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My speakers have broken...

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
The speakers on my computer won't work, and I rely on watching TV on my computer to keep me sane when I'm on my own. I've not been well and that stops me from concentrating so I just watch a lot of TV to keep me occupied.

I don't know what to do with myself without them. I can't read or knit unless I have something else going on to hold my attention when my concentration fails after a few minutes.

Argh! This sucks.

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    In the short term have you got headphones you can plug into the speaker socket? Might keep you going till you can buy some more speakers - places like Argos have some really cheap ones if you need something quickly.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Jim V wrote: »
    In the short term have you got headphones you can plug into the speaker socket? Might keep you going till you can buy some more speakers - places like Argos have some really cheap ones if you need something quickly.
    I think the sound card has probably gone, I can't get sound from my headphones.

    I've just realised that I am due to have a really important Skype call on Tuesday as well. Damn.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Soundcards don't generally just fail out of the blue... have you tried reloading the drivers and whatnot?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bit low on energy today I've sort of retreated into a corner rather than fix the problem but I'll try that when I get my energy back later.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Click to see more wrote: »
    Soundcards don't generally just fail out of the blue... have you tried reloading the drivers and whatnot?

    Agreed, sounds like you may have some sort of software glitch. For me soundcards are generally the only reliable bit on a computer lol, and if it has failed they're dirt cheap to replace.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Click to see more wrote: »
    Soundcards don't generally just fail out of the blue... have you tried reloading the drivers and whatnot?

    What this guy said. In my 7 years of telephone desktop support, I've never had a soundcard fail on me. When a customer no longer hears sound, it's down to either a bad driver, some settings (i.e. mute) or if it is physical, then you'll need to reseat the soundcard.

    First suggestion - System Restore :thumb:

    When the problem's resolved, archive this thread in Net & Tech :-)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Have to agree with whats been said above, Did you happen to install some Windows updates?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    CoolMe wrote: »
    Have to agree with whats been said above, Did you happen to install some Windows updates?
    Possibly. They seem to install themselves behind my back half the time. I'll have a look at it properly tomorrow.

    I don't remember when I last set a system restore point but I suspect it was a while ago. Do I need to back up my documents before I do it (I know I should anyway....)?

    And, yes, I intended this as a rant but since people are being helpful rather than just letting me wallow in my silent world, it may be better in Net & Tech :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hopefully you should have a pretty recent system restore set up automatically. You don't need to worry about documents or anything like that, system restore will just roll back installed components, not things you've been working on or files. It basically removes installed components and programs.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    System Restore is a bit like Doctor Who's TARDIS. You can go back in time (taking Windows back before the problem occurred) but you can't change history (i.e your personal files will remain intact).
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Depends, do you use a soundcard or onboard? My onboard broke years ago out the blue (pretty much like everything else, but eh.)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    System restore did the trick, but didn't manage to work out which update caused the problem so might have to do it again in a couple of days...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Piccolo, are you on Windows XP? We had a bunch of computers at my old work that lost its sound. It was after they all ran this update from Microsoft and it was always the same update that knocked out the sound. The computers all had on-board Realtek sound in common

    To find out which Windows you have Piccolo, press WIN + PAUSE together on your keyboard and this will open System Properties. It will tell you which Windows you have and if it has a service pack. If it's Windows XP and service pack 2, then I recommend that you update that to service pack 3. SP3 was way beyond the problem I mentioned and should prevent it from happening again.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Nope, it's Vista. Worked out which update it was and managed to stop it downloading again. So that's solved it for now. Ta, tho.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    Nope, it's Vista. Worked out which update it was and managed to stop it downloading again. So that's solved it for now. Ta, tho.

    Good stuff :thumb:
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