Sound not coming through speakers

My Altec Lansing speakers don't seem to be detected. I plug them in, but nothing happens. It was as if they weren't even there. At the moment,my sound is coming through the in built speakers and they sound terrible. I think my sound card is SoundMAX, not quite sure though as it doesn't say in the device manager.

I agree with your assessment, it is likely your sound card. Make sure the hardware is compatible and the driver is updated: Update a driver for hardware that isn't working properly.

Cheers,
Tara
Windows Outreach Team