No Sound

[BobH]

My desktop system speakers and earphone port produce no sound. I think I've been standing too close to the problem for too long and have lost perspective. Please help.

Yesterday I opened the case and removed a card reader device that I never use and replaced it with a USB 2.0 port plus HD audio port plus an earphone port. The device is just a simple port extender and has no addressable functionality (to my knowledge). Today I get no sound from speakers or from the earphone port. I determined this first by trying to watch a YouTube video and next by playing music from a hard drive using Win Media Player. Both the browser and Media Player indicated that I should be hearing audio, but got none.

I'm at a loss as to what more to check. So far, I've visually checked that the cabling to the mobo is correct. This appears to be confirmed by the fact that when I plug in earphones, I get a Win screen asking me to confirm that I had just plugged them in. This indicates to me that the OS is recognizing the hardware. I confirmed that the speaker comms wire is plugged into the port on the rear of my tower. I get speaker hum and audio pops when I touch the cable.

I checked Device Manager with these results...
System Devices shows HD Audio and Properties

Sys dev HD Audio.GIF

and driver update check shows

HD Audio Driver.GIF

and Sound shows the cards

SysDev Sound.GIF

[HansV]

Stupid question: have you checked that sound isn't muted and that sound volume hasn't been set to 0?

[BobH]

That's a very good question, Hans! Exactly the kind I need.

The answer is 'yes' I do not have it muted and it is not set to a zero level. In fact changing the volume level from zero to full on has not effect. When done checking, I set it at half level.

I'm sure it's something that I'm overlooking, probably because I'm trying too hard.

Thanks for the question. Keep 'em coming please.

[StuartR]

Right click the speaker icon in the system tray and select "Playback devices".
Then check what device shows as the default.
Is this the one connected to your speakers?

(Screenshot is from Windows 7, but Windows 10 is virtually identical here)

Sound.jpg

[viking33]

Have you tried the Windows Control Panel> Sound> Troubleshooter?

[Claude]

If none of the above fix the problem, try disabling the NVIDIA virtual driver.

[BobH]

@vikingbob

I'm running Windows 7. I cannot find a Sound Troubleshooter in Control Panel. Is that a Windows 10 feature?

[viking33]

@vikingbob

I'm running Windows 7. I cannot find a Sound Troubleshooter in Control Panel. Is that a Windows 10 feature?

I was bass Ackwards on the last two steps.
Control Panel>Troubleshooting>Hardware & Sound.
(Windows 7)

[BobH]

Thanks for all the suggestions! The problem is not resolved. It seems that when I pushed the tower case back into position, the speaker cable was catching on another cable and pulling out enough to stop it working. I spent some time rerouting cables before I discovered the cause.

Cue the theme for The Twilight Zone

[viking33]

Old engineering saying:
"The solution to most problems is easy and obvious, once you have found it!"
Glad to hear you found it.

[Rudi]

... It seems that when I pushed the tower case back into position, the speaker cable was catching on another cable and pulling out enough to stop it working ...

What a

It had to push out THAT cable?!! Why not the cable that gives the blue screen of death!

Glad you resolved it Bob.

[BobH]

Cable management is now one of my priorities.