Audio Output Device

[MiMi2Five]

Im not sure what happened, but now I have no sound. It tells me (on the icon) that I have no audio output device installed. How do I get this turned around? I'm technologically challenged at age 58 here, so the simpler the better!!

 

[manofchalk]

What were you using for sound before it stopped working, speakers, headphones, inbuilt speakers on your monitor? Are you using a laptop?
Did this just happen while you were using the computer, or did it boot up saying this issue.

First thing I would do is check if all the cables are still plugged in, which may include power cables if your using speakers.

 

[MiMi2Five]

What were you using for sound before it stopped working, speakers, headphones, inbuilt speakers on your monitor? Are you using a laptop?
Did this just happen while you were using the computer, or did it boot up saying this issue.

First thing I would do is check if all the cables are still plugged in, which may include power cables if your using speakers.

 

[MiMi2Five]

First of all, thank you for your input. The sound comes from the laptop and I also use a small "plug in" speaker (plugs into the front of the laptop) because it helps me hear better. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1525 with Intel Pentium using Windows Vista (2007) with 2 GB. I know this because I contacted a Microsoft Cerified Diagnostician who connected me with a Microsoft Certified Technician and I have many issues to address on the computer itself. I am definitely technologically challenged so I figured that would be my first line of defense. Also, I will not be able to addess this for a couple of weeks due to the pricing of a complete fix and repair by Microsoft but I will keep you apprised of the progress once I have this taken care of. There is a $$ component on my part so that is my delay for now. Thanks again for your input and take care.

 

[manofchalk]

Thats a decently old laptop, depending on how much Microsoft or whoever charge to fix it, you might be best off just buying a new laptop (it would be fairly easy to move over all your files).

So the laptop cant play through the plug-in speakers. I assume the laptops speakers have also stopped working?
My gut feeling says that the sound chip inside the laptop has died since it cant recognize any audio devices, and to fix that would be a motherboard replacement, which would be expensive.

You could get around it however by using an external sound card. It would be a fairly small thing, plugs in by USB and has audio jacks on it to plug your speakers and microphone into. Set it up in Windows so that all the sound processing happens on that rather than the inbuilt one and as far as I can tell it should play sound just fine.
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