XP Pro - No Audio, Audio has stopped working.

[foolios]

I recently did some housecleaning with my pc and now the audio isn't working. I had shut off some services, not windows audio service. I also used adaware programs, of which only a few low threat items were listed. Overall the system is pretty clean.
But for some reason the audio stopped working. I have updated the creative soundblaster live drivers just in case. I patched them as well. Still nothing so I uninstalled the audio. I then reinstalled it and also moved it into different pci slots. Windows picks it up each time and everything seems to work fine. If I run Windows Media Player, it acts like it's playing the music. If I run system sounds through audio in the control panel, they act like they play fine. But still no sound coming from the speakers. I switched the audio card with another. It also installed fine but still no sound. I then tested the speakers on another system and they had sound on that system.

I just don't know what could have gone wrong. I went back and reenabled all services just in case there was a dependency for Windows Audio that was keeping it from working.
I just don't understand how the light on the speaker that shows its getting audio from another system works fine, but hooking it up to this one the green light doesn't come on. It's like the signal isn't being transmitted out from Windows even though the audio programs are saying it is.

I also checked audio properties in the taskbar to make sure that for audio playback that the audio card is the selected device. I also checked to make sure that the audio is not muted.

I have patched the system and updated all the drivers for all the hardware. It's a Dell 8100. Everything was working fine. There is one unknown device but I believe it to be part of the help and support feature that DELL had for this series of systems. But that was always present before.

I don't know if there is something internal to how windows handles audio that needs to be reinstalled. I really don't want to reinstall windows. =(

Thanks in advance.

 

[foolios]

When the speakers are connected to another system, as soon as the other systems turn on, the green power light for the speakers turn on. These speakers are powered by an adapter that plugs into the wall, they aren't powered by usb. But when those speakers are plugged into this pc's audio card, the green light does not come on at power on or even when fully into windows. Its like the pci slots aren't getting power or something? But if that was so, wouldn't the audio cards not be read by the system? So, I don't know, so confused.

 

[foolios]

There is some aspect of Windows that I must not understand or know about that controls the audio after these points.

 

[foolios]

Ok, I decided to try these old headphones I found behind a pc. I barely heard something so I decided to turn up the volume on all settings as high as I could. I can now barely hear sound coming out of the headphones. I am now wondering whether there is some kind of power output problem and that that is why the speakers with the green indicator aren't working is because for some reason not enough power output is coming from the sound card. What in the world could be happening here?

 

[Corseth]

Mine recently started going bad, I had to switch my audio card and it worked like a charm

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

If all of the components are 'working properly', try repairing the program. Run the Window's installation up to the 'select partition to install on' and choose the 'repair' option. Files will be renewed. Nothing installed on your program will be changed.

 

[foolios]

THanks for the replies. I switched the audio card with a working audio card. Same thing, no sound. I had already switched the self powered speakers with another set of self powered speakers that included subwoofer, still no sound.
I then plugged in a small set of headphones and surprise. A barely audible amount of sound. I turned the volume all the way up on the player and audio controls and I can hear a low amount of sound now. So, now I am wondering if it's a power problem, that there is just barely enough power coming out of the audio card which is why it's not powering up the green indicator on the normal speakers. I don't know if software could control this power or whether it's the power supply having issues. Or what it could be?

 

[foolios]

I tried different slots to see if there were irq conflicts, but still wasn't getting sound.

Ok, I noticed that pc speaker was off in the bios while I had still another set of speakers hooked up. This time when windows booted up, I got sound through this other set of self powered speakers. I don't know if it was that bios option or whether it's a matter of what speakers I use with this system(pretty lame).
But sound is working with these and that's what matters the most to me.

When I checked the Dell documentation I noticed that they default audio cards they install to pci slot 4, I put the card in there, turned on pc speaker and now it's working. I'll retest with the other speakers now to see what the heck is going on!