Viglen PC - Annoying problem!

Hello Fellow EduGeekers,

Little issue! Please can somebody shed some light on this for us?

Viglen Windows 7 i5 PC with 8GB Ram, sound works when you rebuild the software on the system, once it retrieves it's Windows updates - the sound stops working????!!! No sound what so ever, not even any system beeps. I have tried reinstalling the driver, carrying out a system restore etc, but nothing will bring the sound back until I rebuild the machine. I have sent the PC off to Viglen, they sent it back saying that they didn't report a problem. The machine has a MSI motherboard, and I have the actual MSI driver CD for the motherboard as an engineer visited from Viglen initially to replace the motherboard as we thought this was the problem and he left the CD for the board.

This is beginning to wind up now...... please please help somebody?

Could be that the updates are messing with configuration i've had many problems recently with Windows 7 Updates breaking something.

Have you tried disabling and enabling the driver from device manager? or completely uninstalling the driver first so it is not recognized and the re installing it? Dont use windows drivers if you can help it, especially for Audio, Video or chipset. Try to find the driver file attached to the device uninstall it and then delete it from the system 32 folder.

Totally agree. it is probably Windows update replacing the driver that is causing the issues. Totally uninstall the device and install the driver from the manufacturers website. There is an option somewhere to stop Windows installing drivers from Windows update.

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Originally Posted by BigRed

Could be that the updates are messing with configuration i've had many problems recently with Windows 7 Updates breaking something.

Have you tried disabling and enabling the driver from device manager? or completely uninstalling the driver first so it is not recognized and the re installing it? Dont use windows drivers if you can help it, especially for Audio, Video or chipset. Try to find the driver file attached to the device uninstall it and then delete it from the system 32 folder.

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Hello, Thank you for getting back to me with your suggestions. I have tried even using a USB external sound card on a totally seperate driver. I have even tried using this whilst the onboard card driver is uninstalled. This still doesn't work, it's like as if something is blocking any sound being created by the PC. I have tried removing the anti virus as this has a device control functionality on it and this still doesn't work. I am sure it's since we had the recent patches rolled out for Windows that the problem has been caused. Unfortunatley our GP configuration doesn't allow System Restore as this could have been a good option. According to the software, the sound is all working fine! The PC isn't aware there is a fault, when headphones or speakers are plugged in; it pops up on the screen saying headphones plugged in or speakers plugged in. Unless my ears aren't working, no sound can be heard.

Have you got anything like ABTutor or other classroom management software? That has caught us out before.

Nope, I used to work in schools hence I use EduGeek, but I actually now work for the council direct hence we don't use anything educational related.

Hi

Try deleting the driver and waalowing the computer to scan hardware and detect it again.

Plus try the latest driver for you sound card.

Richard

put it in the bin

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Originally Posted by oalcock

sound works when you rebuild the software on the system, once it retrieves it's Windows updates - the sound stops working????!!

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Well then my first port of call would be looking at what windows updates are being applied. Perhaps its doing a sound update and that is conflicting.
Does the BIOS beep at POST? take all the ram out to test as my PC at home doesn't beep at POST as an OK check.

We had some minor sound device driver issues where windows updates were set to search for device drivers in precedence over the local drivers. Have a look at gpedit.msc - then following paths;
1. Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, Driver Installation and see what your settings are for "Turn off Windows Update device driver search prompt"
2. Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, Internet Communication Management, Internet Communication settings and see what settings are for "Turn off Windows Update device driver searching"

We disabled both these and it solved some sound issues but also sped up our systems when they searched for locally installed drivers rather than Windows Updates everytime!

Has something disabled the Windows Audio service? Does the volume control still think that there is a sound device \ let you adjust the volume or is it like the sound card has gone completely?