No sound on used computer with upgraded OS

[Montgomery]

I can't get any sound out of my recently bought used PC

I'm new to PCs and am really flailing around. I bought an old used PC which I believe had had XP installed to make it slightly more up to date. The computer originally had windows 2000.

I bought it off ebay and the firm who sold me it haven't been much help in finding the drivers that they think need updating.

I have learnt enough about windows and PCs to know that the sound is properly enabled and turned up and a windows check says the hardware is ok. "The device is working properly."

I have a Hewlett Packard Vectra VL 420 MT. XP professional 5.1
256 MB RAM

My sound Card name: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (Microsoft Corporation)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce2 MX/MX 400
--
Messing around in windows I found a situation where windows offered me the opportunity to check for updated drivers, it came up with a new sound driver but after installation the new driver made no difference. The one windows installed is Soundmax Integrated digital audio. Before the update I had Intel (r) Integrated audio.

I don't know what other information anyone might need or how to get it!

Thanks for any help.

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by Montgomery

I can't get any sound out of my recently bought used PC

I'm new to PCs and am really flailing around. I bought an old used PC which I believe had had XP installed to make it slightly more up to date. The computer originally had windows 2000.

I bought it off ebay and the firm who sold me it haven't been much help in finding the drivers that they think need updating.

I have learnt enough about windows and PCs to know that the sound is properly enabled and turned up and a windows check says the hardware is ok. "The device is working properly."

I have a Hewlett Packard Vectra VL 420 MT. XP professional 5.1
256 MB RAM

My sound Card name: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (Microsoft Corporation)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce2 MX/MX 400
--
Messing around in windows I found a situation where windows offered me the opportunity to check for updated drivers, it came up with a new sound driver but after installation the new driver made no difference. The one windows installed is Soundmax Integrated digital audio. Before the update I had Intel (r) Integrated audio.

I don't know what other information anyone might need or how to get it!

Thanks for any help.

check these out

Check Control Panel/ Sound & Audio Devices/ Audio tab/ Sound Playback click on down arrow and check that the correct audio is selected. Typically the problem will be they something like "modem line 0 playback" might have been substituted for the proper audio device

Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Component Services / a separate window will open – in left pane click Services(Local) from the tree / Scroll down to Windows Audio service / if the service is Disabled or Manual right click > select Properties > under Startup Type change to Automatic > click Apply / click Start > OK Reboot

[Montgomery]

Thanks for the suggestions Barbara but unfortunately, after checking, my settings don't seem to be the problem.

I downloaded Driverdetective. This was quite brave as I've only owned a PC for 8 days!

Driverdetective said I needed a new driver for my sound card but when I tried to install the driver, it was a near disaster. A message came up from Windows advising me not to install but I assumed that they are always saying that and so I ignored it. Then I got a blue screen and this message: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF915c46D, 0xF9E79A74, 0xF9E79770)"

The driver suggested was one by realtek. Do you think the disaster was the fault of a useless driver or Windows for blocking it needlessly?

________________
Are the details below from my computer enough for anyone to tell me if I have a separate sound card or one "onboard"?

PCI Audio Device Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM (ICH2/ICH2-M) AC'97 Audio Controller Hewlett-Packard Company SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
North Bridge Intel i845 Revision A3
South Bridge Intel 82801BA (ICH2) Revision A3

[bookworm]

post a Belarc report http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
omit the software license and win update section.

HP offer a driver but only for Win 2000, and I notice that SP2 is not installed.

Are your audio plugs on the I/O plate or an Expansion slot – click image to focus
http://overclockeddoc.com/bookworm/s...0io%20slot.JPG

[Montgomery]

From the picture you you linked to Barbara my audio plugs are on the I/O plate.

These are my Belarc details:


Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Hewlett-Packard HP Vectra VL420
System Serial Number: NL21010359
Enclosure Type: Low Profile Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Hewlett-Packard HP System Board A06
Serial Number: S631GLG0084TQ02038
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. JA.01.03US 07/19/2001
Drives Memory Modules c,d
20.01 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
15.08 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

WDC WD200EB-11CSF0 [Hard drive] (20.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAC81166362, rev 04.01B04, SMART Status: Healthy
256 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 20.01 GB 15.08 GB free

Network Drives
None detected

Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
Eizo L365 [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n L6500052, May 2002)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio

[bookworm]

Originally Posted by Montgomery

From the picture you you linked to Barbara my audio plugs are on the I/O plate.

These are my Belarc details:


Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Hewlett-Packard HP Vectra VL420
System Serial Number: NL21010359
Enclosure Type: Low Profile Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Hewlett-Packard HP System Board A06
Serial Number: S631GLG0084TQ02038
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. JA.01.03US 07/19/2001
Drives Memory Modules c,d
20.01 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
15.08 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

WDC WD200EB-11CSF0 [Hard drive] (20.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAC81166362, rev 04.01B04, SMART Status: Healthy
256 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 20.01 GB 15.08 GB free

Network Drives
None detected

Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]
Eizo L365 [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n L6500052, May 2002)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio

The driver at HP is for W2k have posted on the business forum to see if a driver for XP is available, I,ll post back when I gt an answer