Category: Geeks r Us
I'm having a huge! problem right now. I was on my netbook, just typing, when the sound started getting lower and lower all at once, and within a few seconds, it was off. I tried rebooting several times but no luck. I don't even here the normal XP sounds. But I'm fairly sure that the computer is working and it's probably the volume that somehow went down, as this happened to me on another machine a long time ago.
Is there some kind of hotkey that I can hit while turning it on or after it's on to get the volume bac? I disabled the touchpad and mouse buttons on 20 April or so and couldn't get them back, but left them that way instead of doing a system restore, because when they're on, they cause me a lot of grief. But now, I can't get sighted help either, unless the person uses an external mouse or I get into the control pannel and they guide me, since most are clueless as to how to do things with the keyboard. Mom thinks that every time I have a computer problem, I caused it by downloading too much software. She seems to think having too much on a hard disk is bad, even though mine is a huge 160gb and I rarely download new programs, only ones that I know and/or trust and music from Youtube. But if I try explaining that she says "you have more computer problems than anyone I know" and so on and just doesn't get it. Joanie's the same way and Grandma's 80-years-old and runs away from the machines. lol So I really am on my own here. I could probably convince Mom to help me if I explain that it's the volume, since she did the last time, but I only got this computer last month and don't want to hear a lecture about buying things from Ebay. This was in mint condition when I got it and was barely used! I also need to save my things onto my compact flash card and want to avoid doing a system restore until then. Is there a way for me to hook up two XP machines with a usb cord so that I could control one with the other or put it's information onto the other? Awhile ago, I downloaded Volume Tray, which I originally found here.
http://www.jfwlite.com/programs.html
Could that have caused the problem? I have Microsoft Essentials, which is supposed to catch viruses and I haven't gone on any suspicious sites lately, though I did go on one where I had to keep telling Firefox to allow it to go there. Still, it's a reputible site.
If you guys can't help me, I might just wait for Spiros to come this weekend. He may not understand much in the world of computers, but at least he's willing to try without comment and he uses one on a daily basis.
Try the following. Hold the windows key and press r to open the run dialog. Type sndvol and press enter to open the volume mixer. You will be focused on the first slider which is for the speakers. Use up and down arrow to move in small incriments, page up and page down to move in large incriments and home and end to move to the maximum or minimum volume.
I tried doing it with ctrl-esc for start and then r, since I don't know where the windows key is. But no luck. So I thought that either it didn't work, for whatever reason, or something else is on the screen. So I tried it with my Thinkpad just now and it said that sndvol couldn't be found. Is this for 7 or XP? I'm using XP.
XP it's sndvol32
Opa!!!! Coolness! I tried it on the Thinkpad and found that it placed me in balance first. But once I tabbed, I got to the volume. Tried that on my netbook and now I'm good to go! Now I'm running Microsoft Essentials to see what in the hell happened here!
Has anyone heard of this? It's called Sound Volume Hotkeys and seems like a great idea. But I'm not sure if it's screenreader accessible. My friend found it at
http://www.softarium.com/soundvolumehotkeys/
There is an effect setup on these machines. You'll need sighted help, but it needs to be set to off. The person helping you will find it in the systems trey or onder sound settings. It is not Jaws accessible. The other trick given you will continue to work, but that effects should be set to off.
I've never seen it at all, not even as an inaccessible option. If it helps, I'm actually an NVDA user, so maybe, it can read it.
The one thing I've noticed is that the machine keeps getting slow when it's one for awhile. This has only been happening the last two or three days, but NVDA's been getting very sluggish. When I restart, the problem goes away and takes awhile to come back. At first, I thought that it was because I many windows open and was running several programs, but it also did it when I had nothing but a Windows Live Messenger window, the main WLM window and a Firefox Window open. I ran Microsoft Security Essentials immediately after getting speech back yesterday at a full scan and also have it scheduled to run one every day at around 3 AM or so, so that I'm sure to be asleep. I can't figure out how to check results or see what's been quarantined, so I just told it to delete whatever it quarantines because it disables it anyway and there's no way for me to remove the files or to see them.
The slowing down can be caused by many things, so that's a tough one to solve without seeing the machine. NVDA will not read the effect part, sorry you'll need help.
Now I have to find a usb mouse. Maybe, Spiros has one. That, or I have to do a system restore to before the 20th of April. I disabled the touchpad, using a hotkey combination and can't get it back. I did change a few settings but those didn't do a thing until I hit that hotkey. I forget what it is right now, though it's easily findable. It's supposed to be a toggle so that if you hit it again, it turns it back on but that's not what happened here and that touchpad was really causing me a lot of problems due to it's sensitivity.
Sounds exciting! However when you get finished you'll still have the same issues, specially with the effects setup. Also for the effects deal you'll just have to get sighted help. No way around that as far as I know. For the slowing, maybe try disabling all programs that start when the system starts.