PC sound problems. No system sounds, no audio.

Shoju · 09 Jun 2015

Dell Studio XPS 8100 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz 6 GIGs of RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1

I here as a last resort before formatting my hard drive.

A couple of weeks ago the sound on my PC up and died, for no apparent reason. Ran all the diagnostics/troubleshooting, checked my drivers (went so far as to uninstall/reinstall) and as far as my 'system' was concerned everything was working fine. But no sound. As a side note, Window Media player give me a "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file." whenever I tried to play any music, but I don't get any errors with VLC, but still no sound. Sound tests get an error message when dealing with sound options in the Control Panel.

I am the dumb and have no restore points prior to my sound going as I failed to act when the sound initially died, and my most recent ones are post-sound death.

I searched online for other Windows 7 sound issues (and there were a lot), checked my system against the majority of the major issues, and the problems that others were experiencing (hardware compatibility issues/device manger setup and such) was not something I was experiencing.

I went so far as to reinstall Windows on a drive partition, and when I boot up using that OS I have sweet, glorious sound. So I figure that I have somehow borked something on my primary OS, that doesn't exist on the small partition.

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

fireberd · 09 Jun 2015

Two items are needed to try and help you. A screenshot of the Sound, Playback panel and the Device Manager Sound section.
Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Here are mine for an example of what is needed.

Shoju · 09 Jun 2015

Okay, here are the two screenshots.

fireberd · 09 Jun 2015

The first thing I see is the Default playback device. S/PDIF on the ASUS Xonar is the default audio playback device. If you have speakers connected to the ASUS Xonar you need to set the "Speakers" ASUS Xonar as the default playback device.

I see Speakers High Defintion Audio Device showing which suggests the on-board (on the motherboard) audio is still enabled. As you are using a separate sound card, disable the on-board audio in the BIOS (F2 Setup). First, disable it since its not being used and so it won't conflict and Windows only allows one default playback device so it won't be used.

I also see multiple NVIDIA High Definition Audio entries in the Device Manager. You should only have one of these entries (and the NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device). This is for HDMI audio if you use the HDMI port on the Video card. There is also the Intel Display Audio which is the built in Video/HDMI capabilities in the Intel CPU. The Intel won't interfere, just pointing out what it is.

Bottom line, get the Speakers (ASUS Xonar) set as the default playback device.

The Logitech USB Headset does not use the PC's sound card (Xonar) as it is digital from the PC and converted to analog audio to drive the headset internally in the headset.

Shoju · 09 Jun 2015

Okay BIOS on-board sound disabled.

Speakers unplugged. I don't really use them and only had them plugged in when testing for sound.

As for the multiple NVIDIA entries in the Device Manager, under their Properties they all occupy locations 0-3 (Internal High Definition Audio Bus). Which are safe to keep, and which safe to remove?

Additionally, I am still getting the same error messages from both the Media Player and Sound test panel.

Another additional, I appreciate your taking the time help.

fireberd · 10 Jun 2015

I would uninstall all the NVIDIA and on reboot, only one should show up.

If you are using the USB connected headset, as noted that is acting as a sound card. The ASUS Xonar is not used with a USB headset.

For testing, disconnect the USB headset and use the PC speakers connected to the ASUS Xonar. See if things work OK, as a start.

Check the Recording Panel (in the Sound). "Stereo Mix" should be set as the Default Recording Device. It may not make any difference, but something that needs to be set/checked anyway.

MistUnleashed · 10 Jun 2015

fireberd said:

I would uninstall all the NVIDIA and on reboot, only one should show up.

If you are using the USB connected headset, as noted that is acting as a sound card. The ASUS Xonar is not used with a USB headset.

For testing, disconnect the USB headset and use the PC speakers connected to the ASUS Xonar. See if things work OK, as a start.

Check the Recording Panel (in the Sound). "Stereo Mix" should be set as the Default Recording Device. It may not make any difference, but something that needs to be set/checked anyway.

No! Don't uninstall the Nvidia Drivers!

@fireberd - I have a GTX460 and have friends with other GTX model cards and we all have 5 Nvidia Audio drivers show up in device manager, its just how the Nvidia Developers designed the HDMI audio. Unistalling them will just result in them reinstalling back to what they were. The Nvidia drivers will not be the issue.

@Shoju - If you enable all of the audio devices you have disabled in the Sound options then restart your computer, do you still have the issue?

Shoju · 10 Jun 2015

fireberd said:

If you are using the USB connected headset, as noted that is acting as a sound card. The ASUS Xonar is not used with a USB headset.

For testing, disconnect the USB headset and use the PC speakers connected to the ASUS Xonar. See if things work OK, as a start.

Check the Recording Panel (in the Sound). "Stereo Mix" should be set as the Default Recording Device. It may not make any difference, but something that needs to be set/checked anyway.

Done and still no luck.

MistUnleashed said:

@Shoju - If you enable all of the audio devices you have disabled in the Sound options then restart your computer, do you still have the issue?

Done and still no luck. No system sounds, no audio, same Windows Media Player/sound test error messages (as mentioned in the OP), no audio when using another media player (VLC).

What is frustrating is that I have sound on the small partition drive (see OP), so I have clearly somehow effed things up on my primary OS side of things.

MistUnleashed · 10 Jun 2015

Shoju said:

Done and still no luck. No system sounds, no audio, same Windows Media Player/sound test error messages (as mentioned in the OP), no audio when using another media player (VLC).

What is frustrating is that I have sound on the small partition drive (see OP), so I have clearly somehow effed things up on my primary OS side of things.

If you are getting sound on the other boot drive then yes, the problem is definitely software related and not hardware related.

Have you run SFC? If not, follow these steps:

Start > Run > cmd (Run as administrator)
Type: SFC /SCANNOW
Hit Enter
Let the file checker run, then restart the PC

Let me know what happens, if anything.

Shoju · 10 Jun 2015

MistUnleashed said:

Shoju said:

Done and still no luck. No system sounds, no audio, same Windows Media Player/sound test error messages (as mentioned in the OP), no audio when using another media player (VLC).

What is frustrating is that I have sound on the small partition drive (see OP), so I have clearly somehow effed things up on my primary OS side of things.

If you are getting sound on the other boot drive then yes, the problem is definitely software related and not hardware related.

Have you run SFC? If not, follow these steps:

Start > Run > cmd (Run as administrator)
Type: SFC /SCANNOW
Hit Enter
Let the file checker run, then restart the PC

Let me know what happens, if anything.

Yeah I found a thread (either on this forum or another Windows 7 help site) and followed the instructions to run SFC a couple of times and if nothing came of that (I still got some files can't be fixed message) then to download and run a Windows driver updater and a Window Hotfix package (both from Microsoft). Both to no avail.

I can run the SFC again right now and give you the exact wording of the end result.