No sound from internet, but have system sounds

[KenY7744]

I'm working on a rebuild of an old Dell. I disabled the onboard sound, and installed several different PCI sound cards. The system is not my main system, but a spare. It's a 32-bit processor, but has Win7 Pro 64 OS.

The onboard sound adapter is so old, I could not get 64-bit drivers from Dell, so I disabled it and bought a couple of PCI sound cards. The drivers installed properly, but I can not get sound from internet, such as YouTube, Pandora no matter which sound adapter is used. This is true in either FireFox or IE9.

But I **DO** get sound from system events such as opening or closing Windows, beeps, errors, etc. **AND** I can play MP3 files from my HD through WMP.

I have downloaded the latest Flash player from Adobe, but I'm not sure if it was 32-bit or 64-bit Flash Player. Would this matter?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[chrisf8657]

There is no possible way you can install a 64-bit OS onto a 32-bit Processor. It won't work. Period. End of Story.
Either you have a 64-bit processor, or your confused as to which version of Windows 7 you have.

Goto Control Panel -> System. Under "System Type" it will say either 32-bit or 64-bit OS.

Try some of these first:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/No sound in Firefox

Do me a favor in Firefox too - goto Tools -> Addons -> Plugins.
Tell me if Flash is listed in there and what it says.

 

[KenY7744]

Are you sure about that? Because it's a 7-year-old DELL (pretty sure that preceeds 64-bit processors), and it does have a 32-bit processor (Pentium 2.6GHz) and the system properties screen does show that it's a 64-bit OS.

So... not confused.

And almost everything does work except the sound from internet sites.

So, I take exception to "no possible way" and "period, end of story." It may be your experience that you can't do this, but other's experiences may be different.

I will explore the link you gave me.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[chrisf8657]

Ken,

If you are going to tell me I don't know what I am doing when I do, ESPECIALLY when I am, ask someone else on another forum. If it says you are running a 64-bit OS, it is a 64-bit processor. PERIOD.

First off, it's a 64-bit processor, you can run 32-bit programs too on a 64-bit processor. You CANNOT run 64-bit on a 32-bit processor.....if I didnt make that clear... Your getting ahead of yourself for someone who has 18+ years of experience.

See these:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/...and-64-bit-Windows-frequently-asked-questions

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090821194723AAryjtX

Download this and run it:
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

I want to know the processor name. I GUARANTEE it has 64-bit.

If you still don't want to believe me, wait for someone else or like I said post somewhere else.
I will not argue any more.

 

[seavixen32]

32-bit versus 64-bit processors

So what do you need to run a 64-bit version of Windows? That’s no mystery either. You need a computer with a 64-bit processor (also called an x64 processor, or CPU).

Source: Taking the mystery out of 64-bit Windows

End of argument.

 

[chrisf8657]

32-bit versus 64-bit processors

So what do you need to run a 64-bit version of Windows? That’s no mystery either. You need a computer with a 64-bit processor (also called an x64 processor, or CPU).

Source: Taking the mystery out of 64-bit Windows

End of argument.

Thank you seavixen32, this is what I have been telling him...

 

[KenY7744]

OK. I am humbled. I stand corrected and apologize for the attitude. (I was acting on information given by someone else who claims to have installed a 64 bit version of Win7 on a 32 bit machine, and apparently he does not know as much as he claims to know.)

I have attached a screen shot of the system properties of this machine. As is evident from the screen shot, it does indeed have 64 bit Win7, and the processor is a Pentium D CPU 2.8Ghz, which is apparentlyly enough like a 64 bit CPU that you can install the 64 bit Win7 OS. I thought the system was old enough to preceed the use of 64 bit processors. Apparently I was wrong, and I apologize and I'm willing to learn something new.

But this gets back to the original question of why we can't get sound from websites like Pandora and YouTube.

But we can still get sound from ITunes or WMP to play MP3s, DVDs and CDs play audio, and system sounds are fine, such as starting and closing Win7, beeps, Skype startup and quit, plugging in USB devices, etc.

We have done the following to try to remedy this situation:

Disabled the onboard sound card (because Dell said there were not any 64 bit drivers available after we gave them the Service Tag number) and installed two different PCI sound cards, a Diamond and a Rocketfish 5.1. Even reinstalled the drivers a few different times.

Backgraded from IE9 to IE8.

Uninstalled FireFox V6 and reinstalled it.

Uninstalled and reinstalled Flash Player 10.3 and Shockwave (several times).

After all this, still no sound from YouTube and Pandora.

What else is left to try?

Thanks for any help given.

Ken

 

[Sardonicus]

What does the Firefox Plugin Container look like in the Windows Volume mixer?
Does it appear when playing a video on Youtube and is the volume slider turned up?

