[Wendyg]

Hi,





I am using an Aspire 1640 with Windows XP and I lost all sound over a month ago. Since then I have been trying and trying to restore the sound but have had no luck. I have no AOL sounds and no other sounds and nothing seems to work. I've tried a system restore and can't even do that.





Does anybody have any ideas that you could send my way? I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to the technical aspects, so I will need basic instructions.





Thanks so much!

[Wendyg]

What I have done so far:

I have checked to see whether I have "mute" checked. I was told to check "mute" for microphone, but none of the other settings are muted. I have attempted to do system restores but have never been successful. I uninstalled and re-installed Realtec (or at least I tried to). I did virus scans (using McAfee). I did a disc defragment. I can't remember everything I did, but I tried many things and nothing has worked.

It's gotten crazy, because now I have asked so many people for advice that I have actually been told that a laptop doesn't have a sound card and that I probably have a defective motherboard. I am such a beginner when it comes to the technical side of computers that I don't know what I have or don't have at this point!

Thanks for any help you can give me!

[mphenterprises]

Technically, all computers, laptop or desktop, come with some type of sound device. The question is whether or not the sound device is integrated into the motherboard or separate. For the most part, the vast majority of laptops have the sound device integrated into the motherboard. The person who indicated that your computer does not have a sound card just implied that the sound device is integrated into the motherboard.

That being said, according to the specifications presented in this website Asia Cnet.com, this computer has an integrated sound device. What does this mean for you? Well, if the sound device is damaged, you would have to either have Acer repair it, if it is under warranty or take it to a local repair technician if it is not under warranty.

I have some questions for you:

- Did Acer provide you with an installation CD when you purchased your laptop?

- How did you try to reinstall the Realtec drivers?

- To go along with the Mute suggestion:

# Did you confirm that both the "Volume Control" and "Wave" levels are at the maximum level?
# If you are using external speakers, did you confirm that your speakers are turned on and working?



If you have already covered the above options, what I can suggest is something that was suggested in another Discussion for an USB issue:

# Right Click on My Computer and select Properties
# Click on the Hardware tab
# Click on the Device Manager button
# Click on the (+) next to Sound, video and game controllers
# Since you have Realtec, you should see the Realtec Audio listing...Right Click on it and select Uninstall (You will be prompted to confirm this choice)
# Restart your laptop
# When your computer restarts, Windows will search for the appropriate audio drivers for Realtec
# When Windows completes its scan, you may be prompted to restart your computer



If this does not work for you, we can investigate other options. All in all, I do not believe this has anything to do with a malicious application or file in your computer.

[Wendyg]

Hi,


I have tried everything I can think of to try to restore the sound to my laptop and haven't succeeded.


I read today about doing a remote session, where a technician remotely hooks up to my computer and is able to analyze and hopefully repair it.


Would you be able to do this for me or refer me to someone who can? This is the route I want to follow at this point, as I can't spend anymore time trying to fix it on my own.


Please let me know ASAP. I am really anxious to be able to put all of this to rest! Thanks so much.


Wendy

[mphenterprises]

Hi Wendy. All that I can suggest is either:

- Contact Acer if your computer is under warranty

- Contact a local technician in your area if your computer is not under warranty




If you are in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area, I would be happy to take a look at your computer. Please click on my icon to go to my profile which has my business url and my contact information.

You did not mention if you tried the steps that were outlined. I am gathering that you did and it did not work for you.

[coastie65]

Hi mph & Wendy, One thing that can be done before anything drastic, is to go to add / remove programs and completely remove the realtec drivers. Once this is done, you may have to restart the computer. After doing so, go to the windows update site and scan they as usual will scan your computer. It should show a hardware update after the scan which would be the realtec drivers, which you can then download and install by clicking on it. Incidently, if you go to add/ remove programs, and you don't see a listing for the Realtec drivers, than they haven't been installed and are technically not present. You can go to windows explorer and run a search for realtec in that case and delete them that way by right clicking on the entries for realtec and delete. One note, if you have Real Player installed, be careful not to delete that, or you will have to reinstall it, and if you have any tunes that you haven't yet transferred to your music folder or burned, they will be lost. coastie65

[rgreen4]

An experience I recently had with my latest machine build may or may not help. Over the weekend of May 18-20 I had it out at our local Scout Camp to use in publishing a newletter for a regional meeting of a youth group. I prepared by cloning my Vista drive (w/ Office 2007) and my XP drive (w/ Office 2000) and a separate data drive. When I returned on Sunday the 20th and set my machine back up I had no sound on my Vista drive. Rebooting into my XP drive the sound worked fine - obviously not hardware.

Then I swapped the leads and booted onto my Vista clone, the sound worked just fine. Hmmm. I swapped the leads back and then went looking at settings, but couldn't find anything out of place. I then looked into the drivers and found the drivers had been set to HD Audio. I rolled the drivers back to the Realtek drivers and voila! - full sound. If that had not worked, then I would have operated from the clone drive.

When all setting have been checked, re-installing the correct driver is a good option.

BTW - I found out last night they had re-set the network settings, the next time, they will run from a guest account.

[coastie65]

Hi rg, Interesting. What Realtec chipset do you have on that laptop? Is it Realtec HD audio? I know about Realtec '97 and Realtec HD, but don't know of anything in between those two chipsets. coastie65

[rgreen4]

It is Realtek HD, but with Realtec drivers dated 4/23/2007 and version 6.0.1.5404. The boys installed a driver labeled HD Audio, I did not write down the specs. I knew the machine would be at the hand of inquisitive and experimental teenagers, so I had taken precautions. I was a little disappointed that when they killed the sound, they did not mention it to me. I think they reset the network (changing the workgroup name from MSHOME to WORKGROUP) to connect to their laptops and transfer files. They couldn't change the router (PW protected) and I still had internet access of course. Interestingly I still had access to the printers and my NAS, but couldn't see the other machines. I discovered it when I displayed the listing of all network devices and saw the workgroup name.

BTW - this is a desktop (5 drives) not a laptop.

[coastie65]

Hi rg, { chuckling} I guess to teens HD audio is HD audio and they installed the wrong drivers. I guess they could have at least said OOPS as it was easily correctable. coastie

[techie4fun]

coastie65 said:

Hi rg, { chuckling} I guess to teens HD audio is HD audio and they installed the wrong drivers. I guess they could have at least said OOPS as it was easily correctable. coastie

Not teenagers!! Those pesky little devils ;)

[coastie65]

I guess they have learn somewhere. coastie