Windows 7 - various issues (no sound, can't change power settings etc.)

[Britunes]

Hi there,

In this past week, I've suddenly begun to experience a number of strange issues with my Windows 7 laptop.

First of all, I found that there was no sound. The speaker icon has disappeared from the bottom right of my screen, and when I try to access 'sound' through control panel I receive a message which says 'Windows Audio Service is not running.'

Since then, I have found that I cannot access MS Office, I cannot change the power settings ('the handle is not valid), and when I access device manager, there are no devices listed.

I was running Avast antivirus, but this seemed to break down too, and updating it wouldn't, so i've downloaded new antivirus software and run a full scan and repair cycle. I'm still stuck with these strange issues though.

Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated. If you need anymore info than I've given, just let me know.

Thanks

 

[Zen]

I'm no expert when it comes to "trouble shooting" a Windows 7 Operating System, I'm more familiar with Windows XP, but if this was happening on an XP system, my first inclination would be to access the "system restore" feature and try to restore the operating system back to before these various issues happened.

Next if "system restore" didn't work, I would be inclined to try and go about re-installing my sound card and it's drivers. Maybe some how your system has it's a** drop out from underneath it, and your sound set up and drivers went bye bye.

In regards to your MS Office issue, I have no clue as to how going about fixing that, other than maybe un-installing it and then re-installing it again. I've never had to many MS Office issues ever pop up for me, so I'm a little weak in knowing how to going about fixing this. Maybe the "system restore" feature my help here to.

To me, and just speaking for myself, if I realized I was littered with this many issues and problems, and I was still running Windows XP, I would seriously be contemplating killing the whole thing and starting over again from scratch! To me this is starting to sound like you are having the beginnings of a Windows implosion!

Just stick around, I'm sure there will be more and possibly better advise from other TechSpot members that will come your way! My advise is more so of the "quick fix" variety, other than the kill option, that's not quick, that will take time!

Good luck......

 

[Britunes]

Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that I've tried the System Restore idea, but there are no restore points. I'm getting the feeling that a complete system reboot wouldn't be such a bad idea

 

[Zen]

Britunes:

If you truly are at the end of your rope and are tired of trying to circumvent your way through these problems, than maybe the whole "killing your system" off idea would be best!

If you do indeed proceed with killing everything off, please be mindful when the system is back to normal. You then need to start thinking to yourself "what would have caused all those problems" and "what program or programs might have had something to do with it". Just be careful when rebuilding your system back on a software level. use only certified programs, use only trusted programs and more importantly take care when installing 3rd party programs and tools. Also routine maintenance is key to a healthy system, like doing anti-virus scans maybe once a week, running a program like CCleaner once every week to two weeks, namely having it fix registry errors, also your once a month disk defrag's come in handy to for a healthy system.

Again just be careful, for I feel that one of your programs may be at fault for your current situation, which one I can't tell, but just be careful.

 

[akannitaoheed]

If your avast antivirus does not have a license, it certainly would fail in such situations especially if trial period is over. It also would have issues updating let alone arresting viruses. Check that you have a valid license that's not expired, if expired, re-register for a new license and then run complete system scan after updating. All the problems you listed up there might be indicating presence of virus or malware if they occur concurrently.