no audio device detected? does this mean i dont have a sound card?

Question

1.1 ghz 320mb 40gb hard drive
I inhereted this computer and looking around to play around with music files but it doesn't detect an audio device. Does this mean i dont have a sound card? how can i tell?
what should i look at buying for my pc?

Answer 1

It could be a handful of things. I'll list the most probable causes.



1.) The computer you inherited had a sound card, they took the sound card out, and never re-enabled the on-board audio in the system BIOS. To get into your system bios, re-start your computer and press F2 several times throughout the start-up. Find your on-board audio by pressing the arrow keys left or right until you see it and make sure it is not disabled, if it is diabled, put it to enabled.



2.) Almost all motherboards built within the past 10 years come with on-board audio and by the looks of the specs of your computer, it has on-board audio. It is possible it fried out on your motherboard, but highly unlikely. Do you have a little speaker in the bottom right of your computer? Double click it and make sure to drag down and select your audio device, if no speaker, then revert back to step 1 as it is most likely disabled.



3.) Click on start, click on control panel, click on sounds & audio devices, click on the hardware tab and check to make sure all the devices are working properly. Click on the other tabs (Audio, Sounds, etc) and make sure you put the drop down to your audio.



4.) If all of this fails you can run out to your local compUSA, best buy, staples and buy a creative sound card. If you want to get something that will blow you away get the creative x-fi (about 120 dollars). Creative soundblaster audigy 2 is a nice cheap card and is about 30 dollars and will do the trick. Also, make sure the speakers are plugged in to the correct spots :-).



Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Go into your Control Panel, then click on Sounds and Multimedia.



There should be a small box that you can check/uncheck that says "show vol control on taskbar" make sure that is checked.



Next, click on the Audio Tab and see what you have installed.



You can also try, in the Control Panel, clicking on "Add/Remove Hardware" It will automatically try to find any hardware that is installed. Depending upon what operating system you are using, you might need the original disks.



If it is a separate sound card, you might need to download updated drivers or get a new sound card all together.

Answer 3

it is not necessary not to have sound card, the problem could be that the sound card is there and it is not yet installed onto the motherboard, try finding a cd for the audio drivers, if u dont have it just go to the site of the manufacturer and download it, if the problem was that u dont have, buy 1 .

to know if u are having it go to the hardware list(advance) u will find some question marks near some items, it means that it is detected and not installed, if u didnt find any unquestioned part then u dont have it at all

Answer 4

detect out what style of card it relatively is, or in the process the divice supervisor, circulate on line and detect the drivers or use the disk if it have been given here with one, yet the two way detect the drivers. or if that dosnt paintings attempt re installation the sound card to repair a shorted connection.

Answer 5

if it's got audio jacks round the back of the PC, then it should be capable of sound. Try checking the BIOS to ensure it's been enabled.