No Sound

No sound coming out of your computer? Let's go through some steps to try to diagnose the problem.

DO YOU HAVE A SOUND CARD?

If you are sure that you have a sound card, skip down to the next headline.

If you would have come up to me and said, "I can't get any sound to come out of my computer." The first thing I would ask you is "Have you ever heard sound from your computer before?" If not, you may not have the necessary sound hardware on your computer.

To check for an audio card on a Windows 7 or Windows Vista machine, click on the START BUTTON, then CONTROL PANEL. If you are viewing by "Category", click the drop down menu and choose either large or small icons. It's much easier to find things when everything is displayed. Find Device Manager (alphabetical, left-to-right) and click on it to open it.

To check for an audio card on a Windows XP machine, click on the START BUTTON, then CONTROL PANEL, double-click the SYSTEM icon, then in the System window click on the HARDWARE tab, then in the Hardware window click on Device Manager.

Double-click on "Sound, video and game controllers" from the Device Manager list to expand the contents. If you see a sound card listed, then you have one installed. If you don't see a sound card listed, either your system did not ship with a sound card or it was not installed. Either way, you'll need to install one.

If you do see a sound card in Device Manager and it has a yellow circle with a question mark on it, then you need to right-click on the sound card and select Properties. From the General tab, under Device Status, you should see an error message. Hopefully, the error will give you an idea as to how to fix the problem or at least tell you what the problem is.

Another quick way to check for sound hardware without turning on the computer is to look at the back of your computer where all of the cables plug in. If you have a "sound card" you may see three ports or "jacks" colored blue, green, and pink. The blue port is for "Audio In" which is used to connect an audio source to play through your computer such as an MP3/4 player. The pink port is for an external microphone which would allow you to add voice to a video, for instance. Finally, the green port is for "Audio Out" and is used for external speakers or headphones. However, you may not have a sound card with color coded ports. In that case, try to see if the ports are labeled in any way either with words or symbols. It's a good idea to check your owners manual if you have one.

The point here is that without a sound card, either "integrated" (meaning part of the motherboard) or an "expansion" card (electronic circuitboard that connects to an expansion slot on your motherboard), you are not going to hear any music or video dialogue. You may hear a beep when you start your computer but that is from a small system speaker that allows you to hear "beep codes" from your BIOS startup. These codes can be used to diagnose a problem with a computer that will not boot up.

If you find that you do not have a sound card, your only option would be to install one, or have one installed, on your motherboard. Check with a technician at a computer store or someone you trust for their recommendation.

I HAVE A SOUND CARD BUT STILL NO SOUND

If you are certain that your problem is not hardware related, skip to the next section.

If you have a sound card and have external speakers connected to your computer, here are a few obvious but important hardware items to check:

• If your speakers are powered by electricity, are they connected to a power source that is working?
• If there is a power button on the speakers, are they turned on?
• Is the volume on your speakers turned up enough to hear?
• Is your speaker wire connected securely to the "audio out" jack on the back of your computer?
• A good test at this point would be to remove the speaker wire from the back of the computer and either plug in some headphones or a different set of speakers to see if you can get sound. If you can hear sound then obviously your speakers are the problem.

If you still cannot hear any sound then the problem is most likely a system issue.

SYSTEM RELATED SOUND ISSUES

For Windows to be able to recognize your sound card, you must locate and install compatible driver software for it. Sound cards, like most devices, require driver software to work properly. If you have any installation disks that came with your sound card, you will have to load the disks and install the software so that you have the proper driver for your device.

If you don't have a disk, you may be able to get a driver from Windows Updates or from the sound card manufacturer website. This will also ensure that you have the latest driver for your sound card.

Return to Windows 7 Tutorials

Return to Windows Vista Tutorials

Return to XP Tutorials

Return From No Sound to the Home Page

New! Comments