|
Today's computer equipped with a sound card is capable of
generating sound from many different sound and music format
files. Formats include WAV, MIDI, MP3, and many more.
Conversion of these sound format files to actual audio relies on
several layers of software and hardware. The most basic sound
format file compatible with the Windows operating system is the
WAV file format. Before troubleshooting any of the more complex
formats, make sure that your system is capable of playing WAV
files.
The Windows operating system has a built-in program called Sound
Recorder to record and play WAV files. To open Sound Recorder,
select Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment and click
on Sound Recorder. In the Sound Recorder program, select File |
Open. In the Open dialog box, navigate to C:WindowsMedia and
select one of the WAV files to play. Click the Open button and
then the Play button (right arrow).
If you hear the WAV file play, then your basic sound
configuration is working properly. If you did not hear the WAV
file play, continue reading (troubleshooting problems with the
more complex sound file formats will be covered in future
article).
The first thing you should do is eliminate the obvious
possibilities. Many speakers have a volume control on one of the
speakers. Many times I have thought that the sound was not
working in one of my programs, only to find that someone turned
the volume control all the way down.
You can test your speakers by plugging them into the headphone
jack on your CD-ROM drive and playing a music CD. This bypasses
the sound card.
Check the Windows Volume Control by right-clicking on the
speaker icon in the Task Bar and Selecting "Open Volume Contols"
in the popup menu that appears.
Open the Multimedia utility in Control Panel (Start | Settings |
Control Panel) and select the Audio tab. Make sure that your
soundcard's Playback device is selected in the Playback section.
If that looks correct, open the System utility in Control Panel
and select the Device Manager tab. In Device Manager, open the
"Sound video and game controllers" branch. Click on the name of
your sound card to select it, then click on the Properties
button. In the Sound Card Properties dialog box, select the
General tab and verify that "Disable in this hardware profile"
is not checked. Select the Driver tab and make sure that a
driver is selected. Click on the Resources tab and make sure
there is no conflicts.
Resource conflicts related to sound cards are usually caused by
sharing an IRQ (Interrupt Request). The default setting for a
sound card is usually IRQ 5. The sound card should not share an
IRQ with any other device.
If you can't determine the reason why the sound card does not
work, or you can't solve a resource conflict, you may need to
uninstall and re-install the sound card.
To uninstall the sound card, open the Add/Remove Programs
utility in Control Panel. Scroll through the list of installed
software and select any programs related to your sound card.
Click on the Add/Remove button to uninstall the program.
Open the System utility in Control Panel and select the Device
Manager tab. In Device Manager open the "Sound video and game
controllers" branch. Click on the name of your sound card and
then click on the Remove button.
After removing the sound card's software and drivers, turn off
the computer and physically remove the sound card. I like to
restart the computer without the sound card to make sure Windows
plug-an-play can't find any of the software components of the
sound card. Then turn off the computer and re-install the sound
card in a different slot. You may have to switch slots with
another card.
If your computer can play WAV files, then that verifies that
your sound card has been installed properly and your speakers
are working. Playing more complex sound file formats like MIDI
or MP3 requires more layers of software. We will cover how to
troubleshoot those in future articles.
|
