IBM x31 2672 laptop- no audio hardware is found

[jmpalmer]

When I open any Media Player I get an error or the file plays with no sound.
When I try and open up Windows Movie maker it tells me "the required audio hardware cannot be found on your computer"

When I go to my sound devices (in the Control Panel) all the dropdown lists are greyed out (guess it can't find my sound hardware).

Where do i start to troubleshoot this?

Thanks

John

[Ferrit]

First off look in the device manager under Sound Video and Game controllers and see if anything is there.
Also look for anything like "Other Devices" which would indicate that the sound hardware is not installed.

[jmpalmer]

I found no listing for "other devices" in the DM.

Under Sound and video I found:

- Audio codecs
- Legacy Audio drivers
- Legacy Video Capture device
- Media Control device
- SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
- Video Codecs

So, it look as if the SoundMax device is working properly and is the default sound device. I updated its drivers. Uninstalled and reinstalled.

No luck.

Any thoughts?

[NooNoo]

Is the device set to digital only output?

[davidwsmith]

I have exactly the same problem. I would appreciate help too.

I have a Realtek High Definition Audio sound card

DAvid

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers davidwsmith

Need a few more details... what make and model computer and what wndows are you running?

[davidwsmith]

D/Top Pc HP m 7510.uk running Windows XP SP2

[NooNoo]

have you downloaded the latest driver? (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-40480-1&lc=en&cc=uk&dlc=en&product=3236976&os=228&lang=en) and installed it?

Do you get any errors?

[davidwsmith]

Have now. No errors. Problem still exists.

DAvid

[Atodini]

Audio driver reported installed but greyed out in audio properties panel...

Seen this a few times, could well be due to a bug in swenum.sys

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321467

M$ says that there is no workround but I've found this is not so. Obtain copies of swenum.sys, swenum.ini & streamci.dll and save in a temp folder on your desktop.

Swenum.sys and streamci.dll can simply be copied over from your %windir%\system32 folder (streamci.dll) and %windir%\system32\drivers (swenum.sys). You'll need to create a new swenum.ini as follows:

copy machine.inf from %windir%\inf to a temp dir
remove line 20: ExcludeFromSelect=* save as swenum.ini into your temp folder.

Now uninstall the plug and play enumerator from system devices in device manager (view all devices).

Reboot into safe mode and edit all references to swenum from the registry. (backup first!!)

Back in normal mode go to add new hardware\system devices\plug & play enumerator and select "have disc". Map to your temp folder to reinstall swenum.sys.

Now reinstall the sound driver and all should be well.

Used this several times with 100% success.

Or you can follow the M$ suggestion of full format & reinstall!!

Repair install does not work!!

Good luck,

John

[davidwsmith]

This is too complicated for me and fraught with danger. Any other suggestions?

DAvid

[davidwsmith]

Went through Windows Diags and it was suggested that I delete the sound card in Device Manager and let windows find it automatically. It worked!

DAvid

[NooNoo]

Glad to hear you managed to get it sorted.

[Spockodile]

M$ says that there is no workround but I've found this is not so. Obtain copies of swenum.sys, swenum.ini & streamci.dll and save in a temp folder on your desktop.

etc
I'd like to try doing this, but there is no option to uninstall the Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator.

Also, there are three of them listed. This may be due to the fact that I followed similar instructions earlier today, although they said nothing about needing to uninstall anything.

Anyway,

I'm looking for a way to uninstall the pnp enumerator, and I haven't found it yet. Device Manager does not give me the option to uninstall it.

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers spockodile

What options does it offer you? Exactly which laptop/computer do you have? Which operating system are you using? What service pack?

[Spockodile]

XP SP2, Emachines M6811.

Here's my story.

A few days ago, I lost my sound for no apparent reason. I checked the Windows Audio service, which was started. I reinstalled the Realtek audio drivers, which didn't seem to help. At some point, I started getting the Microsoft Kernel Audio things with the yellow exclamation icons showing up in the Device Manager. Two times, I tried a fix one person mentioned on another website which involved modifying the machine.inf file and installing it as a Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator, but it didn't seem to help.

After a bit of searching, I found this thread, and Atodini's post, which I'd like to try.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/6718/pnppropmo6.jpg
As you can see in the screenshot, there are three pnp enumerators listed in the Device manager. None of them have option to uninstall. In Properties, Uninstall is grayed out. Roll Back, Update, and Driver Details are listed as options.

In order to try the fix Atodini posted, it seems like I need to remove the pnp enumerator(s), but I'm not sure how that's done.

[NooNoo]

I think you should uninstall the audio driver from add/remove programs and then remove the ac97 device in device manager. Then shut down immediately. Restart the computer but go immediately into bios/setup and disable the onboard sound...there might be up to 3 entries - onboard or ac97, midi and soundblaster compatibility

Reboot the machine and reinstall the via chipset drivers here (http://www.emachines.com/support/product_support.html?cat=Notebooks&subcat=M-Series&model=M6811)

Reboot the machine a few times and then re enable the sound in bios, reinstall the sound driver and see what happens.


I have also seen sound quit under certain viruses and spyware. You should do a thorough check with http://housecall.trendmicro.com and with adaware and spybot. If you don't have a virus checker, then give www.avast.com a go as well.

[Spockodile]

In the BIOS, there was no place to disable sound. The BIOS options were very sparse.

It was like PhoenixBIOS or something, if that helps.

When I booted up, a Multimedia Audio Controller installed itself, and is in the category of Other Devices in the Device Manager. It has the yellow error exclamation. Typical.

So, you think I should find a way to disable onboard sound before I run the Chipset Driver installer, right? I'm not sure how to manage that, since there was nothing in the BIOS about sound.

Spybot and AVG have come up with nothing. I could try running Adaware. Trend Micro is going now.

[NooNoo]

If there is no way to shut off the sound, then you can't.

Install the chipset drivers anyway... then uninstall/remove the multimedia audio controller in other devices and without rebooting closing device manager install the ac97 drivers (on the same page).

[Spockodile]

Update:

Sound seems to be at least somewhat working. iTunes was producing sound out of my computer speakers. Volume Controls brings up the sliders, like it ought to (instead of giving errors).

In Device Manager, there are still a bunch of unnecessary Microsoft Kernel Audio things with the exclamation marks, but whatever.

I think I'm all set now.

Thanks!

[NooNoo]

Those you should remove by booting to safe mode and removing them from device manager. Reboot to normal mode - if the ac97 drivers installed correctly, those that are real devices will install themselves and clear the errors.