Vista: No Sound. Problem Solved. Sound On and Off? Problem Solved.

I will explain how to fix your problem if your Windows Vista has no sound. Or if the sound on Vista comes on and goes off. Read on.

Remeber not too long ago I had a strange event happen: I had the sound coming out of my Laptop's speakers and out of my headset simultaneously.

THE PREVIOUSLY "RESOLVED" PROBLEM REPEATS ITSELF...

That was kind of weird but I resolved this strange sound problem then. It repeated yesterday. Hmm.

...AND GETS WORSE

Then today, while I was watching a video about making money with your blog the vista sound went away, totally. No sound on Vista! That was very annoying!


My laptop with "Windows Vista, No Sound" version is not much fun. I'm not very good at reading lips! Anyhow I played around a bit and I found a couple of weird things going on.
  • The headphones and the speakers playing simultaneously. Basically, the speakers wouldn't shut off when the headphone jack is inserted. This could be a jack problem, but it didn't look like one!
  • (later) No Sound from Vista. Pressing Fn Up Arrow showed the Volume Bar, and it was at its max, but no sound. The Video Player (Flash Video Player) sound button was at 100%.
I went in decided to go deeper than last time where reboot fixed the problem for the time being. I opened the Sound Driver Manager (Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound), looked at Configuration and Properties. Everything looked fine initially.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED

Except this: Pressed on Speaker, Properties, again Properties under "Controller Information, High Definition Audio Device", clicked the Driver Tab on Top and pressed Disable to turn off sound! As soon as I confirmed the delete, the sound came on! I rejected the next popup suggesting to reboot to complete the changes. I liked having sound! This lasted for about 30 seconds and then the sound shut itself off again. Funny enough, I was able to repeat this procedure 3-4 times which repeatedly gave me sound for 30 or so seconds at the time. So let's add another "weird symptom" bullet:
  • the sound came on after hitting the "Disable" in the sound driver and confirming!
I searched for Vista No Sound type problems and indeed, I found a web site http://www.filecluster.com/reviews/102008/realtek-cards-no-sound-in-vista-problem-fix/. They  suggested to reinstall the sound drivers and offered (a certain) driver download. I agreed with the reinstall part and decided to download vista sound drivers from the manufacturers site instead.
 
The strange behavior really ruled out any obvious hardware problem such as speakers or headphones or headphone jack switch. So next thing to think about: maybe the Realtek driver went bad. OK.

DOWNLOADING FRESH DRIVERS AND REMOVING THE INSTALLED DRIVERS

I proceeded to download the driver from the Acer (manufacturer) website acer.com. Selected my country, laptop model and Voila, there it was. It was a Realtek High Definition Audio Driver which seems quite common on Vista these days. About 37 Mbytes zipped. I placed it on my hard drive and proceeded to uninstall the existing driver as directed. Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound, Playback Tab, Speakers, General Tab, Properties, Under Controller information, High Definition Audio Device, Properties, Driver Tab, Uninstall Button (advanced). Agreed (checked) Delete the Driver Software. Click OK.

UNINSTALL SUCCESSFUL. HERE NOT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS PROVES BENEFICIAL

The driver uninstalled successfully and Vista offered a reboot. I agreed contrary to the directions from the above filecluster website. This proved successful. It turned out, it removed the need to actually install the downloaded driver as Vista found (the old?) drivers and installed them during the restart process. Mind you, I feel the "old" Vista drivers were up-to-date.

VISTA NO SOUND PROBLEM SOLVED

The sound came back. Vista, No Sound Problem Solved. For now. I'll keep you posted.

MY PROBLEM SOLVED. WHAT ABOUT YOURS? LEAVE A COMMENT PLEASE?

Let me know if these directions helped with your sound or even if they didn't help you. Either way, leave me a comment, would you!

IF YOUR PROBLEM IS SOLVED, BOOKMARK THIS PAGE FOR LATER!

And if it did help you, I would appreciate your bookmarking this with your favorite service like Digg or StumbleUpon below. That way you can come back here when needed and others can find this solution more easily as well.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi am having a problem with my speakers. I was using my headset but he sound was coming from the speakers and not my headset. I kept configuring the headset for sound. All test were great but when I week to play something the sound came out of the speakers. Frustrated I decided to disable the speakers. This worked but got rid of my speakers. There as a big red x on them in the tray and they were totally gone from the sound tab. I was fine with it for a minute but then I couldnt get sound from the headset anymore. I enable the speakers but no I get no sound from either. Everything looks good but when i go to test the speakers or headset I get a failed to play test tone message. I have installed up to date drivers. There's a registry trick I tried, didn't work. One site said check disable all sound effects in the sound tab, didn't work, also said perform a system restore. Couldnt do that because im the only one in the world who doesnt back up there systems. So Im stuck here with no sound and no solution.

KJ said...

My experience of restoring lost aaudio to Vista was exactly like yours:
1.Uninstall Realtek device and software.(System sounds momentarily returned-I didn't check other audio functions.)
2. Restart.
Audio has been restored.

Thanks for the tip!

Disclosure said...

KJ, You are welcome!

Anonymous, is your situation still sound-less? I know how it can feel to have a laptop with no sound!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

My sound still wont work. When i put in my charger for my laptop it makes a sound, but when I try listening to music, I cant hear anything. The sound says it working properly and i don't know what to do

Disclosure said...

Anonymous, let us know what steps from the article above did you try, what happened, and then we can help further.

Unknown said...

Fix the "No sound" issue by online ms certified experts.24*7

www.windows-guru.net

BluesBear said...

BluesBear says "Thank you" for the clear & intelligent approach to the stated problem. Unfortunately, I believe I have followed most of the directives with out success.
I have an Acer PC, Vista HP,& Realtek Audio. My sound is gone. As you stated, I believe I have double checked the hard connections and the speakers work. Vista says the system is OK & audio card is working, even after the re-install of new driver. The test shows "failed to play tone" & I get no Windows sound upon starting. Any more suggestions?

Disclosure said...

Hi, BluesBear. What is Vista HP? Sometimes, if you've done everything that you can in software, it may be the faulty hardware, either the audio card, or something else.

I take it headphones don't work either?

How old is your Acer?

Being desperate, you can try the thing under "A Funny Thing Happened" above.

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