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General discussion

speakers sometimes don't boot up

Mar 9, 2006 7:13AM PST

Sometimes on starting my PC the speakers dont boot up and sounds will only play through the headphones. I'm using 5.1 Altec Lansing speakers and Heaphones (will find model if needed), I use SoundMAX software. The failure to bootup seems totally at random, also one thing I have noticed is that when the speakers fail to boot I can't open the SoundMax software, it appears in the taskbar but double clicking on it does nothing.

The speakers also dont appear in the playback devices drop down menu.

help?

Discussion is locked

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The speakers should not appear as PC hardware because
Mar 9, 2006 9:15AM PST

they are not part of the computer, and are not controlled by the operating system. Speakers don't 'boot'. There is no programming code that the computer needs to download to them. The problem is in your sound software or hardware which you report as sometimes not working.

One standard approach is to uninstall the software, and then reinstall it. You should probably also check for problems with the soundcard. It should be listed in the device manager, and you may find it flagged as having a problem when the sound doesn't 'boot'.

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PS: On my soundcard, there is an option to shut off the
Mar 9, 2006 9:17AM PST

speakers if headphones are plugged in. If you have something like this, you may uncheck the option to get both speakers and headphones to function at the same time.