Computer Sound Problems
Volume up and sound audible? Check any external volume controls first, usually on the side or front edge of the laptop. We’ll come back to the volume being up again, but if you aren’t getting audible sound out of your laptop, the first thing to check that the sound isn’t muted by a checkbox on the volume control and that the slider isn’t all the way at the bottom. The basic volume control is normally present in the system tray at the
bottom right of the screen, with a little speaker as the icon. If you can’t see it on a Windows system, try expanding the tray menu by clicking the left arrow in the tray, and be patient if the laptop is still booting. You can always get to the basic volume control through Windows Control Panel, and you can also change the settings there to add the control to the system tray. WiFi, network, modem OK? Many laptop manufacturers combine all of the I/O functions on a separate daughter card that rides on the motherboard. The daughter card usually includes the WiFi transceiver, the 100/1000BaseT Ethernet adapter and the dial-up modem, along with the sound system hardware. If you lose any of these capabilities at the same time that you lose your sound, odds are the daughter card has backed out of the connector to the motherboard or simply failed. Do your research on the Internet to establish that your laptop really does have an I/O daughter card before breaking the laptop open.
Make sure you find a photo illustrated guide for replacing your model’s daughter card online if the manufacturer doesn’t provide a manual. External speakers? The volume control on speakers usually
serves as an on/off as well. Some speakers may be powered by batteries rather than a transformer or USB connection, so double check that you don't have speakers with dead batteries. If the speakers aren’t connected to the laptop by a USB port, they aren’t drawing amplification power from the laptop and must be getting it from a transformer or batteries. If your speakers are connected through a standard stereo jack, you can plug in a simple headphone to see if any sound is coming out of the jack, just don’t have them on your head in case the sound is too loud. If you are using external speakers from choice rather than necessity, disconnect the external speakers and try troubleshooting with the built-in laptop speakers first. Speakers that connect directly to a stereo jack on the laptop (little circular port) are running on the built-in sound card. Speakers connected through just the USB port or through a PC card are running on their own sound device.
External volume up, connex?
Laptops come equipped with an external volume control, which is handy for turning the volume up or down without having to stop what you are doing and access the control in Windows. On newer laptops, this control may be digital and integrated with the software volume, so the
two don’t contradict each other. But some laptops used a hardwired volume dial that can turn the sound completely off, independently of the software setting. If the dial is off, nothing you do in software will induce the laptop to produce sound. It’s also a good time to check that the speaker stereo jack or USB connection is firmly in place. USB speakers? Make sure you have the latest driver for your operating system version downloaded from the Internet and installed. Remember that USB speakers are really combining a simple USB sound card and speakers, so the software is critical. If the Windows Device Manager doesn’t report any problem with the USB sound driver, everything is connected properly, all the volume controls in software and hardware are up and not muted, and you still can’t get sound, either the USB port or the
USB speakers are bad.
Try them on another USB port and another computer before giving up on them.OS see sound device? If the operating system doesn’t see the built-in sound device, you can try reinstalling the latest driver, but unless the original driver was corrupted, it’s unlikely the problem. If Device Manager reports a hardware problem, odds are the built-in sound has failed. Unless the sound functionality is on an independent daughter card in the laptop, as determined from your owner’s manual or a little Internet research on your exact model, don’t even think about replacing it. The cost effective solution is to add USB speakers or a more complex USB or PC card sound device to the laptop. If you can’t get sound through the internal laptop speakers, plug in external headphones just to make sure that the speaker wires inside the laptop haven’t broken. This problem is more common with laptops that feature the speakers in the lid, under or alongside the screen. But software controls remain the #1 problem for laptop sound problems. Aside from the primary volume control often found in your system tray, there may be various other mixer panels and volume adjustments offered in other applications using sound.
