Sound stopped working

HannibalUK,

I did look at the link you gave me but could not find any information that appeared to be relevant. It was talking about Windows 98 SE.

Did I completely miss something?

SailingNut said:

HannibalUK said:

SailingNut said:

The problem is that it's NOT an NVIDIA chipset.

It's a realtek chip for audio. Somehow Windows thought it was an NVIDIA chip.

Realtek

Thanks for the link! I really should have tried that first, but I just couldn't get past the fact that it stopped working throught a reboot and I hadn't changed anything related to sound.

Unfortunately, that did not solve my problem. BUT, it did get me to look into it a bit deeper and the "problem" with the device is "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers ... Code 52".

I also see another driver with the same problem that I think should definately NOT have this problem. Under "System Devices" the "Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator" driver also has the "code 52" error.

Any ideas what might have gone wrong to cause this and how I might fix it?

A to Z of error codes;

System Error Codes (0-499) (Windows)

Suggestions:
1. Do you have a system restore point to a point before this problem appeared?

System Restore - How to use

2. Since the problem is unusual, try system file checker.
Oh yes, please read this tutorial from start to finish.
System File Checker - SFC /SCANNOW Command

3. Go into device manager, disable and Delete the driver. Shutdown. Power On.

4. Let's let Microsoft try:
MS Fix it Center Online
MS - Windows 7 Solution Center
No sound in Windows

5. Did you maybe, very recently, install some new software?

karlsnooks said:

Suggestions:
1. Do you have a system restore point to a point before this problem appeared?

System Restore - How to use

2. Since the problem is unusual, try system file checker.
Oh yes, please read this tutorial from start to finish.
System File Checker - SFC /SCANNOW Command

3. Go into device manager, disable and Delete the driver. Shutdown. Power On.

4. Let's let Microsoft try:
MS Fix it Center Online
MS - Windows 7 Solution Center
No sound in Windows

5. Did you maybe, very recently, install some new software?

Thanks, I tried all of the methods you recommended (except the restore point because I don't have any recent ones. I know BAD computer owner!) and unfortunately none of them worked.

The root of the problem seems to be that Windows cannot verify the digital signature of the driver files. When I ran the Fix it troubleshooter for audio, it didn't detect that I did not have sound drivers installed. It seemed to think that everything should be working just fine. So, it seems that the signature problem is preventing Windows from loading the driver.

The only thing I did recently was to install 2 Windows updates. Neither of the updates required a reboot and the sound worked just fine after installing the updates. I just decided to reboot afterward to "be safe." That didn't go so well!

Next step:
Repair Install

Thanks to all for the input!

The repair install seems to have worked and resolved a few other issues I was having.

Great! Glad to hear that all is well and that we could be of assistance.