Hi everyone, I recently discovered that I'm no longer getting any sound coming from my speakers. This I thought was strange as it was all working fine the day before. No matter if it's listening to tracks via iTunes or watching online videos via YouTube. I get no sound.

I firstly ran an "In Depth Analysis" using NOD32 antivirus, to see if there was any virus present which was capable of affecting my system. No damage seem to be reported.

My speaker system is an old Creative i-Trigue 2.1 system, which I've never used at full belt and I still always hear a little thud from the subwoofer, as I always did whenever I turned it on via the volume wheel. So I can't see how the speakers are bust.

Software I have installed are Creative's SB X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM) and Creative's Volume Panel and THX Console, which I've run tests from. The speakers still do not sound and through Device Manager it says my Driver software is up to date. I'm clueless, can anyone help?

Thanks

Is everything greyed out in control panel in the sound tab?

Haha, you one question led me to solve it a few seconds. I looked at the Volume Icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It did have red cross on it, which I thought obviously meant something was not working. However, I didn't expect it to mean that it was muted, lol! I've now changed it. I didn't think to left click the icon to get the menu as normally a right click works on program icons in the quick icon tab. The right click here shows different options.

Thanks again.

When you have a lot of software that controls volume, audio effects, sound devices etc... there are many ways to mute your hardware. Most of Creative's software syncs up with the standard Windows sound control panel so you usually shouldn't have to worry about muting. You would know if the speakers were blown, trust me. They would either sound like utter crap or there would be a "pop" and then... silence.

Thanks EXCellR8. As I say it was strange, I turned my PC off and then turned it on the next day - no sound. I suppose it's a possiblility that I muted it accidently.

If you have more than one audio device installed in your system, like both a sound card and integrated sound through the motherboard, I would disable one of them; use the better device. When my Realtek HD audio adapter (built into motherboard) is enabled, it likes to cause conflict with my Creative sound card. Sometimes, it will cause the volume to mute and other times it will cancel out my dedicated sound hardware completely. I remember having a similar problem after I restarted my computer one day. The Realtek device, in which no audio lines are attached, had defaulted itself as the main device and the Creative card, which I was using as my primary audio device, did not put out any sound at all. After I disabled the Realtek adapter, I no longer had to configure my devices manually.

Maybe your solution should be what I do. My original audio was through a Realtek device, probably encorporated into the motherboard. I'd find it listed under Sound,video and game controllers in Device Manage. After all, when I first bought the PC there was no flash soundcard, or even soundcard mentioned as a selling point.

However, under Sound, video and game controllers all that is listed now is Creative SB X-Fi. I don't even have a 5.1 system can you believe! I was handed down this (top-quality) card, when another family member upgraded.

It's better to have one active sound device than two, to eliminate the possibility of conflict. The same exact concept applies to video devices as well. When a onboard graphics is replaced by a dedicated device (video card) but the onboard device is not disabled you will run into problems. I hope that clears things up a little better. Good luck with the new card, the SB X-Fi series are nice units, especially with gaming.

Cheers EXCellR8.