After uninstalling Musicmatch Jukebox from the computer I cannot play any sound (except for sound files which were attached to emails). Upgrading Windows Media Player has not resolved the issue. When I attempt to play sound or music through Windows Media Player (be it a sound file or music CD) the progress bar moves like it is being played, but no sound is played from the computer. How can I get the sound back? The computer is running Windows XP.

It is quite strange that uninstalling Musicmatch Jukebox resulted in the computer having no sound, since Musicmatch Jukebox is simply a media player application as opposed to a program which controls the audio drivers and sound card on the computer. Therefore, the uninstallation of Musicmatch Jukebox from the computer should not result in the computer being unable to play audio. Additionally, since Windows Media Player indicates that audio is being played (through the progress bar moving, and no error message appearing) it seems that Windows Media Player does not see a problem with the audio hardware on the computer. As the first step towards solving this problem, we will need to check the audio configuration on the computer.

Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Sound and Audio Devices” control panel (you may need to first click the ?Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices? category). In the window that appears, click the “Audio” tab. This will list the settings for audio devices on the computer. Under the “Sound playback” heading ensure that this has been set to the correct audio device for your computer. Without knowing the configuration of your computer I cannot tell you the exact setting this would need to be, but the setting should refer to the brand and model of sound card in the computer (you should be able to find information on the brand and model of your sound card in the documentation that came with your computer). As an example, on my computer this is set as “Creative Sound Blaster PCI” as I have a Creative sound card in the computer. Assuming this has been set correctly, click the “Advanced” button. In the next window that appears, make sure the speaker setup has been set to “Desktop stereo speakers”. Click OK to save and close. Next, click the “Volume” button. The Windows Volume Control will appear. While this may seem like a simple solution, make sure that the volume is set at a high enough level (as it is possible the volume was set very low, making it appear that no sound was being played from the computer). Also make sure that the important inputs (particularly the master Volume Control, Wave, and CD Audio) are not muted. Once you have finished, close the Volume Control and click OK to save and close the settings in the Sound and Audio Devices control panel. Then, check whether the problem continues.

If the problem continues, we need to start researching why you can play audio files which are attached to emails but not any other audio. This may have something to do with the application being used to play the emailed audio files, compared with the Windows Media Player program which you are using to play all other audio files. Open one of the sound files which is attached to an email that plays correctly, and take note of the program being used to play the sound file. If the program is not Windows Media Player, then it seems the problem is related to Windows Media Player since sound can play fine in this other program but not in Windows Media Player. To confirm, try opening another sound file (or an audio CD) in the program which does play sound files correctly. If this works, the problem has been confirmed as Windows Media Player. Should this be the case, then please contact me again for further advice. Additionally, if you find that the sound files attached to emails open in Windows Media Player and play correctly, but other files do not play correctly, this will be an even more interesting scenario. If this is the case, please contact me with details of this behaviour and I will try to provide further advice on the issue.