Computer help? XP no sound, no audio device detected

[Chasaway]

Okay…I give up. I’ve got to ask for some help. Freepers have given me great advice on holsters, guns, etc., but now I need computer help.

I recently re-installed XP Media Center on my Dell Dimension E310. Now, whenever I re-start I have no sound. And when I go the Control Panel, I get the “No Audio Device” with all of the selections grayed-out. And I mean all of them: The Volume section, the Sounds section, the Audio section…all of them. When I troubleshoot the hardware it says the device is working properly.

I’ve searched the web (and lots of techie sites!) and have noticed this same problem reported by many others. And I’m pretty sure I’ve tried all the solutions presented. Either I’m a dope (real possibility there), or something’s wack.

I’ve reloaded the correct motherboard drivers, the video drivers and the sound card (SigmaTel, onboard) drivers, from both the Dell site and from the individual manufacturer sites. I’ve un-installed and installed again. Everything. In the correct order. I’ve re-installed XP Media Center and even re-installed just plain ole XP Pro, trying to figger this out. I’ve gone through the PNP Device Enumerator “solution”.

I’ve gone to the “services” and made sure the Windows Audio is set to “Automatic” and is started. I’ve stopped it, rebooted and re-started it and re-booted it.

I’ve read and read and read and then tried and tried and tried potential solutions, but it keeps being a bad, bad, misbehaving system. I’ve used both Belarc and Everest Home Edition. When the sound’s not working, neither one even see my sound card. When it’s working, they see it. These programs are how I know it’s a Sigmatel card and how I know my motherboard manufacturer, for the correct drivers.

Periodically, the sound will come on and everything will work perfectly. The machine is fast, the sound is great and nothing seems wrong at all. I will set a restore point at that time, place and configuration. When the sound “fails” again, I go back to the restore point and…no sound.

I can log off and re-logon and it’ll be fine. BUT…if I re-start, it comes back up with the no sound, no device thing I described above.

When I look in the Device Manager, the only yellow question mark I get is the “PCI Simple Communications Controller” one. And when I try to “update” the driver, the system won’t find one. I’ve tried to search the web for one, but nojoy up to now.

Two more pieces of info: When the sound’s not working, many times the PC will just seem to lock up. The cursor “hourglass” will just spin. Like for 5 or 10 minutes (sometimes until I just power the thing off). And periodically, when the PC catches up, the sound will work fine. It’s as if the computer’s trying to bring the drivers up, is having a hard time with it, and once it gets it all straightened out everything works great. ‘Til I re-start.

The second thing is that when I look in the device manager, I have TWO instances of the Plug and Play Device Enumerator. And they’re the same. Maybe they’re colliding. I can’t find out how to uninstall one of them. “Uninstall” isn’t an option presented.

I’m at my wit’s end. I’m not at that particular computer right now (on the road for work), but I’ll try to answer any questions you have to try to help diagnose/solve this deal. I do have logmein working, so I can probably find out whatever’s necessary from where I am.

As a side note, I’ve tried drinking more, but that just makes things fuzzier and doesn’t solve the problem . Maybe I’m not drinking the right stuff…Any suggestions along this line may not solve anything, except help kill the pain…

Any help would be appreciated.

Chasaway

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Couldn't tell but are you using the on board sound riser or an add on sound card? If you are using an add on make sure the on board sound is turned off at the BIOS. Same if you install a card to fix this problem.

[LibFreeOrDie]

You say you recently re-installed Windows Media Center.

Make sure you go to the Microsoft site and get ALL updates for that OS.

The same thing used to happen to me when I’d put off installing Microsoft’s updates/patches. I swear MS would purposely “break” my machine until I installed the updates!

Then it would be OK again until the next batch of updates.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Q-Tips

[Chasaway]

" If you tell me the exact make and model number of your laptop, and the make and model number of your sound card (if you have a separate sound card, I can point you toward a 2nd option that is a proper solution that I found when I had this problem.

Everest says the sound card is a SigmaTel Audio and it's onboard.

Then under "PCI/PnP Audio" there's an "Intel 82801fb ICH6 - High Definition Audio Controller [B-2]" listed.

The motherboard is a Intel Pentium 4 521, 2800 Mhz (14 x200).

[see, I write this like I actually know what all of this means! I'm a GEEK!]

Thanks for your help...

[Chasaway]

You be FUNNY!

[Brucifer]

Very cool. Thanks.

[ken21]

dat’s funny!

my bill gates xp machine did the same.

so, i upgraded to vista and now i have sound.

