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Question

Sound is gone -why and how to restore

Jan 17, 2012 11:43PM PST

After a op system re-installation i no longer have any sound capability. I checked all wiring etc - OK. I accessed control panel - audio devices and sound and all choices were grayed out. Where do I begin to restore the sound capabilities?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Tell about the hardware
Jan 17, 2012 11:55PM PST

what OS you installed and from what kind of media. This is often just a driver issue. The best clue comes from device manager showing yellow exclamation marks for devices found that were not configured due to missing drivers.

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Answer
Re: no audio
Jan 17, 2012 11:54PM PST

The easiest way is to reinstall the system from the maker supplied recover media. Those should include all drivers so everyhing works. But it seems you didn't.

Then you have to install all needed drivers separately. Only you know if they are all together on a drivers and utilities disk, can be downloaded using a service tag (that's Dell), can be found on the website of the maker of the PC, are on several disks and diskettes you collected over time, or need to be collected now from various sites.

It could even be, depending on your OS, that you would need to install Microsofts Universal Audio driver also.

Your PC might have come with detailed instructions. Then you're lucky,.

Kees