Another No Sound Problem
#1
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Another No Sound Problem
My Dell, Win7, won't play sound on either Firefox or Explorer. It will play a CD. Although I am retired IBM, what I know about computers could be put in a very small area.
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It is possible that the driver for the sound card was accidentally removed I would download the sound driver again. If you look on the side of most Dell desktops you will see an express service code number and for laptops it will be on the bottom. Go to Dell Official Site - The Power To Do More | Dell and look for support and now look for support by product and you have two options have them detect your service code or type it in. I personally prefer to type it in but either way is acceptable to me and then you will see the drivers and downloads page.
Once you get to the sound card driver Dell may say we need to download our down loader to download our driver just accept it is is safe and then find it in your browser download area(I suggest Firefox) and then run it and you can then select as many drivers as you need and download them at one time. Then just check off the sound card driver and then run it. The driver will be a zip file which will unzip automatically and if the driver is missing it will say no file exists create new file and you just say yes and let it take everything from there. That should fix your problem if it doesn't let us know.
Once you get to the sound card driver Dell may say we need to download our down loader to download our driver just accept it is is safe and then find it in your browser download area(I suggest Firefox) and then run it and you can then select as many drivers as you need and download them at one time. Then just check off the sound card driver and then run it. The driver will be a zip file which will unzip automatically and if the driver is missing it will say no file exists create new file and you just say yes and let it take everything from there. That should fix your problem if it doesn't let us know.
#3
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No Luck
I think I did that. I downloaded and installed IDT Audio Driver, but still no sound via Firefox. It still will play a CD.
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If the CD plays, the driver has to be working. Double click on the speaker icon in the tray. Make sure that nothing is muted & that the volume controls are up.
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I had already tried that. This happened once before and the speaker icon was muted, but not this time.
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Have you ran SuperAntispyware or Malwarebytes yet? As I was thinking the same thing about the sound driver but thought it can't hurt anything to at least try. The only other thing I can think of is that on one website that I know of all videos are muted by default and that would be Facebook. Actually I like it that way as I don't want to always listen to videos. As you go forward past a video on Facebook the video stops playing which is a nice feature on Facebook. To hear the sound you have to click on the X near the speaker icon or just click on play once it stops.
Most of those videos though are not worth much on Facebook and poorly made but occasionally you find something good. If that isn't the problem then download SuperAntispyware here SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware! and malwarebytes here https://www.malwarebytes.org/ . Look over each program carefully and check off any area that says scan within zip archives and run each program as highly infected and then do a complete scan with each program. What one program will not find the other might as you may have a virus on your computer.
Most of those videos though are not worth much on Facebook and poorly made but occasionally you find something good. If that isn't the problem then download SuperAntispyware here SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware! and malwarebytes here https://www.malwarebytes.org/ . Look over each program carefully and check off any area that says scan within zip archives and run each program as highly infected and then do a complete scan with each program. What one program will not find the other might as you may have a virus on your computer.
#7
Did you go into your Sound properties (settings) to see if anything changed? You can get there thru Control Panel. You should see a Playback tab. Click on it and if there's more than one box listed, just try clicking on different boxes and then the "test" button. Often it's something very simple like that.
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i've run Superanitspyware and it didn't find anything of note. Also went into control panel sound setting and everything seemed ok. It still will play a CD but nothing from Youtube.
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Since you found nothing really bad on your system I suspect a corrupted Flash player program. Go to Control Panel and then Programs and Uninstall Flash Player. Then go back to the Adobe website and download Flash Player but be careful sometimes they want to add on other software I never do as they usually want me to install a small version of McAfee. McAfee is one program I always avoid as it just causes problems. YouTube uses Flash Player exclusively, when you install Flash use Firefox not IE as otherwise Flash will not install properly on Firefox but will automatically on IE.
#12
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I tried killing and reloading Flash. I tried to be careful, but now my Dell is loaded with so many popups that it is unusable. I know this stuff is intuitive to a lot of you, but for we old folks, maybe we shouldn't try downloading because it is fraught with so many problems. Thanks all for trying. This comes from my Lenovo.
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Run msconfig, go to the startup tap & click disable all, click apply, ok, reboot & click ok again. Then go to programs & features in the control panel & uninstall all the programs that you don't want.
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I do agree Adobe Flash is not the greatest but some websites haven't yet adopted HTML5 and it would be nice if they did. So far Netflix has but some other websites are being slow about it. I personally think you should check your hard drive for errors while Windows is not running. Go to Computer and click on it and look for your C: Drive. See the icon that looks like a hard drive and point your mouse directly at the hard drive. Now right click there until you see Properties and click Properties do you see where it says tools? Click on the tools tab and look for Error-Checking.
Once you see Error-Checking click on Check Now and then check off all check marks and click on Start. You will then get a message that says Windows can't check for errors while it is running schedule a scan? Then you will see Yes or No check Yes and then restart your computer and the computer will then check the drive for errors. I recently had an error with my my browser too not a sound problem like you have had but a browser extension problem. I cleaned my disk after running a scan for viruses and nothing else worked so I did an error check and then things started to work right.
You also may want to look into using Google Chrome as it has HTML5 already added into Google. I also use Linux and with HTML5 in the Google browser I can now watch shows on Netflix without needing Silverlight which is sort of like Flash and many agree is garbage too. So if scanning your computer doesn't work then try Google Chrome. By the way when you run the scan you will not be able to use Windows and it will take awhile so you will need patience it is slow but usually works.
