PCFormat Forum Archive

Good afternoon,

A friend of mine's audio stopped working right after the machine installed some patches. Now I'm not sure if this is the cause, but that is the only thing that changed. Note that he is still using the on board sound.

We tried reinstalling the drivers - Nothing
Tried downloading vista drivers from the realtek website - Nothing

Eventually after numerous reboots, the PC did not even pick up the sound device anymore. So I left and he sms'ed me at around 2 in the morning, saying that he got it working by plugging out one of his memory modules. After a reboot, it went away again.

He decided that it's XP time again, and reinstalled XP. Guess what? PC does not pick up his sound device.
That tells me it is his on board sound that went for a walk. So he bought a cheap R100 sound card. Put it in, installed drives and the sound is back. So that sorted that problem out.

BUT, after a while, his neighbor (also running vista) reported the same problem! Audio just went poof and gone! Just a day after his went.

What do you guys think could be the problem?

P.S. I'm putting this in the Windows section, cuz I think it has more to do with windows than hardware. BUT if it is in the wrong thread, then the mods can move it!

Thanks!

What is the rig?

Sorry.

He is running a Biostar P4890 motherboard
Intel CPU - Forgot the name
4GB of memory
Sparkle 9600GT

And his neighbours rig?

I am not sure what he runs. He bought a new mobo the other day. I would say about a month back. I will try and get specs from them both. Proper specs.

But it's weird that both decided to give in...hmmm

Probably just a coincidence though if both Realtek chips certainly not impossible either.

If enabled in BIOS and undetected by two OS's then most likely yes, it's dead.

Surge, lightning or power outages?

None of that. He still played games and watched movies. I came there to copy something for him, and when he started up his pc, it installed updates.

After I left, he restarted again and poof. Gone is the audio. It was clear skies.