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Question

Sound suddenly quit playing. Tried everything can think of

Sep 6, 2015 1:20PM PDT

Hello. I hope this was the best sub-forum choice. If not, I'm sorry & moderators can feel free to move it.
  I have a Toshiba l505-s5988 that I recently upgraded from windows 8 to windows 10 with no issues. Everything has worked fine. Suddenly 2 days ago my sound stopped working. The sound bars show there's sound playing, but there isn't. No it isnt muted anywhere. I have ran microsofts troubleshooter, but it finds no problem. I tried system restoring, but it still didn't fix it. I have updated & rolled back the drivers,  uninstalled all audio drivers (2 drivers under AUDIO- microphone, speakers + 1 alternate "stereo mix"; 1 under SOUND/VIDEO; 1 under SYSTEM DEVICES "High Def Audio Controller") a million times, & tried even installing them straight from Toshiba's support site & from Realteks support site. By default it shows 1 component under " playback", 2 components under " recording" so I've tried every combination of defaults & which is disabled, and only get the same result. I've had this same odd thing happen 1 other time a few years ago with I think my old hp laptop (POSSIBLY this one instead), and I know I tried so many billion of weird things that I do not remember at all what fixed it. In searching & searching Ive found quite a few others that have had the same thing happen, with all os versions & manufactures (apparently its not exclusively because of windows 10 at all), however either 1 of the things Ive tried solved theirs or it never was solved.   Could anybody PLEASE help?

P.S. Headphone jack has never worked so I cannot try it. Also laptop stays stationary so nothing internal should have came loose


Isnt muted
microsoft troubleshooter found no problem
system restore didn't fix it
updated drivers (which had no updates), rolled back drivers, etc
uninstalled drivers & reinstalled from Toshiba & from Realtek
tried disabling & making default each Playback & Recording combo

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
I could have missed a test you did.
Sep 6, 2015 1:31PM PDT

Did you try it with the stock issue OS? Did you try it with a bootable Linux DVD/USB?

What test shows this device works?

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Answer
I had the same thing on a Toshiba L755 about 1.5 yrs. old.
Sep 6, 2015 1:30PM PDT

I bought a bluetooth adapter and an external speaker and have lived happily ever after. This laptop is approaching 5 years old and still working very well. I don't take this laptop away from home since I got an Android tablet, so I don't need speakers for travel. However I see cheap, small bluetooth speakers in stores about the size of a fist should the need arise.
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Good luck.

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Answer
Re: no sound
Sep 6, 2015 1:31PM PDT

The first thing I would try is boot from a Linux disk or stick and see if the sound works then. If it doesn't and seeing what you already tried, I'd suspect hardware.

Anyway, it being hardware or software, the easy and cheap way out is to buy a USB SOUND CARD that you just put in one of the your USB slots and use external speakers or a headphone. Be sure it comes with drivers for Windows 10.
It's really a pity that the headphone out never worked.

Kees

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Answer
Please check your plugs first
Sep 6, 2015 1:57PM PDT

cat or dog may have pulled the cord out. It's one of the easiest to get pulled out by an pet.

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Answer
SOLVED
Sep 7, 2015 3:15AM PDT

Just thought I'd let yall know that I have sound again - just not SURE what fixed it. I screwed around with installing /uninstalling different of its audio drivers again. Then I put linex (Ubuntu) on a usb & rebooted into it but still had no sound coming out. I figured it was screwed then. I TOTALLY shut down laptop (which I had also done 1x before when this mess had just started, but had no luck before either), then turned it back on. Suddenly I had sound! What is even more interesting is I had disabled windows updates, so it didn't get or fix the correct drivers from there! Also the drivers that it started working with is the ones manufactured by Microsoft, not the realteks (which I had alsotried a billion times)... But WHO CARES - IT IS WORKING !!!  Love

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maybe function keys control volume?
Sep 8, 2015 1:24AM PDT

and you accidentally turned it off?