Category: Geeks r Us
Hey all,
For the past few days now, my 7 laptop has been acting a bit strange. Out of the blue, I will just lose sound. Everything will just mute itself. No jaws, no system sounds, no nothing. I know I'm not muting it, and if I have headphones in, I can hear a strange sound like I'm hearing my computer hum or something. I don't know if its a driver issue, if its miraspeak if its skype talking, but its a bit weird. I can't really pinpoint it on anything, and I really have no idea when its going to happen which makes it all the more difficult solve. Any help would really be appreciated.
in deed it is strange!
It appears that several things could be wrong. I had a similar problem with my thinkpad laptop, and well, while it's certainly not gone, the problem still pops up once in a while.
I've found that for me, it is a bios problem. That is, the bios is not initializing the audio card right.
since your post implies that when the problem occurs, your windows starts up with sound-this is probably not the case for you.
I could then narrow it down to drivers. Have you checked with the laptop maker's website that you have the latest drivers? Since you hear weird sounds once the problem occurs, I think it might actually have to do with drivers than anything else. Also check Windows update. Usually you will find drivers listed as an optional update.
If you have a braille display or another usb soundcard, you could go into device manager (by typing it in the search box) and checking the audio driver's status. It would be under sound and audio in the tree view. Usually, a cheap external soundcard shouldn't cost more than $10-I know for me, when no sound works, it does come in handy. -You just have to memorize that insert+j, alt+u and o brings you to the soundcard menu :)
But I'm off topic now. Anyway. The least likely issue could be your laptop's motherboard. That is, I've seen faulty laptops where moving it around (e.g. shifting it on your bed, moving it on your desk) can dislodge the soundcard inside the machine. Usually they are integrated, but there have been times when laptop movement can cause come circuits to move out of place. Again, I wouldn't worry about this one because you do get noise out of the jack/soundcard. Sounds more like a driver problem or hardware conflict.
Hope all that made sense... Let us know if you need additional help with driver search or just anything in general regarding the problem! :)
all the best,
Tomi
Will do. I actualy got the same thing about drivers from some one else. I'll check that now.
I ran update driver from device manager, but it says it doesn't have any updates. I don't know where it checked though. It said I have 2 high definition audio devices. Well, not much help for me to distinguish which is my microphone and which is my speakers. Should I go on to dell, find my laptop, and see if they have anything?
Is it still under factory? If so call tech support and have them check it out online for you.