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A certain daughter, who shall remain nameless, shut the computer off in the middle of a computer game, thus causing the crash. What can I do to get the audio running again? I'm also getting a weird copyright protection notice when I try to play my DVD from Netflix. What can I do? I can't watch DVDs now.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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My family is squawking about the audio not working. What would be a good tech forum to ask this on?
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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Hatrack would be Really though, your problem sounds like what happens everytime a computer with XP is reformatted. Basically, if your computer came with any CDs that have drivers on them, and you still have them, use those to put the audio drivers back on. If not, hopefully you can find a way to figure out which ones you need and download them online.
If all else fails, there is a program called Everest that should tell you what kind of hardware your computer runs on. From there you can see what brand soundcard you have, and probably google its website and download what you need. You can get a free trial of Everest here
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I definitely appreciate your post. I downloaded and installed Everest. How do I use it? Thanks. Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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You need to first go into your \temp folder and delete all the files. In XP, this is usually found in \Documents and Setting\'your user name'\Local Settings\Temp. In this folder, delete any .tmp files, .exe, .com, and any other files that seem unnecessary. You may find several .log files, you can either leave these or delete them. When you try to delete a block of files from this folder, you may find that some won't delete; simply skip that file and delete the others.
Next, go into the [Settings][Control Panel] then select the [System] icon. In [System] select [Hardware] [Device Manager] then delete the hardware that is not working; DVD, CD, and Sound Card.
Then restart you computer. When you restart, those new pieces of hardware will be found and the device drivers will be re-installed.
Posts: 803 | Registered: May 2006
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I did a Windows update (yeah, I know). Even after that, thought it's still telling me I have no audio device. It gives me the window where I could adjust the volume, but it says I have no audio device, which is odd, considering that the speakers are plugged in and on, with the volume knob turned up.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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I know it sounds dangerous to do what I suggested, but after deleting the devices that are not working, when Windows restarts, it will find those devices and think they are new devices. It will then look on the hard drive first for device drivers, upon finding them it will install them.
Also, keep in mind that for most Windows computers on modern machines, their is a complete copy of Windows in a second folder on your drive. This copy is essentially a mirror of the install disk. So, even if your installed drivers are trashed, it will find the archived drives in this second Windows folder.
If it can't find the drivers in either place, it will then use the Internet to contact Microsoft to see if they have updated drivers.
Overall, it is a reasonably safe task.
Even if something goes wrong, you'll simply be back where you are now.
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If something does go wrong, simply repeat all the steps again, but boot into safe mode to delete the hardware. Sometimes 'phantom drivers' can stick around that aren't visible except in safe mode.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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In case, you are still checking back on this post, Fugu13 is correct. If simply removing the hardware device drivers as I suggested doesn't work then use Fugu13's method.
You might also simply try going to System - Device Manager and right clicking on the problem device then select Properties. In Properties, you will see an option to update the device drives. Try doing that, it might be enough to reinstall them.
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