After recently installing Audacity I’m having serious audio problems – no sound at all. I’m running Windows XP Media center Edition and downloaded Audacity 1.2.6; it installed just fine. I used it to edit several audio files; again, no problem. But the next time I rebooted, I had no sound on my computer; none whatsoever.
Checking the Sounds & Audio Devices in the Windows control panel, it reported “No Audio Device”. Examining the Device Manager revealed no warnings about problem devices, and under the Sound, Video & Game Controller section, all devices were reported as working properly, however there was an Audio Codec I had not seen before. This stuck out because it was in a separate listing and had a different Device Instance ID. All the other codecs were gathered together under one entry with the same ID: ROOTMEDIAMS_MMACM, but the new one used ROOTMEDIA000 and it offered no option to uninstall (unlike the others). I guessed that this new codec had been installed by Audacity. Checking the Registry, the date this new key had been written seemed to confirm that. So, I used the System Restore utility to revert to a date prior to installing Audacity. That did indeed remove the new codec, but I *still* had no sound! The situation with “No Audio Device” was still there – argh!
It’s conceivable that my audio problem had nothing to do with Audacity, but that seems pretty unlikely, since nothing else on my system had changed. I’ve browsed the internet re the “No Audio Device” problem, but none of the promising suggestions panned out. Many of the comments were not relevant in that they related to hardware issues, often the installation of a new sound card. My machine is a notebook rather than a desktop, the sound card is the original on-board equipment, there were no hardware modifications or additions. Nothing whatsoever was physically changed on my machine after the installation of Audacity, indeed the notebook had not even been moved from its resting place in the expansion base on my desk.
Having struggled with this for many days now, I am completely frustrated and out of ideas. Since everything was working just fine until I rebooted after installing Audacity, I’m wondering if someone out there might have a clue as to what’s going on and if there’s anything you can suggest to resolve this problem. Help, please!
loss of sound problem
Forum rules
Audacity 1.2.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
The final version of Audacity for Windows 98/ME is the legacy 2.0.0 version.
Audacity 1.2.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
The final version of Audacity for Windows 98/ME is the legacy 2.0.0 version.
Re: loss of sound problem
I would try removing/deleting the device in "Device Manager" and allowing "find new hardware" to reinstall drivers for it.
Make sure you have the latest drivers for all sound devices, however on the other hand, sometimes an automatic update to a new driver can cause problems -- I doubt this is the case as you used the System Restore utility.
Make sure you have the latest drivers for all sound devices, however on the other hand, sometimes an automatic update to a new driver can cause problems -- I doubt this is the case as you used the System Restore utility.
Re: loss of sound problem
Thanks for responding, but I've tried that approach with no success. My use of System Restore removed the only relevant "device" (the new Audio Codec) detected by the Device Manager. And trying "Find New Hardware" had no effect (even after I had reinstalled the "Plug & Play Software Device Enumerator"). The crux of the matter is that Windows is now unaware of the existence of my on-board sound card; as far as it's concerned there is "No Audio Device" present.
Does anyone know if/how installation of Audacity may have corrupted the sound card driver?
Has no one else ever experienced this problem?
I'm getting kinda desperate so would greatly appreciate knowledgeable feedback. Thanks.
Does anyone know if/how installation of Audacity may have corrupted the sound card driver?
Has no one else ever experienced this problem?
I'm getting kinda desperate so would greatly appreciate knowledgeable feedback. Thanks.
Re: loss of sound problem
What devices (other than Codecs) are listed in Device Manager under "Sound, video and game controllers?"
Re: loss of sound problem
The only things are listed in Device Manager under "Sound, video and game controllers" are:
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Drivers
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs
There are in fact no entries in either of the Legacy Drivers sections, and under Media Control Devices there are a half dozen entries all innocuous (Quick Time for Windows and five standard mci dlls).
When I look in the Control Panel for "Sounds and Audio Devices" it shows "No Audio Device".
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Drivers
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs
There are in fact no entries in either of the Legacy Drivers sections, and under Media Control Devices there are a half dozen entries all innocuous (Quick Time for Windows and five standard mci dlls).
When I look in the Control Panel for "Sounds and Audio Devices" it shows "No Audio Device".
Re: loss of sound problem
What's the details on your computer/motherboard?
Drivers/Install-programs were probably included, or available from the vender.
