PC has no sound after updating to Win7

[cortillaen]

I'm not quite sure where to post this since I'm unsure what the problem actually is, but it is a prebuilt PC bought several years back. Recently, it had started having a number of small errors culminating in becoming unusable for even the games it had previously run fine (TED:Oblivion in particular, but also several client-based online games with even lower graphical demands). The system would start the game, then immediately CTD, and updating the graphics driver did nothing to help. GPU-Z still picked up the graphics chip (integrated GeForce 7050) fine and low-end uses like web-surfing and flash worked as normal. The owner decided to just wipe the HD and install Win7Pro64 since he was sick of Vista anyway. The install went fine, drivers all freshly installed, and the graphics problem is fixed (I'm thinking either he installed the wrong drivers before or Vista was jumbling old and new drivers somehow), but now the sound doesn't work, both from the front headphone jack (the only one the owner ever uses, apparently) and the 6 rear jacks. Device Manager doesn't see any problems with the sound device or drivers and the sound mixer shows input and output both functioning fine, but there is no sound at all.

I've tried uninstalling the sound drivers and reinstalling them both via Win7's troubleshoot wizard and the most recent RealTek package online. Since the owner can't find any of the original documentation, I've been trying to find details online, but Newegg doesn't list the specific mobo or sound chip in the system and ZT doesn't appear to have any information at all. I've contacted ZT's customer support, but there's no telling when or if they'll be of any help. Also, while trying the ports in the back, I noticed the system's CPU fan appears to have died, but I'm not sure if that would have affected the sound at all. According to the owner, the system started just dying abruptly about 6 months ago (I assume that was when the fan went out), he thought it was simply overheating due to being in a tight space next to the heat-exchanger of a refrigerator, and keeping the fan on the system prevented the issue. The problem with the graphics started up only a couple weeks ago and is fixed now, and the sound was fine before the OS switch, so I doubt either of those were caused by overheating damage to the mobo.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I'd appreciate it. If you need more data, just tell me what you need.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Outlander_04]

have you checked its not muted?

 

[cortillaen]

have you checked its not muted?

Thankfully, yes. I'd be rather embarrassed if I'd overlooked something that basic. The volume is unmuted and all the way up both on the system volume and the couple different media players and youtube I tested it with. I've also tried different earphones and speakers on the chance the earphones were at fault.

 

[Outlander_04]

try uninstalling the sound drivers in task manager and rebooting . Several times if needed

Ive had soundblaster cards need multiple attempts to install drivers, for no obvious reason , an then they function fine .

 

[cortillaen]

try uninstalling the sound drivers in task manager and rebooting . Several times if needed

Ive had soundblaster cards need multiple attempts to install drivers, for no obvious reason , an then they function fine .

Do you mean to uninstall the drivers in the device manager? I don't know of any way to uninstall them with the task manager.

I've already tried reinstalling it a total of 4 times (including two different versions of the drivers), but I went ahead and tried a few more times just to be sure. Every time, the system sees the driver as being installed and functioning perfectly, and the meter built into the volume adjust slider even shows the sound levels when I play something. Everything about the system seems to indicate that it is processing sound input correctly; it's just that nothing comes down the output lines to the headphone or back jacks.

 

[tsnor]

(1) right click the vol icon, click playback devices. make sure its the realtek device, make sure realtek is not sending digital output. win7 (at least on my pc) detects when headphones or speakers are plugged in. If nothing plugged then it drives digital. I've seen the socket fail or get loose. Open playback device and see if windows thinks that a headset is plugged in. It will say 'not plugged in' or it will show green. If it says 'not plugged in" when you have a headset plugged in then someone yanked a headphone and broke the socket. see if its loose, wiggle it a little, see if you can get win to detect. <-- bet this is it. (This will also rule out currently having another sound card in the PC, either dedicated or in a video card! I know you don't think there's a sound card and that you are using integrated graphics, but..)
(2) re: "I don't know of any way to uninstall them with the task manager. " You go into device manager, then DELETE the device. re-boot. windows picks it up on the reboot and installs the right driver. He meant device manager. He's right about doing it more than once. grin. it's windows.
(3) windows update sometimes has a workable driver. Manually fire up windows update, see under 'optional' updates if win764bit has a driver that's certified.

 

[cortillaen]

1) Since I'm not very familiar with Win7, I took a look at another system in the house running it and saw "Speakers" and "Headphones" in addition to "Digital Audio" in the Playback Devices menu. On the system having the problem, however, there is only the Digital Audio (screenshot). I suppose that means the system isn't detecting the onboard sound chipset for some reason. I've tried installing several versions of RealTek's audio drivers, including one recommended to another person who had the exact same problem after installing Win7 RC on a system with a motherboard having the same 7050/610i chipset. I don't have any idea if the audio chipset is the same as on this system, though. If ZT's tech support doesn't respond by tomorrow, I guess I'll have to open the thing up and try to figure out exactly what it's got inside, colossal PITA of getting it in and out of it's hidey-hole and all. It's even possible that it has something other than RealTek, seeing as I can only make an educated guess based on the audio chipsets found on other 7050/610i mobos thanks to the utter lack of online documentation by ZT and the owner's failure to keep the hard copy.

2) That's what I figured and how I've been uninstalling the drivers after every attempt. I even gave it three more tries (10 total, now), to no avail.

3) I've tried letting WU handle it, but it just pulls one of the several drivers I've tried manually. After that, there's nothing in the optional section except a useless driver for his monitor (supposed to all additional monitors to be connected to the primary via USB) that tends to screw up nVidia's graphics drivers, hence it never being installed.

Here are a couple more screenshots in case they help: Device Manager and HD audio driver details.

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[tsnor]

Nice screenshot. We need to clean up the errors in device manager before working on the sound card.

On the screenshot there is a device in 'other devices' that has a yellow exclamation mark. What is the error message associated with that device? Highlight that device and hit the delete key. Reboot. The device will get rediscovered on the next boot and hopefuly will turn out to be the analog piece of your mb chipset sound.

 

[cortillaen]

The VW223B with the problem is actually the monitor complaining about not having the multi-monitor driver installed. It's the same as on the other Win7 system in the house (has the same monitor). That driver tends to cause problems with nVidia graphics and the owner has no intention of using more than the one monitor, so he just never installed that driver. It doesn't have anything to do with the sound.

 

[cortillaen]

Surprise, surprise, ZT's tech support actually came through and saved me from having to wrestle with tight spaces, tangled cords, and the inside of a cramped box that hasn't been dusted ever. Looks like the system's got an Asus P5N73AM mobo, which means it doesn't have a RealTek audio chipset at all. Instead, it's got a VIA VT1708B. The driver is downloading now (are most audio drivers upwards of 60mb?), and I'll update after installing it.

 

[cortillaen]

And that's that: The sound is working fine now. Win7 doesn't view the back and front jacks separately like on the other system, but I'm chalking that up to hardware differences.

 

[cortillaen]

Best answer selected by Cortillaen.