No sound at all from your speakers?
Be sure to check these obvious things first:-
(i)
If the speakers are mains powered, check that power is getting to the
speakers. Usually, one of the speakers has a red light showing and you might
hear a faint hum.
(ii)
Pull out and re-insert firmly all the connections between the computer and
the speakers.
(iii)
Make sure that only the green speaker connection (jack)
to the computer is inserted in the green socket on
the sound card or the on-board sound connection. If the computer sockets
are not colour coded, look for the one marked with the arrow pointing out of
the sound waves.
(iv)
Make sure you have
not
inserted the jack into a socket on the internal modem card.
(v)
Is the volume on the speaker turned to a position which will allow sound to
be heard, or is it turned right down?
(vi)
Have you connected earphones to the speakers or to the computer's CD drive?
If earphones are plugged in, this will stop sound getting to the speakers.
(vii)
Click the volume control (i.e., the loudspeaker icon) in the Notification
area (bottom right of your screen).
Is the volume control muted or turned right down?
(viii)
Borrow another set of speakers and see if they work.
If none of these tests reveal the source
of the problem Go to the top of the column on the right.
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No sound from your speakers after trying all the tests described in the left
hand column?
Try these more advanced steps, after each step, click the
Apply
button and
OK
where applicable:
(i)
Click
Start-->Control Panel, select the
Sounds
and Audio Devices
icon.
(ii)
Click the volume tab and under the heading
Device Volume, ensure that the
Mute
box is not ticked. Make sure the
Place Volume icon on Taskbar
box is ticked. Click on the slider, hold down the left mouse button and move
the slider to a louder setting. Under the same heading click the
Advanced
button, make sure the
Mute All
box is not ticked and un-tick any other boxes. Adjust the sliders where
necessary.
(iii)
Under the
Speaker Settings
heading, click the
Speaker Volume
button and adjust the volume settings if necessary.
(iv)
Under the same heading, click the
Advanced
button and select the kind of speakers you are using, the default is
Desktop Stereo Speakers.
Close down the
Control Panel.
(v)
Test the sound by playing a CD in the CD drive.
(vi)
If you still have no sound then the problem may be that the drivers for the
sound system are non-existent or incorrect.
(vi)
Investigate the drivers as follows:-
Click
Start-->Control Panel. Click the
System
icon. Click the
Hardware
tab. Click the
Device manager
button. Click the box containing a plus sign next to
Sound, video and game controller.
If you see any yellow question marks or exclamation marks against any item
you have a driver problem. You will need to reinstall the drivers using the
Sound card CD or Drivers CD provided with the computer or sound card.
Hardly any volume:
If you can just about hear some sound and adjusting the settings does not
produce a satisfactory volume, the sound is not being amplified. Check the
fuse in the mains socket which feeds power to the speaker or its
transformer. Is the power switched on at the mains? If you still have poor
volume, the amplifier built into the speaker(s) has failed. You need some
new speakers.