Since moving house the sound on my computer no longer works, including CDs, MP3s, and Windows system sounds. The speakers (which are integrated into the monitor) are plugged into the speaker jack on the sound card and the sound is not muted. How can I fix this problem? The computer is running Windows XP.

The root cause of this problem could be related to either a hardware or software fault. As the problem only started after moving house, a hardware fault seems to be the most likely cause since something may have been knocked or broken in the computer during the move. Therefore, we will deal with the hardware aspect to begin. First, we need to check whether the problem is related to the speakers on the monitor or whether there could be an issue with the sound card itself. To check whether the speakers are faulty, try plugging a different set of speakers (or headphones) into the speaker jack on the sound card. If the sound works then something is wrong with the speakers themselves. Check that the speakers are powered-on (if there is a separate power switch for the speakers on the monitor) and that any volume level on the speakers themselves has been set to a reasonable volume. If all looks alright it seems that the speakers are faulty. As a temporary workaround you may wish to connect some other external speakers to the computer. This may also be a longer-term solution since the cost of repairing the speakers in the monitor is not likely to be particularly cost-effective.

However, if the problem is not with the speakers it could be due to either the sound card or a software problem. Checking whether the problem is related to the sound card itself is quite difficult to test, short of removing the sound card from the computer and installing the card into another machine then testing whether the problem persists. Unfortunately, if your computer has a sound card integrated onto the motherboard you cannot even do this switch. As such, the only definitive method to test whether the sound card is faulty is to try and play sound independent of the Windows operating system. This will also allow us to check whether the problem is software related (to Windows) or caused by a faulty sound card.

While testing sound independent of Windows sounds like a relatively straight-forward idea this is somewhat complicated by the fact that Windows is the computer operating system and you cannot simply “exit” from Windows. The best way to test sound independent of Windows is to boot the computer from a so-called Live CD. These CDs have a full version of an operating system and completely run off a CD-ROM so you can start the alternate operating system without having to copy any files or modify your local hard drive, leaving the Windows installation unaffected. This makes the Live CDs perfect for testing purposes. While this may seem like overkill there is no other good way to confirm whether the problem is definitely Windows related or hardware related short of reinstalling Windows, which we would like to avoid at this stage.

Fortunately many Live CDs are free to download and possibly the best for the purpose of our testing is the Ubuntu Live CD (www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download). Ubuntu is a variant (known as a distribution) of Linux which is quite suitable to new users of Linux given its user-friendly interface. You can download Ubuntu from the link above and you want to download the latest version of the Desktop Edition (which was 9.04 Desktop at the time of writing). You will find that the file you have downloaded is an ISO file. This is an image file which needs to be copied (burned) onto a CD. You can find instructions on burning the ISO image to a CD at help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto .

Once you have a workable Ubuntu Live CD, insert this into the CD drive on the computer and then restart the computer. In theory, the computer should automatically boot from the Ubuntu CD. If not, you may need to press a key upon startup to trigger the computer to boot from the CD. Check for any messages upon startup to tell the computer that the CD drive must be used to boot the computer. When the Ubuntu boot menu appears select English as the language and then “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer” and press ENTER. When Ubuntu starts you should hear the startup sound. You can also try playing some other audio files by going to the “System” menu > “Preferences” > “Sound”. In the Sound Preferences window that appears, click the “Sounds” tab. Scroll down to “Desktop” with the entries “Login” and “Logout” underneath. Click the play button (i.e. the play icon in the third column of the scroll box) for each of these entries to play the associated sound.

If you find that no audio plays through the Ubuntu Live CD then this is an indication that something is wrong with the sound card hardware. Be aware, this is not completely conclusive as there is a slight chance that Ubuntu does not support your sound card model. That said, this is a very unlikely situation so it is most likely that something is wrong with the sound card. If the sound card is a separate card in the computer then you may need to consider replacing the sound card. You can purchase a new sound card from most computer stores for around $40. Make sure that you confirm there is room on your motherboard to install the new sound card and you have the correct type of expansion slot (e.g. PCI) on the motherboard to support the card. Perhaps a good method would be to take the old card to the computer shop and ask for a replacement which is similar.

On the other hand, if the sound card is integrated onto the motherboard then obviously you cannot remove the old card. In this situation, you should be able to just add a separate sound card to the computer in a vacant slot on the motherboard and then commence using that new sound card and simply ignore the old sound card which does not work correctly. Again, confirm that you have sufficient space on the motherboard to install a new sound card before purchasing.

However, in the situation that the sound card works correctly through Ubuntu this indicates that the problem is software related. Most likely, there is something wrong with Windows not talking to the sound card. The first step in troubleshooting the software problem is always to reinstall the drivers for the device. As such, make sure that you have the drivers for the sound card handy. I suggest that you visit the sound card manufacturer’s website to download the latest drivers for the sound card. Once you have the latest drivers you should first uninstall the current sound card drivers. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “System” control panel (you may need to first click the “Performance and Maintenance” category. In the System Properties window, click the “Hardware” tab and the “Device Manager” button. In the Device Manager window, expand “Sound, video and game controllers”. You will likely see a lot of devices which all represent a portion or specific function of the sound card. Find the entry which best describes the sound card (e.g. “XYZ Audio Card”). Right-click on the entry and select “Uninstall” from the context menu. Confirm that you wish to uninstall the device. You should see the device disappear from the Device Manager. At this point close all open windows and restart the computer. When Windows restarts you should be prompted to install drivers for the sound card device. Proceed through the installation wizard and select the latest version of the sound card drivers, which you downloaded from the internet. Once the installation has completed check whether the sound now works.

Should the sound still not work correctly, the next possible cause is some background process blocking the sound. To test this theory we will close all background programs and processes then check whether the problem continues. First, close any programs which are running (including any which are in the system tray – bottom right-hand corner of the screen, next to the clock). Once all visible programs have been closed we now need to close hidden background processes. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the Windows Task Manager. In the window that appears, click the “Processes” tab. Click the “User Name” heading to sort the processes by user name. If this column is not visible go to the “View” menu > “Select Columns” and tick “User Name”. You will now notice that all the processes have been sorted by user name – we have done this as we only want to close processes running under your user name. Select each process running under your user name and click “End Process”. You should be able to close all processes except “explorer.exe” (the Windows Graphical User Interface) and “taskmgr.exe” (the Windows Task Manager, which you are currently using to close the processes). Once this has been done, check whether the sound works correctly. If so, one of those background processes was causing the problem. In this situation it is now just a process of elimination to determine which process is causing the problem. Restart the computer so that all the processes load again, and then close each process one-by-one, each time checking whether the sound works. Having closed a process and found that the sound works you have located the troublesome process. Now you need to find more information on the process to determine whether the program associated with the process can be uninstalled (which should also uninstall the process) or whether there are other ways around the problem.

Should a background process not cause the problem you should scan the computer for missing or corrupt Windows system files. This can be done through the Windows System File Checker (SFC) utility. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “sfc /scannow” (without the quotes) and click OK. The SFC utility will commence operation. Once it has finished it will exit silently with no user feedback. At this point restart the computer and check whether the problem persists.

As a final resort, you may wish to consider backing-up data you wish to keep and then reformatting and reinstalling Windows from scratch. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, as it is a very complex and time-intensive process. However, this may be your final option to resolve the software fault.