[JerseyHighlander]

You need to have the newest Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver for sigmatel,
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/8658/eng/5.10.4647.4_V6_XP32_XP64_MCE.EXE&agr=N&ProductID=2068&DwnldId=8658&strOSs=45&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Home%20Edition⟨=eng

1.download the drivers rfom link above
2.install drivers
3. restart pc
4. when you restart pc it might have a pop up say “new hardware found” and then list your audio,
5. select manually select where drivers are located, and you’ll need to find the directory these files are in:
6. move that pop up windows aside

7. Search for these files: ( you need to find which directory they are in)

Windows XP SP1

Date Time Version Size File name

---

12-Aug-2004 17:45 5.10.0.5011 137,728 Hdaudbus.sys
12-Aug-2004 17:45 5.10.0.5011 113,664 Hdaudio.sys
12-Aug-2004 17:45 5.10.0.5011 24,064 Hdaudprop.dll
12-Aug-2004 17:45 5.10.0.5011 5,120 Hdaudpropres.dll
12-Aug-2004 17:45 5.10.0.5011 61,952 Hdaudpropshortcut.exe
17-Mar-2004 23:05 9.0.0.3140 134,144 Mssap.dll
16-Mar-2004 01:41 5.1.2600.1364 135,040 Portcls.sys

you’ll need to select that directory in the pop up window that is asking you where you want to install the drivers for the new hardware.
.
I think they are in c:/windows/system or c:/windows/system32, but not 100% sure, dealt with a similar situation last November.

This is a bit of a complex task, the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) are a PITA to correctly install in the few instances I’ve had problems with them.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Have you tried system restore?

[JerseyHighlander]

You need to have the newest Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver for sigmatel, http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/8658/eng/5.10.4647.4_V6_XP32_XP64_MCE.EXE&agr=N&ProductID=2068&DwnldId=8658&strOSs=45&OSFullName=Windows*%20XP%20Home%20Edition⟨=eng
1.download the drivers rfom link above
2.install drivers
3. restart pc
4. when you restart pc it might have a pop up say “new hardware found” and then list your audio,
5. select manually select where drivers are located, and you’ll need to find this directory

c:\windows\system32\

6. install drivers
7. maybe restart pc again... but you should be out of the woods at that point.

[dalereed]

Change the battery in your hearing aid.

[Chasaway]

Dayum...

[Chasaway]

Quit harshing on me...

[grin]

[Chasaway]

Okay, that sounds promising (maybe because it seems hard).

I’ll try that remotely tonite.

My sound’s working right now. So you can tell I’m willing to do nearly anything to get this right...[grin]

Or maybe I can never reboot/restart my system again...

C

[processing please hold]

[processing please hold]

Alien.

[Auntie Mame]

Wow, running eventvwr.msc is very interesting. I have a similar problem with my sound so this thread interests me greatly. I’m running Windows 2000 Professional. The sound works sometimes and sometimes not. If it doesn’t work, I usually just restart and it will work (usually) on the second restart. Sometimes if I just go into the audio controls and click around changing things, it will start working.

Anyway, I just ran eventvwr.msc and have several system errors in a row and a warning. They appear all the time, several times a day. However, my computer seems to run fine except for the sound problem.

Is there something I should do to get these errors and warnings to stop? Here’s one error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7024
Date: 3/30/2008
Time: 3:25:27 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAME2K
Description:
The Net Logon service terminated with service-specific error 3095.

Second Error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: NETLOGON
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3095
Date: 3/30/2008
Time: 3:25:27 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAME2K
Description:
This Windows NT computer is configured as a member of a workgroup, not as a member of a domain. The Netlogon service does not need to run in this configuration.

Last one:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 3/30/2008
Time: 3:25:27 PM
User: N/A
Computer: MAME2K
Description:
The ASCTRM service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

I hope I’m not taking advantage of your expertise, but I’ve never known about the event logs and it’s pretty cool. I’d like to learn more about them.

Thank you.

[Chasaway]

Yepper....

That’s been me for the last few days....

[roamer_1]

You need to have the newest Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver for sigmatel [...]

Bump to #30. It is true.

If it still does not work, try making a new (albeit temporary) user with full admin rights. I have had occasions where the user gets mugged during an upgrade to media edition... IOW new users have proper sound, but old do not.

I don't know why, but if the new user has sound, then do a healthy backup of your old user (Docs, mail, bookmarks, favs, etc) Delete your old user (w/ files), restart, and recreate your user and move all your junk back in.

Once done, of course, delete the original temporary user as well.

[roamer_1]

Oops. Ping to #39