Problem with Audio

[korey19]

My computer had never had a problem with sound. It always worked great.

In February, my sound somehow stopped working, and we could not figure out how to fix it. Here's some info

Computer Type : Acer Aspire T100
Sound : Realtek AC'97

Here's what I do

Control Panel > Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices > Change the Sound Scheme .

On RealTek AC'97, it says


Manufacturer : Realtek
Location : PCI Bus 0, Device 31, Function 5

Device Status : Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code39)


I just want my sound back.

Any help?

 

[strategic]

What o/s version are you running?
I've come across times where drivers become corrupt after a Windows update. (rare)
Have you tried a driver update / rollback?

 

[korey19]

Sorry, I'm not too smart with computers.

I tried a Windows update, got nothing. Whats a rollback?

And what does O/S mean? Like, what version? (I'm running XP)

Thanks for the help ^^

 

[strategic]

O/S = operating system - you're using Windows XP.
Rollback is basically the opposite of update, if you update a certain driver and find that the applicable hardware isn't functioning properly, you try to rollback the driver to use the old version again.
You do that by opening 'system properties' (right-click 'my computer') under the hardware tab, select "Device Manager" and search for your Realtek tab under "Sound,Video ad Game controllers". If you 'right-click' the Realtek AC97 tab, under properties is where you do your troubleshooting. Under the Driver tab, you can choose to update or rollback.
Chances are, you did a Windows update which caused it not to support your AC97 version, that's why you need to check the drivers first, if that doesn't work, you check the hardware itself.

 

[strategic]

O/S = operating system - you're using Windows XP.
Rollback is basically the opposite of update, if you update a certain driver and find that the applicable hardware isn't functioning properly, you try to rollback the driver to use the old version again.

You do that by opening 'system properties' (right-click 'my computer') under the hardware tab, select "Device Manager" and search for your Realtek tab under "Sound,Video and Game controllers". If you 'right-click' the Realtek AC97 tab, under properties is where you do your troubleshooting. Under the Driver tab, you can choose to update or rollback.
Chances are, you did a Windows update which caused it not to support your AC97 version, that's why you need to check the drivers first, if that doesn't work, you check the hardware itself.

 

[korey19]

Thanks, I'll try doing a rollback in an hour.

 

[strategic]

...any luck?

 

[korey19]

We don't have a backup, apparently. I downloaded a driver, but I'm not sure how to install it..

 

[strategic]

Open your device manager, under sound, video, game controllers, select update driver, under the driver menu. After the wizard appears, select "install from a list or specific location (Advanced). Point to the driver location and install away!