How do I restore sound for media player?

The same thing happened recently to me; I eventually had to go back to the old drivers.  But there are some troubleshooting tasks you should try first.  One is this: boot into Safe mode (by holding down Ctrl key during boot, which will bring up the Startup Menu, giving you the option to choose Safe mode.)  Then get into Device Manager (click on the Device Manager tab in the System applet of Control Panel), expand all your devices by clicking on the plus signs for each device category, and make sure there are no duplicates, or "ghosts."  If there are, remove all of them and boot into Normal mode to let the Add Hardware wizard reinstall the devices.  (You need to check in Safe mode because Device Manager will not always show such ghosts in Normal mode.)

Try double clicking on the speaker icon in  taskbar.  You may find that certain selections may be muted or have their volume turned off.

Lee what are you referring to as "ghosts", I have seen someone say that the components that make up certain sound cards are "Ghosts".  Is that what you are referring to? Or, are you referring to items that were removed from the device manager, but are holding resources and therefore show up in safe mode?

Hi cbrookhart!
Have seen this problem before.(sound disapeared after updating Drivers)
What I did I suggest to help the questioner?
I asked her to uninstall and reinstall Multimedia components.
Open:
Start
settings
Control panel
Add/remove program
Nowe tab installed windows programs.
Uncheck Multimedia
Click ok and ok again
Open Add/remove program again
Now check Multimedia
Click ok and ok to reinstall it.
Windows will ask for your windows CD.
-----
If did not work, as commented:
Open start > Settings > Control panel > system
Open System and click on Device for sound and video and game
Now look for any device with the yellow token "!" or "?" or "X"
If found any, tell me to give you solution!
Also:
Open start > run > type in hwinfo /ui > ok
see if you find any "red text" indicates that there is an error.
Also open start> run > type in SFC
and look for "altered dll files
Ask the SFC to restore the file from windows CD!
Good luck
Navid


Good luck
Navid

Below is one area that was identified as a problem:

Class: System
  This Device Has a Problem: Code=22 (0x16)
This device is disabled.
  DeviceDesc: IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
  Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\enum\PCI\IRQHOLDER\60
  Hardware Resource Section
    Inst2 resources:
      Alloc resources:
          None
  Extra Registry information Section
  Driver Information section
    Driver: System\0018
    DriverDate:  5-11-1998

Class: System
  This Device Has a Problem: Code=22 (0x16)
This device is disabled.
  DeviceDesc: IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
  Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\enum\PCI\IRQHOLDER\62
  Hardware Resource Section
    Inst2 resources:
      Alloc resources:
          None
  Extra Registry information Section
  Driver Information section
    Driver: System\0020
    DriverDate:  5-11-1998

No problems found with SFC. The line in box was muted when I clicked the speaker icon. I unchecked the box and still no sound in Media Player.

What motehrboard is it?  I am using this a lot lately as VIA chipsets seem to be peculiar in assignment of IRQs.  Anyway if it is VIA chipset and you are having issues with sound card try some of the info from the following link.  YOu may need to update your 4-in-1 drivers.  When coming here for solutions it is best that you tell us what you have in your system and be specific as to make and model of Motherboard and internal cards installed.

Via link is here http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm
I have found several issues with these boards if the IRQ routing is not installed.  In particular, the system seems to have a problem with PCI steering without the 4-in-1 driver.

No one has asked what kind of sound card this is....Creative, Aureal-based, ESS...???? This is some pertinent information.  What kind of system is this? Motherboard type, CPU, RAM?

-d

This is the motherboard I have as is listed in my system specifications:

PII 400 with integrated audio

Sound card is a SoundBlaster PCIAudio 128D (was a 64D until I updated the drivers).

Any other info needed?

I forgot to mention that this sound card is based on the Ensoniq ES 1373 chipset. I checked out the viahardware.com site, and I'm not sure which file I would need.

This is a creative sound card.

I should have posted this information in my original question. Here is the system info:

PII 400
128Mb RAM
Windows 98
Creative SoundBlaster PCIAudio 128D sound card

OK...that's your problem.   You installed the drivers for a PCI 128 when you have the 64D.  Let me find the updated drivers for the 64D and you can reinstall them.

-d

http://www.americas.creative.com/support/files/download.asp?Centric=16&OS=4&descID=448

I think that will get  you there...Creative's website is pretty hard to get a valid URL from...if that doesn't work, try http://www.americas.creative.com/support/ and select your product through the menu there.

