Dear Freebase,

I haz a big problem: my computer sound has stopped working. A couple days ago, my dad and I were trying to install some speakers but they wouldn't work, so after fiddling with the audio settings on my comp we gave up. I then discovered that sound only plays off iTunes, and I can only use the iTunes adjuster to change the volume. This annoys me a lot so I restart my computer in the hopes that it will end, but that only serves the make iTunes stop working as well. I now have no sound and no idea what to do. Plz help me.

-Story

Dear Story,
Based on your description, my first instinct is that it's a driver problem. Maybe it has become corrupt. We'll go ahead and update your soundcard driver, as it won't hurt anything anyway, and we can eliminate this if it doesn't solve your problem.

Assuming you're running Windows (not sure about the differences in the following steps between XP and Vista/7 though), click your start button and find your computer icon. Right click it and choose "manage". Your computer management applet will pop up. Choose "device manager" on the left. On the right, you should see a list of hardware stuff. Locate and expand the sound category and take a note of your sound card manufacturer info. (i.e. Realtek High Definition Audio)
1. Is there a red X on it? If so, right click it and choose "enable", then test your sound. If all is good, stop reading.
2. Is there a yellow triangle? If so, continue on.
3. No indicator? Continue.

What we want to do is update the driver for your sound card. Don't choose Microsoft's way to do this, as it's crap. Instead, make a note of the name of the sound card and go to google. Type the name and go to the manufacturer's website. Navigate to their support section and find the driver download. It shouldn't be difficult. The only thing you'll want to ensure is that you get the right bit version. i.e... if you have Windows 7, 64 bit, you'll want to get that version of the driver.
Once it's downloaded, just run the file. It should do everything for you. Accept any defaults if there are any.

Restart computer.

Go into your sound mixer in Windows (you can get there through the control panel if you don't see the icon in your taskbar) and make sure nothing is muted and all your volumes are up. Test your sound.

If sound worky worky, great. If not, come back.



Edit:
If you need help finding the driver, just give me the name of your soundcard and I'll throw you a link.

What soundcard do you have?
It's definitely a driver problem or something with asio settings.
Don't know much about asio except that it's a pain in the ass.

It worked! Thanks a lot. I have an ATI soundcard, and the driver luckily wasn't too hard to find. I'm also running Windows XP (old schoool) btw. For future reference or something.

Ah, onboard soundcard :).
Good it's solved.
XP still rules. 7 is good and it supports some modern **** XP doesn't, but XP is still the best windows for me :)

You're welcome.
And, I applaud your XP usage. I use it myself, because as long as I'm running a 32 bit operating system, I can only use 4 gigs of RAM. And XP hordes far less of those 4 gigs than 7 does.
I'm not going to upgrade shit until there's a legitimate reason to do so.
So bravo.

3.2gb ram :).

I use 7 because I don't mind. My computers run it smoothly.
I like some of it's advantages, I hate the fact that auto arrange can't be turned off...
Try renaming 20 files, they move along when you change their names...

Well if you want to get unnecessarily specific, technically, Windows actually does address all 4 gigs, which is the limit imposed by 32 bit processing. The amount of available RAM reported will vary depending on how it's being measured and what's being considered, but even when talking about how much RAM you can consider "used" by the operating system, it's not 3.2. You'd need to go further with your decimal places and figures since you're intent on being so specific...

Is it really? Thought it really used 3.2 gigs only. But I believe you rightaway ;)

Dunno.. I'm only relying on 6 years of military experience in IT primary with DOD standards, and what's almost 2 years of technical college right now in the same field. All I'm saying is I'm assuming I haven't been lied to all this time.
I'm open to that suggestion though.