Check in your CMOS setup, and make sure that the on-board sound device is enabled. Some BIOS allow disabling of the on-board soundcard there.
You might while you're at it look for more current motherboard chipset drivers.
There's a possiblity that the windows audio service could somehow be disabled... that might prevent the Find New Hardware wizard from seeing your on-board sound card.
Drivers/Install-programs were probably included, or available from the vender.
Check in your CMOS setup, and make sure that the on-board sound device is enabled. Some BIOS allow disabling of the on-board soundcard there.
You might while you're at it look for more current motherboard chipset drivers.
There's a possiblity that the windows audio service could somehow be disabled... that might prevent the Find New Hardware wizard from seeing your on-board sound card.
Re: loss of sound problem
Thanks much for taking the time to stay with this, but I don't have much useful info to report.
The computer is an HP Pavilion dv 5000 (EX203AV), and the system board Id is 30A7. The BIOS version is Hewlett-Packard F.15.6/13/2006 and the SMBIOS version is 2.4
The drivers that were originally installed on my machine are still available via System Recovery. Prominant among these is the Conexant High Definition Audio driver - which sure looks like what I'm after! Naturally I attempted to reinstall this, but without success. A pop-up msg informed me that "Driver Installation Failed: could not find the MEDIA device for this driver". There may be some revealing info in that for someone more knowledgeable than myself; but I'm just left rolling my eyes and pulling my hair - seems like a Catch 22 situation.
The CMOS setup reveals nothing, since there is no entry for the sound device. (The only items under the system configuration setting are Embedded WLAN Device Radio; Embedded Bluetooth Device; SATA Native Support - all of which were enabled).
I'm not sure what the rationale would be for trying to get an updated version of the chipset drivers, and I'm reluctant to risk installing an inappropriate driver just as a shot in the dark. I did try reinstalling the originals (in case those in place had been somehow corrupted), using System Recovery. The item listed was "Intel Chipset Installation Utility for ICH7"; and supposedly this was successfully reinstalled (though the name does make me wonder a bit if it was just the installation utility that was installed and something further needs to be done with that utility, wherever it may be hiding - but I'm regarding this as a paranoid suspicion on my part). In any case, the net effect was zilch: I still have "No Audio Device".
Oh yeah, the Windows Audio service is NOT disabled.
I'm still trying to puzzle out what triggered this loss of audio. Why did my audio device suddenly become undetectable?? Did it just drop dead on its own, and just by pure coincidence this occurred right after I installed Audacity (and rebooted)? Somehow I find that hard to swallow. The fact that Audacity apparently created a new audio codec in an inappropriate place makes me wonder just what else it may have done under the hood when it installed itself. Anybody have a clue??
The computer is an HP Pavilion dv 5000 (EX203AV), and the system board Id is 30A7. The BIOS version is Hewlett-Packard F.15.6/13/2006 and the SMBIOS version is 2.4
The drivers that were originally installed on my machine are still available via System Recovery. Prominant among these is the Conexant High Definition Audio driver - which sure looks like what I'm after! Naturally I attempted to reinstall this, but without success. A pop-up msg informed me that "Driver Installation Failed: could not find the MEDIA device for this driver". There may be some revealing info in that for someone more knowledgeable than myself; but I'm just left rolling my eyes and pulling my hair - seems like a Catch 22 situation.
The CMOS setup reveals nothing, since there is no entry for the sound device. (The only items under the system configuration setting are Embedded WLAN Device Radio; Embedded Bluetooth Device; SATA Native Support - all of which were enabled).
I'm not sure what the rationale would be for trying to get an updated version of the chipset drivers, and I'm reluctant to risk installing an inappropriate driver just as a shot in the dark. I did try reinstalling the originals (in case those in place had been somehow corrupted), using System Recovery. The item listed was "Intel Chipset Installation Utility for ICH7"; and supposedly this was successfully reinstalled (though the name does make me wonder a bit if it was just the installation utility that was installed and something further needs to be done with that utility, wherever it may be hiding - but I'm regarding this as a paranoid suspicion on my part). In any case, the net effect was zilch: I still have "No Audio Device".
Oh yeah, the Windows Audio service is NOT disabled.
