my friends pc running vista, lost all sound after defagging her pc, i told her to update her sound drivers through the device manager but it still isnt working.

does anyone know how to fix this?

Hi there,

Try to download the the driver from the OEM site.

This might work. If it does not try to reformat the NB to clear waya all software issues. If its still the same it is now time to consider this as HW.

Hi there.
Go into device manager and delete the sound drivers you have there, Restart the machine and let it detect and install the generic sound drivers for your Motherboard or sound card. Afterwards, restart the machine again and install the updated drivers for it.
Hope this helps!

You always seem to suggest a reformat as the only resort if the first step fails. As a tech, you would know that there are other things that can be tried rather than telling the OP to wipe out his data. Or do you?

How about checking the Winows Audio service?
How about making sure that the sound card is set as the default audio device?
How about trying to see if generic audio drivers work?
How about trying the steps here

Hi,
I always recommend a reformat. This is what I do everyday.

This will save time and is a sure fix if its software.

Good for you lad. However, people have data on their systems and don't want to lose it. NOt everyone takes backups or has multiple partitions to store data. Besides, a reformat is always the last option when troubleshooting computers. Let's not give any advice here which can cause distress to people.

@torbonator : Have you tried any of the steps mentioned above?

i sent my friend the page, im not sure what she did but she said it didnt work

The audio device hasn't simply been muted or disabled has it? I know GE did hint at that, but just asking more explicitly Also, was she using the inbuilt defrag tool, or a 3rd party utility for the job?

@jccaldz -Stop being a d1ck and handing out half-baked (and often quite contradictory) advice! The prob with simply recommending a fresh install is that the user then learns nothing about what actually went wrong, and leaves them in exactly the same position if the problem reoccurs down the track. It's just another example of the bad advice you keep peddling!