Sony Vaio notebook - no audio device problem

Working on a Sony Vaio notebook model PCG-R505JL with docking station and using Windows XP service pack 1 and all the latest updates.

When I go into device manager it detects a SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio sound card and the properties tab says this device is working properly.

But when I go to control panel and look at the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties it says No Audio Device under the Volume tab and then under the Audio tab the Sound Playback Default device is grayed out as well as the Sound recording and Midi music playback.

Under the hardware tab it does show the SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio and says the device is working properly.

What gives?

Tried uninstalling the device and reloading the latest drivers from Sony and still no sound. What am I missing here. Customer says the sound used to work but is not sure when it stopped working. Can not find any Bios settings that turn off the card.

tried an updated driver ?

Checked for spyware?

I have run Spybot 1.3 with latest updates and also Ad-Aware with latest update, machine appears to be clean. Also running AVG with latest updates, no virii detected.

Loaded latest driver off the Sony Website.

No change to the problem.

Could I be missing some necessary sound modules from Microsoft?

And if so how do I get them back?

What codecs are showing as installed?

If I look at the hardware tab in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties menu I see:
SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Media Control Devices
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Video Codecs

All of which properties say device is working properly.

If I go to device manager and show hidden devices I also see under the Sound, video and game controllers a Microsoft Kernel System Audio Device which also indicates in its properties that it is working correctly.


BUT I do not see either a Microsoft Kernel Wave Audio Mixer (kmixer.sys)nor a Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver (wdmaud.sys). On my test system Win XP Pro those both appear. On the Sony there is no speaker icon on the task bar next to the system clock either. Both modules, kmixer and wdmaud are in the correct library as far as I can tell (C:\windows\system32\drivers)

If those are what is missing how do I get them back?

If I look at the audio codecs I have:

imaadp32.acm
msadp32.acm
msg711.acm
msgsm32.acm
tsoft32.acm
msg723.acm
Windows Media Audio
Sipro Lab Telcom Audio codec
Indeo audio software
Fraunhofer IIS MPEG layer-3 Codec
Sony ATRAC# Codec
Microsoft PCM Convertor

All of which properties say device working correctly.

You would register them in the registry??? guessing here, but if you can compare files, how about comparing reg entries?

Well I took the "cheap" way out on this.

Did a repair install of Windows XP Home and once it was finished the sound was working again.

Reloaded all the MS patches and it is still working.

I figured this would be faster than trying to reregister the modules and possibly more reliable as well

Noo Noo, thanks for all your help and quick replies, it is much appreciated!!

my pleasure

Hi, Yeah, I have pretty much exactly the same problem on my Sony Vaio,
Only How do you do a "repair install of windows XP"? Because I'd really appreciate the help!

If the vaio comes with an operating system disk, you boot from the operating system disk, you let the setup run (ignoring the first opportunity to repair the installation) when you get to the screen which asks you which partition you want to install XP on, choose the repair option there.

full tutorial here