Laptop sound problem

[Hurriken]

My sound is not working at all and I can't figure out the problem.

HP DV6810 Laptop
Vista Home premium

Symptom: Sound does not come through speakers or headphone jack. The "speaker" in the system tray has a red x.

I tried opening the mixer but it is greyed out. I checked the device manager and there are only drivers for bluetooth. (I'm not sure what those are for). I deleted those drivers and rebooted the computer. The system recognized the sound card but only installed the bluetooth drivers again.

Can someone give me some guidance?

 

[commandosqueak]

sounds like a driver issue to me. you need to download and install the latest drivers for your sound card from the manufacturers website. if you dont know who made it the download berlarc advisor. failing that all new laptops should come with a driver disk (assuming its new)

 

[Hurriken]

It is a 4 year old laptop. I downloaded the drivers from HP and while installing it indicates that the sw is already installed but when it completes installation a message pops up. "cannot locate device". I tried erasing any exsisting sound files but same result.

 

[mailpup]

When you say, "erasing" sound files, do you mean uninstalling drivers? Uninstall from the Control Panel, Programs and Features, then install fresh drivers.

 

[Hurriken]

That is what I mean but I tried that too. No joy.

 

[LookinAround]

1. fyi...Bluetooth is not your sound card.

2. My guess is your HD audio controller failed which is why Windows says "cannot locate device". (i've seen alot of HP laptops with HD audio controller failures in these forums)

High Def audio connects like this

Windows <==> HD Audio Controller <==> HD Audio Devices​

Windows can't see your HD audio devices if the controller failed (it's similar to Windows won't be able to see downstream USB devices if there's no USB controller)

The Audio controller (when detected) is listed in DevMgr under System Devices. It's the HD audio devices that appear under Sound category. But if no controller then not possible to detect the devices that connect to it

 

[Hurriken]

I'll have a look. It may be a few days before I respond again as I will be road doggin' it and won't have that laptop with me.

 

[commandosqueak]

i suggest you download berlarc advisor, that will pinpoint what the sound device is. that way you can get the up to date drivers, just make sure all the old one are uninstalled. if it dont work then as others are suggesting you sound card is knackered