Realtek Audio shows Speakers not plugged in

[MycroftHolmes]

Pardon me if this question has been asked before, but I'm asking this on behalf of my friend. She has recently acquired a Desktop with Windows 7 Ultimate installed. The problem is, even though the speaker's 3.5mm jack is plugged in the rear panel, the Playback devices show that no speaker is plugged in. The front panel doesn't help either. She updated the Realtek driver, but that didn't help.

Here are screenshots illustrating the problem. Sorry for the bad picture quality, but as her PC doesn't have a net connection, she had to take pictures of the desktop instead of PrntScr.

 

[fireberd]

With the digital set as default, the speakers would never work, even if a speaker was attached.

 

[MycroftHolmes]

cannot set default

With the digital set as default, the speakers would never work, even if a speaker was attached.

The speakers cannot be set as the default device unless they are plugged in. The "Set as Default Device" option is greyed out.

 

[fireberd]

As this is a "recent acquisition" I assume it has never worked since acquiring the PC.

You can try a refresh of the audio and see if that works, but I suspect there is a hardware problem and a separate sound card may be required.

To refresh the sound, go to the Device Manager, Uninstall the Realtek sound but DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound.

If the refresh does not work, I would suspect a hardware problem.

 

[MycroftHolmes]

Tried that

Already uninstalled the audio drivers and reinstalled them. My point is, what are the odds of both the rear panel and front panel dying?

 

[fireberd]

If the sound chip has a hardware problem both could be lost.

 

[MycroftHolmes]

Is there any way to ascertain whether the sound chip is dead?

 

[fireberd]

Hard to tell, without actually being there.

But, I suspect that was one of the reasons the previous owner sold it.