Cannot open any audio controls.

[ctell88]

Hello. Ive had a weird problem on my pc. I cannot open volume mixer, playback devices, recording devices, sounds or volume controls, even through control panel. The way i am able to turn up the volume from pc is through my keyboard. Other problems that I have are I cannot open the change date/time settings from anywhere through the pc, even if i go through control panel. I am only able to open paint and calculator if i open through Run as Administator. I have already re-installed the audio drivers to see if that at least fixes opening up audio controls. I am running windows 7 64-bit.

 

[boohbah]

run sfc scan several times (3)
see if that helps.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[ctell88]

I ran the command three times. All three times it found no integrity violations. Any other suggestions? I really dont want to wipe my hard drive.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Have you checked your system for any malicious spyware, trojans and worms....cause that's what it sure sounds like.

 

[ctell88]

I ran avg anti-virus and it found nothing. I think I've had this problem since i installed windows. Maybe later in the week when i noticed it and when i wanted to change where the audio was coming out from. Anything else?

 

[boohbah]

sorry for the delay, i would attempt a repair install, as you say it has been an issue since you had 7.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[ctell88]

Hey thanks for responding. Well i followed the tutorial and did a repair install but still have the same problems. Even the date is still messed up. Please tell me there's more options other than wiping hard drive.

 

[boohbah]

doesnt look promising,
dont do that yet, (reinstall)
i'll ask some other members to have a look at this thread.
it would be a good idea to back up your important data to an external or other drive.

 

[Britton30]

Confirm the date/time is correct in your BIOS.

 

[ctell88]

I changed the date in the BIOS. I have the correct date now but still cant change date/time from windows, along with my other problems.

 

[Britton30]

Is Windows displaying the wrong time?

 

[ctell88]

It is correct now because i changed it through the BIOS. However, I still cannot open the change date/time settings from windows. I want to sync it with internet but i cant because of this.

 

[Britton30]

Did you go through the laborious updates after the repair install?

 

[Barman58]

One thing I would do, if only to eliminate one possible cause, is to create a new Admin user and see if this user can access the controls involved. If it can then you would need to migrate your personal settings to the new user but as you have these issues I would personally start from scratch with this user, except for Data, and once all done delete the old user (an option is presented to save all files to the desktop which is always a good idea)

 

[ctell88]

I installed all 90+ updates and made a new admin account. Still the same problems. Is it that time yet to wipe and start fresh?

 

[Britton30]

Try another scan first, if you like. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/166445-windows-defender-offline.html#post1424613
Also try MalwareBytes free, not trial , version, link in my sig.

I just had an idea, try going to Advanced Startup Options, tapping F8 during boot up and click Last known good configuration (advanced) See if that might do it.

 

[Slartybart]

ctell88: It would be very helpful to know more about your machine - please update your system specs (use the easy system specs link in my sig)

You might also want to publish a Speccy report (file menu PUBLISH) and provide the link in a new post on this thread. The more information members know about your machine and software environment, the better they can determine a solution.

A quick search turned up a soultion by resetting the filetype association for .lnk
You might try the SevenForums default filetpye associations tutorial and scroll down to lnk - Shortcut link (lnk) files.
or directly download the reg file to restore lnk association here
lnk - Shortcut link (LNK) files.

This might get your control panel back in operation.

Thanks