I'm still trying to puzzle out what triggered this loss of audio. Why did my audio device suddenly become undetectable?? Did it just drop dead on its own, and just by pure coincidence this occurred right after I installed Audacity (and rebooted)? Somehow I find that hard to swallow. The fact that Audacity apparently created a new audio codec in an inappropriate place makes me wonder just what else it may have done under the hood when it installed itself. Anybody have a clue??
Re: loss of sound problem
I did a quick google -- both web and google groups -- on the phrase, "could not find the MEDIA device for this driver" (use quotes) and "Sound Card".
I found quite a few people with the same problem... interestingly enough the few I looked at all had HPs (desktop and laptop) and were talking about the on-board sound card.
I didn't see a good answer in the few hits I looked at, but it's a place for you to start.
Sounds like a known HP problem. You could try to go to thier support site and seach their forum as well.
Good Luck!
- - - - - -
Just added. As I was closing the various windows from my google search... somthing jumped out at me that may be your answer. I'll paste below:
I emailed Compaq, and I was instructed to download "the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture
(UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio from the URL provided below:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp3250 ... p32646.exe"
"After installing the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus
Driver , please download and install the Conexant High Definition Audio
Driver from the URL provided below:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33443.exe"
I found quite a few people with the same problem... interestingly enough the few I looked at all had HPs (desktop and laptop) and were talking about the on-board sound card.
I didn't see a good answer in the few hits I looked at, but it's a place for you to start.
Sounds like a known HP problem. You could try to go to thier support site and seach their forum as well.
Good Luck!
- - - - - -
Just added. As I was closing the various windows from my google search... somthing jumped out at me that may be your answer. I'll paste below:
I emailed Compaq, and I was instructed to download "the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture
(UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio from the URL provided below:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp3250 ... p32646.exe"
"After installing the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus
Driver , please download and install the Conexant High Definition Audio
Driver from the URL provided below:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33443.exe"
Re: loss of sound problem
SUCCESS!!!
Thank you so VERY much for your persistent help. That last lead did the trick! Googling that topic indicated that this does indeed seem to be a common problem on HP machines that use the Conexant audio drivers. It’s especially prevalent among folks who have switched their version of Windows – either upgrading from XP to Vista, or going in the other direction, from Vista back to XP. That’s not how my trouble arose, but now that it’s resolved I feel an obligation to lay out the final details for the benefit of anyone stumbling on this exchange.
The first step was to install the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio; the version appropriate to my HP 5000t was SP32646. (Both this and the Conexant driver are available of the HP website.) After installing (and rebooting), the Device Manager now listed (under Sound, video & Game Controllers) this device: Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver. But it was listed with a yellow warning tag, the explanation being “A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality (Code 32).” Not a problem.
The next step was the installation of the Conexant driver (for me it was SP33443); now that that Microsoft UAA device was present, the Conexant driver installed successfully! After rebooting, there was still “No Audio Device”, but the Device Manager now had a listing for Conexant High Definition Audio. The final step was to examine the Properties for that device, double click on “Audio Drivers”, click the Property box, and select the radio button for “Use audio functions on this device”.
After a final reboot, audio was restored – at last!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I never would have figured this out on my own.
Thank you so VERY much for your persistent help. That last lead did the trick! Googling that topic indicated that this does indeed seem to be a common problem on HP machines that use the Conexant audio drivers. It’s especially prevalent among folks who have switched their version of Windows – either upgrading from XP to Vista, or going in the other direction, from Vista back to XP. That’s not how my trouble arose, but now that it’s resolved I feel an obligation to lay out the final details for the benefit of anyone stumbling on this exchange.
The first step was to install the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio; the version appropriate to my HP 5000t was SP32646. (Both this and the Conexant driver are available of the HP website.) After installing (and rebooting), the Device Manager now listed (under Sound, video & Game Controllers) this device: Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver. But it was listed with a yellow warning tag, the explanation being “A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality (Code 32).” Not a problem.
The next step was the installation of the Conexant driver (for me it was SP33443); now that that Microsoft UAA device was present, the Conexant driver installed successfully! After rebooting, there was still “No Audio Device”, but the Device Manager now had a listing for Conexant High Definition Audio. The final step was to examine the Properties for that device, double click on “Audio Drivers”, click the Property box, and select the radio button for “Use audio functions on this device”.
After a final reboot, audio was restored – at last!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I never would have figured this out on my own.