OT Pandora

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:29:27 -0800 (PST), rb608
wrote:

On Nov 14, 9:51 pm, Dave LaCourse wrote:
Anyone triedwww.pandora.com?

Great background music for whatever you are doing. You name the
artists and the station takes care of the rest. I've heard a Brubeck
album that I didn't know existed.

Sounds pretty great. Alas, my PC has decided it doesn't want to give
me audio output anymore. Can't figure out why. I've done all the
obvious stuff right up to re-installing the sound card drivers.

Did you reinstall over the top, or remove the card (not physically, just
in DM), the drivers, etc., reboot, and then reinstall? Another thing -
did this happen at an SP2 "upgrade?" If so, and if you haven't done so,
you might check to see if there are later drivers.

TC,
R
Nothing.

If anybody wants to solve this one for me, here's what I know. I have
no audio to the speakers and no audio to the headphone jack. Nothing
is muted in the volume control. There are no error states shown in
the Device Manager.

I do know that it will record and process audio using Audacity and
Vegas Movie Studio, because I can transfer the files to other PCs and
play them fine there.

I suspect I'm headed for a new audio card, but I haven't gotten around
to that yet.

On Nov 15, 10:08 am, wrote:
Did you reinstall over the top, or remove the card (not physically, just
in DM), the drivers, etc., reboot, and then reinstall? Another thing -
did this happen at an SP2 "upgrade?" If so, and if you haven't done so,
you might check to see if there are later drivers.

Yes, I did remove it via device manager & let it re-detect & re-
install it on reboot. The system thinks it's there, but no audio.
I'm not actually sure what event prompted it; but I don't believe is
was a Windows update. God knows what the kids may have installed.

Joe F.

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:15:40 -0800 (PST), rb608
wrote:

On Nov 15, 10:08 am, wrote:
Did you reinstall over the top, or remove the card (not physically, just
in DM), the drivers, etc., reboot, and then reinstall? Another thing -
did this happen at an SP2 "upgrade?" If so, and if you haven't done so,
you might check to see if there are later drivers.

Yes, I did remove it via device manager & let it re-detect & re-
install it on reboot. The system thinks it's there, but no audio.
I'm not actually sure what event prompted it; but I don't believe is
was a Windows update. God knows what the kids may have installed.

If I understood what you were saying, you get nothing out of the
speakers on this computer, right? Um, I know this is simplistic, but
are you sure everything is working and connected? Have you checked the
speakers themselves, the cable(s), power supply, etc.?

Also, have you tried manually bypassing any "enhanced" (Creative Labs'?)
audio manager and simply tried the basic sound drivers and manager?

TC,
R

Joe F.

wrote in message
If I understood what you were saying, you get nothing out of the
speakers on this computer, right? Um, I know this is simplistic, but
are you sure everything is working and connected? Have you checked the
speakers themselves, the cable(s), power supply, etc.?

Yep. I'm also getting nothing out of the headphone jack, and that's hard
wired.

Joe F.

Yep. I'm also getting nothing out of the headphone jack, and that's hard
wired.

Joe F.

That is almost certainly because the card has been reconfigured. It
is comparatively rare for sound cards to simply cease operations,
although it does happen. Some games also reconfigure the jack sockets
for input and output.
On ore two friends of mine have had these problems after their kids
have installed various games etc.

I don´t know what sound card you have, but this may be of assistance
to you anyway. It is the software for an on board chip set which is
used with many computers, but it will work to reconfigure some cards
as well;

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/ac97.html

You can also find more info there.

TL
MC

If you can´t fix it, want to try another card, and if you want a good
audio experience form your PC, then this is worth looking at;

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/i...fm?reviewid=35

as they state, if you don´t need all the extra features,( god for
musicians, people who want to archive vinyl etc) then the Audigy 4.0
pro is a very good card.

This software may also be of assistance to you, ( 30 day trial, which
is usually enough for somebody just seeking a single fault) ;

http://www.passmark.com/products/soundcheck.htm

This too may of help in diagnosing the problem(s);

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/compu...-card-help.htm

TL
MC

I have installed these on several systems lately;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Z-4.../dp/B000BSTXFE

they really are first class, reasonably priced, and one of the best
"small system"! solutions I have heard.

Don´t know whether you have this either;

http://www.winamp.com/

but it´s worth getting it. Especially as it is free!

TL
MC

"rb608" wrote in message
Yes, I did remove it via device manager & let it re-detect & re-
install it on reboot. The system thinks it's there, but no audio.
I'm not actually sure what event prompted it; but I don't believe is
was a Windows update. God knows what the kids may have installed.

Well, this Pandora thread prompted me to finally take care of this pesky
problem; and I broke down & called Dell tech support. The helpful Indian
fellow patiently walked me through all of the preliminary idiot questions
("are your speakers plugged in?) before getting down to the serious system
diagnostics.

A pretty nifty (and alarmingly vulnerable) piece of software was downloaded
& installed that allowed him to control my PC from whatever Indian tech
support sweatshop he was in; and I could sit back and watch him go through
all of the same diagnostics I'd already tried. He was getting nowhere, just
like me. Finally, he got down to connections. What port is the speaker
plugged in to? The green one. What color is the plug for the speakers?
White. Etc.

It was somewhere in this exchange, as I was crouched on the floor under a
desk, that the light bulb began to glow. The kids have plugged the speakers
in to the speaker port. As logical as that seems (and seemed to me), they
forgot about the sound card. I don't know when they made the switch, but
the speakers should be plugged in to the speaker port on the Audigy card,
not the motherboard. D'oh!

It's impossible to read which port is which on the six available, So I crank
up some Reel Big Fish and have offspring #2 try all of them. To my
surprise, nothing. I really thought that was going to be it. Damn. But,
something about this process prompted me to trace the speaker input cable,
an lo and behold, that wasn't the speaker input cable at all; the speaker
cable had been plugged into the headphone jack on the front of the tower.

A few trial and errors, and music suddenly blared forth. Problem solved.

In the end, it turned out there were two issues, which made both more
difficut to isolate. The wrong cable was plugged in to the wrong port, and
the right cable was also plugged into a different wrong port. And I'm an
idiot for not checking and assuming the kids had it right.

Now, let's check out this Pandora thing.....

Joe F.