 

[Corazon]

Two things:

1. Couldn't you just re-enable the onboard sound and see if Windows can find 64-bit drivers on its own? I wouldn't trust Dell to just make the assumption that no 64-bit drivers are available, "period." I'd want to see that for myself.

2. Actually, PCI cards will generally have better sound quality, so let's stick with that. But, why have two of them installed? Why not just one? Are both soundcards actually connected to any speakers/headphones, or just one of them? I just can't help but wonder if sound from your browser/Flash player is coming out through the other card...

 

[seavixen32]

It might be worth having a look in the BIOS and seeing what's going on there.

 

[hello people]

Sorry...edit

 

[Big Tom]

LOL @ the first 7 posts of this thread :roflmao:

 

[KenY7744]

In response to the suggestion that I look at the mixer. Firefox Plugin Container is not one of the sliders in the mixer. Also, the sound problem is the same in IE9 and IE8, and Chrome as well.

In response to the question about the sound cards, I should clarify that I installed 2 sound cards after disabling the onboard sound card, but only one at a time. At no time was more than 1 PCI sound card installed at one time. The onboard sound card is still disabled.

I also tried to let Windows find a 64 bit driver for the onboard sound card, but this failed.

Seavixen suggested looking at the BIOS, but I don't know what else to look for other than having the onboard sound card DISABLED.

Thanks for all the suggestions, and I'm still open for more suggestions.

Ken

 

[chrisf8657]

KenY7744, apology accepted.
I'm plain out of ideas unless I can get remote access to the computer
You can PM me if you want, but others may still chime in that can help you...

 

[KenY7744]

Thanks for your offer to remote in to look at the PC in question.

We've pretty much arrived at the conclusion that it's a lost cause, and rather than spend more time (=money) trying to resolve the issues, my client has resigned herself to purchasing a new PC.

We had pretty much decided to purchase a new PC, but someone sold her on the idea of upgrading her XP class PC and putting on Win7 Prof. To my client, it was an attractive idea, since this guy is supposedly some PC/Windows guru, and he said he did the same thing with his wife's 8 year old PC. He promised that there was another 5 years of life in the refurbed PC. And he contributed some old RAM and an old 320Gb HD, so my client's cash outlay was pretty much just the shipping cost.

But when the issue with the sound card(s) arose, he was not there to help resolve it. He pretty much disappeared. And left me to resolve the issues. I have a barter relationship with my client, so it didn't cost her cash, but it did cost her about $1200 in barter value. I finally convinced her that this refurb project was not cost-effective, even though it's barter not cash.

So, now off to Staples or BestBuy or Dell to find a good PC for about $400-500 that will work with everything she's got to do.

Thanks again for your help, and for putting up with my lofty attytood (at least until I corrected my opinion of that "expert").

Have a great day!

Ken

 

[Graemzy]

dont know if ya want to bother trying this now but there is one other thing ya can try. i had the same problem before but it was with xp and i think it was a certain version of flash that cause the problem.

if ya try this

control panal > system and security > admin tools > services

than scroll down to windows audio and restart them (there is two instances of windows audio) that should fix your problem.

well if she gettin a new comp now anyway no point but im sure you would like to find out what the problem was!

 

[KenY7744]

Thanks for the tip, Graemzy. If my client hasn't bought her new PC yet, I'll give it a try. I'll post something here if it works.

Yeah, I'd love to know what's causing this weird behavior. I've never seen it before, and I hate not being able to figure it out, even with the help of all the knowledgeable people on this forum.

Ken

 

[KenY7744]

: No sound from internet, but have system sounds

Thanks for your suggestions Graemzy.

When I went into the Services, both audio items were already running.

So.. it's definitely off to buy a new PC soon.

 

[Graemzy]

ye thats the thing tho, they will be running, ya just have to restart them is all. it will say they are running but ya just have to restart them!

thats no problem anyway! hope it helps!

 

[okeefe58]

I know this post is rather old, but maybe it will help somebody else. would bet the only problem here was flash player codec, and/or flash player plugin. had exact issue with win7 x64. reinstalled flash thru microsoft I.E 8 instead of firefox. while I was at it quicktime lite and realplayer lite. all internet sound worked after that thru I.E 8, firefox and chrome. guessing it was flashplayer as most websites including youtube use it. various websites do use java, quicktime, real or divx codec but flash is the most prevalent. those codecs are a must for complete internet, and not always there when you buy a computer and need to be installed. if they are already installed, most likely need updating. anytime I've ever had internet sound trouble, it was always a missing codec or incorrect codec settings or installation. this problem was fixed by reinstalling flash thru I.E.8 instead of firefox though I don't know why. very doubtful the posters trouble was hardware related if sound was present elsewhere. (like my problem).