It might be necessary to install drivers provided by the motherboard manufacturer...hopefully not though!

-d

I'm sure that I downloaded drivers for the 64D sound card. The update changed the card from a 64 to a 128. I've been trying all day to get to the creative sites, but they won't load.

Dogztar:

That link that you posted goes to the file that I downloaded from creative. Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but for some reason my file is named e64w9xup[1].exe.  Opening this file immediately launches the driver installation process and there is no display that shows where the file is going. Once windows restarts, it asks for a driver disk. Not knowing what files were installed and where they were installed, I can't point windows to the correct location. I wrote down every file that I was prompted for and did a search for it. In most cases, I ended up with the same file in at least three different locations. In one location the file size would be 92k for example but in the other two locations the same file would be 88k. The dates all matched so somehow the driver files spread out over several directories and changed size. I thought that the more complete file would be larger in size so I pointed windows to that file. I don't have sound in media player or in a couple of my games.

Check in C:\windows\system .  That is where a majority of "hidden updates" place the driver files.  I have heard mention of other talking about this "upgrade"  it seems to be bringing a lot of questions here to the exchange.

This may work for you.  http://www.soundblaster.com/drivers/
If you can't get there I don't know what to say.
BTW a PII 400 is your processor.  Do you know the brand and model number of board it plugs into?

Hi, pbessman, sorry to get back to you so late on your question, but I was away servicing a customer or two. I am not sure what others mean by "ghosts" (and I've always wondered when I see this in comments here at E-E), but I mean either unknown devices or duplicate devices.  Perhaps there is a more or less standard meaning for this term, and if so, I'd like to know it...  Don't think I will be able to contribute much more to this question, but I'll certainly be paying close attention to it, because I have a SoundBlaster PCI Audio card myself and I tried to update my new computer with the latest drivers (Dell seems to be a little late in looking at drivers), which I couldn't get to work on my system, so I went back to the originals...

I'm wondering if I should get SoundBlaster Ensoniq AudioPCI drivers since the card is based on the Ensoniq chipset. I suppose I should probably try to go back to the old drivers and then download from soundblaster. Are the files from soundblaster.com different than the ones from creative.com?

I thought the motherboard was listed as a PII 400. It is actually a Jabil (Tabor 2) BX with integrated audio.

The drivers at soundblaster are currently not online. I'll have to check back periodically to see when they will be back up.

Had this problem a couple of years back.
If I read this right you have a Creative Ensoniq 64 sound card.
We finally sorted this out by using the drivers on the Win98 CD in the following folder
(Your CD drive letter usually D):\win98\drivers\other
Correct me if I'm wrong I don't have a 98 CD to look at to be sure at the moment.

Is this a Gateway 2000 computer?  If so, please provide the model number from the back/front of the system.

-d

Actually, if it is a GW2K machine, please provide the system serial # from the case.

-d

This is a gateway 2000 computer. The system serial number is 0011620748. When I spoke with a tech support representative from Gateway about updating drivers, they said that the file called 10802.exe contained the drivers I need. This card is a soundblaster and is based on the ensoniq chipset. I'll try to go back to the original drivers and then try the above link.

I've decided to give up on trying to upgrade the sound card drivers. For whatever reason, Windows is not accepting the new sound card drivers. When the new drivers are loaded, I lose sound in Windows Media Player and in some of my games. I have been working with at least 5 different technicians from Gateway tech support over the past week. I have also sent a message to creative tech support. The response that I got from Creative is that the sound card is produced by them and put in a box with the creative logo on it for companies such as Gateway, Dell, etc. The technician says that the card is OEM hardware and therefore I should contact Gateway for assistance. Creative isn't able to help me and nothing that the Gateway technicians have done so far has worked. I've come to the conclusion that either the driver file I am trying to install is mislabled and is not the correct file for the sound card or there is a certain driver file that is not compatible with my system. The last I checked, the driver files at creative were not online. Every other day, it seems like the creative servers go down as I cannot access americas.creative.com which is the link for the driver files as well as tech support. I have successfully gone back to the old files and will have to keep those or upgrade the sound card. I will probably encounter more problems when I try to updgrade the sound card since it is an integrated card. At least two of the Gateway technicians have found it odd that I start out with an Audio PCI 64D sound card and then after the update, the card becomes an Audio PCI 128D card. Thanks for the assistance.