio devices. First thing you want to look for is to make sure the mute is no checked. If it is than uncheck it.
Next you would check your volume controls and make sure the slider is not too low or all the way down. By clicking on the advanced tab you can check all your volume controls for each device make sure none are muted except microphone and line in. The microphone volume is controlled by sound applications thats why it is muted here and also stops any feedback.
The next thing you want to check is your speaker volume tab make sure the sliders are not all the way down. There is also and advanced tab for speakers there make sure it is set to right the speakers you have most of the time this should read stereo speakers. Change it if it is not correct.
Click the audio tab at the top and make sure for that each default device says the name of your sound card except the midi device should be Microsoft’s wave device. If your for some reason your default device does not list the name of your sound card go into system properties and check device manager. If your sound card is not installed properly there will be a splat or maybe disabled. In that case delete it and reinstall your sound card software.
If you have done everything and still do not have sound than you might need to replace your sound card. If it is built on board than you can purchase a sound card for less than $60. Sound boards or motherboards do fail and need to be replaced but its better just to replace a sound card for a motherboard that has no sound.
This will help you to troubleshoot no sound effectively.