Once you see Error-Checking click on Check Now and then check off all check marks and click on Start. You will then get a message that says Windows can't check for errors while it is running schedule a scan? Then you will see Yes or No check Yes and then restart your computer and the computer will then check the drive for errors. I recently had an error with my my browser too not a sound problem like you have had but a browser extension problem. I cleaned my disk after running a scan for viruses and nothing else worked so I did an error check and then things started to work right.
You also may want to look into using Google Chrome as it has HTML5 already added into Google. I also use Linux and with HTML5 in the Google browser I can now watch shows on Netflix without needing Silverlight which is sort of like Flash and many agree is garbage too. So if scanning your computer doesn't work then try Google Chrome. By the way when you run the scan you will not be able to use Windows and it will take awhile so you will need patience it is slow but usually works.
Last edited by hedgeclippers; 11-18-14 at 08:12 PM. Reason: Additional Information
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I think that it's beyond a file system check now. Apparently, all kinds of malware got in the PC when he downloaded Flash again. At this point, of the computer boots, run Hijack This & post the output here. I'll tell you what to delete.
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Yes I agree it could have Malware but Handyman663 did check with SuperAntiSpyware and it came up clean. I will admit that SuperAntiSpyware isn't perfect but it gets most things other scans can't find. I agree though being able to see what is running would be helpful though and you can guide him in what to delete. Here is the link to HijackThis http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/ . I still think a scan first would be worth a try before using HijackThis as you have to be very careful in what you remove and Handyman663 admits he is unsure of some things. Still though as a last resort it is a good tool.
#17
It sounds like he ran SuperAntiSpyware before he d/l Flash, when it came up clean. It wasn't until after the Flash downloads that he got all the malware. So, it wouldn't hurt to also run SuperAntiSpyware again in addition to HijackThis.
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Exactly, Shadieladie. Another tip on updates: If a notice appears that it's time to update Flash, don't do it. Go to the site & get the update directly from them. Client side attacks come from fake alerts. Downloaded files can be checked with an md5 or sha1 checksum tool as long as the checksum is provided by the company. Look into that for future reference.
#19
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I reran Super and it got rid of a bunch of stuff, but there is still a popup saying Javascript is out of date. I don't dare click on it, but it prevents navigation within Firefox.
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Java or javascript? I never saw a javascript out of date error. If it's java, you can go in to the control panel, click on java & the update tab. From there click in update now. It's safe to do it that way.
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I usually do updates when I get an update notice outside of my browser and with no browser on at the time. I though am rather "religious" about using SuperAntiSpware and Microsoft Security Essentials and if you do the same Handyman663 at least once a week you should be able to keep your system clean of any problems. It seems that wherever we go on the web even to a website we might consider safe like one for a well known store there can be problems so it pays to scan every week. If you want to Update Java though I suggest you go to java.com: Java + You and download the latest version there.
Java though is not completely essential to logging into every website or at least not the full version. I also suggest you go to Add Ons in Firefox and look for No Script and download that for Firefox. You can find Add Ons by looking for the square in the far right corner of Firefox and then clicking on it. Over here there had been some annoying video ads and with No Script partially blocking Java I no longer have the annoying ads. You can adjust No Script by looking for the S on your browser or options. Banks need Java to be fully functional so you would allow all at Options on your browser.
Java though is not completely essential to logging into every website or at least not the full version. I also suggest you go to Add Ons in Firefox and look for No Script and download that for Firefox. You can find Add Ons by looking for the square in the far right corner of Firefox and then clicking on it. Over here there had been some annoying video ads and with No Script partially blocking Java I no longer have the annoying ads. You can adjust No Script by looking for the S on your browser or options. Banks need Java to be fully functional so you would allow all at Options on your browser.
#22
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I am finally getting back to this and it still is not right. I tried downloading Java, but now get a popup saying Java drivers out of date. I am afraid to click it, not knowing if it is real or counterfeit. I note the URL is instantcomputerupdater. Any advice, or should I just hire a pro?
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You have to delete instant computer updater wherever it may be hiding. While it may give you the correct update who knows what else it does? A quick search told me that it's from glarysoft.com I don't know who they are or anything about them but I certainly don't need their help. Run msconfig & remove it/them from the startup tab. If it's not listed there, search the registry & do the same.
#24
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Thanks All
I am ceding that I am over my head. I know a lot of stuff, but not this stuff. There is a pro in my neighborhood who comes with great recommendations and is quite reasonable @ $35/hr. He is coming Wed.
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Both of us I think could give you step by step instructions if you want to save money. But I can understand why you might want a technician to come by too. When that person comes please let him see the advice we have given you as I believe that will save that person time so you might want to print the page ahead of time.
I am not a certified technician myself but I learned a great deal by asking the professionals questions and I encourage you to ask questions too as computers have changed quite a bit over the years. Some communities also have computer technicians at your local library for a mini course in computers and when they do they usually will answer questions for free just like over here on the forum and might even be willing to look over your computer for a free evaluation. I wish I could help you further and I will check back later if you change your mind
I am not a certified technician myself but I learned a great deal by asking the professionals questions and I encourage you to ask questions too as computers have changed quite a bit over the years. Some communities also have computer technicians at your local library for a mini course in computers and when they do they usually will answer questions for free just like over here on the forum and might even be willing to look over your computer for a free evaluation. I wish I could help you further and I will check back later if you change your mind