Sound Devices Have Disappeared

boweasel · 02 Mar 2014

Have a Gateway M-Series laptop that came with 32 bit Vista Home Premium installed. We upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium (also 32 bit) several years ago and have had no problems until recently.

We have no sound. The speaker icon in the system tray has a red X to the right of it. Clicking on it opens a diagnostic page, that within 20 seconds says it couldn't identify the problem. When I go to Control Panel - Sound the Playback tab only displays an AMD High Definition Audio Device which it says is not plugged in. We DID have 2 other devices listed there previously, one of then being the default device labeled Speakers and Headphones. Device manager currently displays only the AMD HDMI sound device.

When I start the laptop I always get a msg that Catalyst Control Center host application has stopped working and that Windows is searching for a solution. It doesn't find one.

Yesterday I was somehow able to get everything back into place (Tweaking All in one repair?), but although it showed the speaker icon without the X, and another device displayed under Sound in Device Mgr, and the Speakers and Headphones was back under the Playback tab, and Windows Audio was enabled and started.... I still had no sound. A subsequent reboot brought back the red X in the system tray.

I have a W7 32 bit disk and when I attempt an in place upgrade it wants me to first deauthorize iTunes on the computer and remove ATI Catalyst Control Center and ATI Catalyst Install Manager. I have gone into Control Panel and (apparently) done a successful repair of AMD Catalyst Install Manager (I have no idea about the difference between ATI and AMD). After the 'repair' I rebooted and again got the msg that Catalyst Control Center host application has stopped working. I have no listing in the Programs and Features for anything referring to a Catalyst Control Center.

fireberd · 02 Mar 2014

ATI/AMD. ATI is now AMD, as it was bought by AMD several years ago. Catalyst Control Center would be for an ATI/AMD Video card. As this is a laptop, does this have a separate Video Card and does it have an HDMI connection? The Catalyst Control Center is not a "must have", just the video drivers however Windows probably downloaded the combination Catalyst Control Center and Video drivers. If you can figure out what video card you have, you can go to AMD and download the latest version and that may take care of the AMD problem.

Now, back to the PC Audio, which is a separate issue. Go to the Device Manager and Display the Sound Devices listed under Sound, Video and Game Controllers. The AMD HD Audio should be listed (for the HDMI Audio) and there should be another listing of your sound device (such as RealTek, VIA, etc). If there is a sound listed, what is it and does it show an error code? If it shows the generic basic function Windows installed "HD Audio Codec" that indicates the correct sound driver is not installed.

Please fill in the "My System Specs" so we know what we are dealing with. Helps us to help you and not speak in generalities, as I've done.

boweasel · 02 Mar 2014

We have a BUNCH of computers at our house, so I saved the Belarc info for this laptop a word document, which is an attachment. As I mentioned in my post I currently have nothing in Device Manager - Sound Video and Game Controllers other than the AMD HD Audio, which is also the only thing in the Control Panel/Sound/Playback tab. It is listed as Not Plugged In.

fireberd · 03 Mar 2014

The sound, according to what I find at Gateway is Sigmatel. HERE is the download.

It is not showing up in the Belarc advisor either. Check the BIOS as it may have been disabled in the BIOS. If its disabled in the BIOS, Windows will not detect it and you would not be able to install the drivers.

boweasel · 03 Mar 2014

fireberd said:

The sound, according to what I find at Gateway is Sigmatel. HERE is the download.

Thanks, but even though the properties of the link you provided - https://www.sevenforums.com/Gateway%20M-1629 indicate that it should take me to page from this forum that references this laptop, it does not. Clicking on your link removes the Gateway%20M-1629
part of the address and then directs me to the main page. If I go to the Gateway Drivers and Downloads page Gateway Support - Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / M Series / M-16 and download, extract and run the suggested Sigmatel Audio Driver I get a msg box

Configuring IDT Audio Driver and Applications
ExitError:Error=Device Object not present, restart the system and run setup again

fireberd said:

It is not showing up in the Belarc advisor either. Check the BIOS as it may have been disabled in the BIOS. If its disabled in the BIOS, Windows will not detect it and you would not be able to install the drivers.

This seems to be a very rudimentary BIOS set of screens. I can find nothing audio or sound related.

fireberd · 03 Mar 2014

It still sounds like it was disabled in the BIOS. Some refer to the on board audio as "legacy audio". If you don't have any customization in the BIOS, try resetting the BIOS and see what happens. If you do have some customization, note what it is before resetting the BIOS, reset the BIOS and then do the custom configuring.

boweasel · 03 Mar 2014

fireberd said:

It still sounds like it was disabled in the BIOS. Some refer to the on board audio as "legacy audio". If you don't have any customization in the BIOS, try resetting the BIOS and see what happens. If you do have some customization, note what it is before resetting the BIOS, reset the BIOS and then do the custom configuring.

I wish there was some way to show you the BIOS screens - I have 4 headings at the top - Main, Advanced, Security, Boot and Exit

Main - System Date and Time are edit capable. CPU Type and Speed and Memory displays are not
Advanced - Has 1 submenu - I/O Device Configuration (Internal WLAN State, Internal Blue Tooth Power State, Wake on LAN Feature, Display Selection. Other items are Legacy USB Support, Large Disk Access Mode, Wake On LTD Switch, Auto Dim, Battery Auto Learning, Quiet Boot Mode
Security - Supervisor Password, User Password, etc
Boot - Displays current boot order, and boot devices

And that's it...

Here are a few more screen images - the first one is the Device Manager and Playback tab when I have a red X next to the speaker icon in the systray. The second is how it looks now. The third is how the mixer sound screen looks now when I'm playing something from iTunes. It looks like I should be hearing something, but I'm not. The 4th is a current Belarc reading, with the additional Playback devices.

I set the BIOS back to the default settings and saved it. After the reboot I was back to the red X in the volume taskbar icon, and back to the first attachment image of this post

fireberd · 04 Mar 2014

The BIOS reset apparently worked. The fact that it now states "High Definition Audio Device" suggests the default, basic function, Windows installed sound driver is now installed. Try installing the correct sound driver, now.

Digital (S/PDIF) set as default playback device will not get you speaker sound, that is only for the S/PDIF port to some external digital device.

boweasel · 04 Mar 2014

fireberd said:

The BIOS reset apparently worked. The fact that it now states "High Definition Audio Device" suggests the default, basic function, Windows installed sound driver is now installed. Try installing the correct sound driver, now.

We are miscommunicating, somehow. In my last post I said I set the BIOS back to the default settings and saved it. After the reboot I was back to the red X in the volume taskbar icon, and back to the first attachment image of this post
What I meant by that:
In order to reset the BIOS it's necessary to reboot and hit F2, then hit F9 to load the defaults. Once I save those BIOS changes, the laptop continues to reboot. Now I am back to the red X. In the thumbnail below I've included the speaker taskbar icon.

boweasel · 04 Mar 2014

When I attempt to load the audio driver on the Gateway page I get this. And it doesn't matter which of the playback devices are present (or not present)