Sound disappears!

[Johnxyx0]

Hi, Very new to posting threads or blogging and also know NOTHING about PC's so please be gentle with me!

I have got a new Dell Studio xps 7100 , Windows 7 64 bit. I spent the best part of Saturday re-installing all my itunes library from disc's. When finished i thought i'd better check that everything was OK and therefore 'clicked' on a dozen or so tracks and films at random. Everything seemed fine and then the sound went! The progress bar was still moving / or the film was still playing but no sound. At first i thought i must have a corrupt file so i tried opening track via Windows media player, at first OK but on one track the same thing happened. Now i went into panic mode thinking that all the files were corrupt! I uninstalled and re-installed itunes 3 times, spoke to itunes support for an hour. I went onto istore and previewed a song (therefore not in my files) and the same thing happened. To test it once more, i've just purchased a song and downloaded it from istore and the same thing, the progress bar moves but no sound!

Any thoughts

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Johnxyx0,

Welcome to 7 forums.
Please complete you system specs.
Look in Control Panel for Device Manager and see if there are any yellow yield signs showing. It may be as simple as updating a driver or two.
Always update driver's from Manufactures website.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Johnxyx0,
Welcome to SF. Please fill out your spec's as completely as you can as this will help us understand the components and any interactions. I sounds as if all was fine until you loaded itunes? As I'm the anti-itunes guy I won't be a good source for issue with it and if itunes support didn't help?.....not good. But if this is an issue with W7 not playing nice with itunes then someone here could have the answers.
Cheers, the Cheese

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Could you have a conflict between itunes and Windows Media player or another program wanting to be the dominant music and video player?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Everything seemed fine and then the sound went!

Clarification needed.

Do you mean that sound was fine and quit suddenly in the middle of a song or video?

Or was it ever operating properly?

Have you done a system restore to an earlier time, assuming it was operating fine at one time?

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Here is the latest version of itunes...
Apple - iTunes - Download iTunes Now

So you may have to uninstall old version and then download this latest version.
Post back if this works for you.

 

[Johnxyx0]

Hi,

Firstly thank you to everyone that replied and SO quickly! I'm impressed!

looking in the device manager, there are NO yellow flags. Under Sound,video etc it looks like i have : ATI High Definition Audio and Realtec High Def Audio. I hope that answer a question. With regards to loosing the sound, what happens is that i can open iTunes and 'click' on a song or film and as long as i don't do anything else it's fine. The moment i click further along the progress bar or click on another song and then maybe onto a film (just to see if they are there) then the sound goes! As i said, it has done this in Windows media player and i have purchased a song today from itunes store and the same thing happens. If i come out of itunes or Windows media player and go back in it works and then etc. etc. etc.

I have another Dell Studio xps 7100 here (a different problem, awaiting Dell to collect!) , i loaded one of my back up cd's to it and onto itunes and it works fine, i can jump all about the place without a problem!!

It's maddening, i just want a PC that i can turn on and it works!! Just as a by the by, does anyone have any idea to stop my Google page from reverting back to 100% zoom level after i have adjusted it in customise?

Cheers,

John

 

[fireberd]

If all audio, except iTunes, works OK then it's not a PC problem. The problem is in iTunes. I have iTunes installed on three Win 7 systems and it works OK on all 3, although I don't do a lot with it - I have it installed because I have an iPod music player.

If all other audio works OK, uninstall iTunes, reboot the PC and then do a new install. Your "Speakers" (RealTek) should be set as the default playback device, unless you are using HDMI with some external device.

Also as previously noted by one person, you need to use the Dell supplied sound driver if you ever want to update the sound driver. Because of Dell's custom Motherbord and implementation non-Dell drivers will either not work or not work correctly in most cases.

 

[Johnxyx0]

Hi Fireberd,

Thanks for reply. At first i thought it was just itunes problem but as i think i mentionend before, one of the tracks did 'the thing' when i openend it with Windows media player. I have uninstalled iTunes (whilst on the phone to iTunes support) 3 times. I don't think it' s a corrupt music file as i took one of the back-up cd's and re-installed on another Dell Studio xps 7100 and it works fine. I know nothing about PC's but by powers of elimination, the music works on another indentical PC as does the itunes i downloaded onto it, a downloaded track of music (therefore not on one of my back-up cd's) doesn't play when the PC's sound system goes on strike, music will play as long as i don't play with it....all this is pointing towards a PC problem....but i don't know where.
Cheers,

John

 

[fireberd]

Two things to try. 1. Uninstall the Sound in the Device Manager (DO NOT check the box to uninstall the drivers) then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. If there were some type of corruption between Windows and the device this will fix it.

1. If the uninstall/reinstall does not fix it, reinstall the Dell supplied sound drivers as the next step. DO NOT use non-Dell drivers as they will either not work or not work correctly. I do a lot of support on the Dell users forum and we have many posts about non-Dell driver problems.

 

[Johnxyx0]

Sound disappears,

Hi, after spending 4 hours on the phone to Dell today, uninstalling, re-installing various drivers!!! The technician has determined that there is a 'handshake' problem between ATI, Realtec and Windows!! None of this is of any use to me and i'll have to wait 3 days for them to look into it, and there's no gaurantee that even then they will have a solution!!

John

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Hi, after spending 4 hours on the phone to Dell today, uninstalling, re-installing various drivers!!! The technician has determined that there is a 'handshake' problem between ATI, Realtec and Windows!! None of this is of any use to me and i'll have to wait 3 days for them to look into it, and there's no gaurantee that even then they will have a solution!!

John

John,
They all are trying to put the blame on the other guy. I've been to that dance before!
Just be patient and they may come up with a fix. Post back in a couple of days and let us know how it's going. We all can learn from their mistakes.....

 

[Johnxyx0]

Sound disappears!!

Hi Howling Wolves,

I like the use of the word 'may'!! Many thanks for the sympathy it's genuinely appreciated.

John

 

[The Howling Wolves]

John,
Take a look in control panel and see if your Auto Play is set up somewhat to mine.


I won't give up if you don't!

 

[Johnxyx0]

Sound disappears!!

Hi HW, (is that OK?)

All of mine say 'choose a default' with exception of Software and games.

Does that help?

John

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Just going through the process of elimination.
Here is how my sound is set up.............








The theme area you can change and test.

 

[Johnxyx0]

Sound disappears!!

Hey HW,

I'm willing to give anything a go!!

Being totally PC inept,......how do i do it?

John

Plesae pretend you are dealing with a six year old!

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Got to leave but go to control panel and click on icon that says SOUND!
then check your sound set up with mine. They might not be the same but lets start there.
I will be back to see what you came up with.
Will bring big guns in (Nick) PooManUK to help us both.

 

[Johnxyx0]

Sound disappears!!

Well........

Just had a call from a Dell Tec Supvr who has asked if i would mine swapping the sound card from the other (long story, may have already told it in earlier thread!) studio xps 7100, to the new one! Haven't got much to loose so going to give it a go tomorrow! My only concern is that it sounded like a software/driver problem not hardware!

John

 

[The Howling Wolves]

John,
Swap it out and see what happens. Nothing to lose.
I think you are spot on with it being a software issue but what do I know.
Just don't give up in getting it fixed to your satisfaction.
Keeps us posted as we all can learn something from this.