One of these can cause a complete absence of sound if the "mute" box is checked. Do music CDs play? Does your sound system work properly with everything except music CDs? If you do have USB speakers, your DVD/CD player and your laptop motherboard must support Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) for the digital stream to be fed to the speakers. Without DAE, music CDs are not digitally processed by the laptop, only amplified. So if you have an older laptop and the sound card functions for everything except for music CDs, the problem is related to the player, not to the sound system. Check under the properties tab for the DVD/CD player and change the setting for “Enable digital CD audio” as a test. One hint that CDs are being played digitally is that the CD drive may spin up and down while playing music, rather than staying spun up at it’s slowest and quietest speed. Some people disable digital CD audio for that reason, if the laptop supports the old fashioned hard wired CD connection as well.OS sounds? In Windows, the basic "Sounds" menu is found in Control Panel. Sound events that have little speakers next to them are enabled. Enable sounds for some actions that you recognize (like "exit program" or "minimize") and see if your speakers work now. Note that Windows sounds don't need to be enabled for music CDs, videos, Internet phone or radio or games to be heard.
We’re just working through the possible problems by process of elimination. Voice-in problem? Is your problem with the microphone? Check that you have the mic in the proper port. If you are doing speech recognition, you should purchase a quality noise cancellation mic, and go through the calibration and testing procedures your software will support. If you still have a sound quality problem, you may need to bypass your built-in sound card with a USB microphone or plug in PC card sound. Mixer muted, driver? Make sure that the microphone isn't muted in the software mixer panel. Check Device Manager for any problems, and if there are any warnings ("!", "?", "i") next tothe sound card, reinstall the driver. If the mute box is unchecked and there isn't a driver problem, try the microphone on another audio device and replace it if it's bad. The female audio connector or jack for the mic in laptops can easily get broken or deformed if the microphone cord gets pulled on or kicked, and likewise, the conductors in the cord can be frayed or broken. Poor recording quality?
CD, mute the mic. Don't neglect to check the quality of the audio source - if you're trying to record from a hissing tape or a scratchy recording, the sound card does not automatically filter out the unwanted noise. High end recording software does give you the option to clean up recordings, but usually after the recording process is complete.Cables and hardware quality?
Laptops aren’t marketed for their ability to do studio quality sound recording, and there’s a reason for that. For music recording, make sure the sampling rate is set to 44 KHz, audio CD quality. Interference is always a possibility, especially if it takes the form of loud ticking or hum. Try moving the system to another location if you're recording near any electrical motors or other possible sources of low frequency interference. True audiophiles spend hundreds of dollars (or more) on audio patch cables that could be worn as jewelry, given the rare metals the wiring is drawn from.
They also spend hundreds of dollars on replacement USB or plug in PC sound cards for their laptops, and although these are marketed more for their playback rather than recording quality, you get what you pay for. Internet sound problem? Is your problem related to playing Internet radio or other web based audio applications? If the quality stinks, it's probably your connection to the Internet. If you have a broadband (cable, DSL) connection and the quality still stinks, it could be the ISP or website is overloaded, so try again later on. It could also be that you're running too many tasks at the same time or the hard drive is near full and virtual memory is thrashing it. Check the hard drive and motherboard diagnostics for potential performance issues.The Laptop Repair Workbook E-Version 1.2 173 Player site requires installed? Most Internet audio applications use a third party player, such as Real Audio. These players may or may not come preinstalled on your notebook, depending on the manufacturer.
If you get no Internet sound at all, but all other audio applications work, either your OS and the player software aren't getting along or you’re missing a required CODEC. Try reinstalling the latest version of the software used on the particular website or research the problem on Google for your specific setup. Websites with audio content usually link to the player site from which you can download a free copy of the player, though you may have to register and reboot when it's done downloading. Game problem? There are a number of reasons the sound quality on your system may not match your experience on somebody else's laptop.
The sound card or motherboard audio in your laptop may be lower quality. The same goes for the speakers, whether internal or external. You could also be picking up interference on the speaker wires, so try routing them away from the AC power adapter and any peripheral device transformers. Laptop gaming sound will never compare well with PC gaming sound unless you’ve purchased a USB or PC card external sound adapter that supports 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound and scattering the required speakers around the room.Is the audio problem with an older game? Very old games require obsolete sound card compatibility.
The default settings of IRQ=5, Address=220, DMA=5 are usually required, since the game communicated directly with the sound card. You may be able to force your sound card to these settings, or, when supported by the driver, you might get by with emulating them under the sound card setup in Device Manager. There's also the possibility, if your game actually exits and runs in DOS mode, that you need to have the proper drivers installed in the DOS Startup files, config.sys and autoexec.bat. This won’t be possible at all in newer Windows versions without a full DOS emulator installed.
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