No mixer device win xp

[knut]

Hi,
I have a problem with the sound on my PC. Windows claims that no mixer device is available. The volume control is gone from the taskbar, and the options in the sound control panel tabs for sound are disabled (greyed).

I have an HP Pavilion running win xp and Realtek AC 97 integrated sound card. I have reinstalled the drivers for the soundcard (successfully) and it didn't help. The device manager reports that all sound devices are working properly.

While Windows-applications (media player, skype and so on) do not recognize that there is a sound system on my PC, the game "Rollercoaster Tycoon" plays sounds beautifully as soon as i selected "Realtek AC 97" as preffered sound device in the game's setup. So I guess the sound card and the speakers are just fine :cool:

Have browsed the forums without being able to solve my problem, anybody with a good idea?

Thanks - Knut

[nanosani]

This usually occurs because of corrupted drivers .. you should completely uninstall the sound card driver, reboot and let windows detect the card and if it's not plug n play ... install the driver manually, not automatically.

[knut]

Thanks for helping!

I've reinstalled the driver like you suggest. Windows detects the card and installs the driver, but still there is no sound and no volume control on the taskbar. Also, the sound control panel tabs for volume, sound and voice says that no sound device is available, and all the options are unactive (greyed).

So - I'm still quite puzzled..

[nanosani]

See if there is any conflict in the hardware irqs ... go to run -- msinfo32 -- hardware resources -- conflicts/sharing.

[knut]

Thanks again for helping!

I have now run msinfo32 and looked for conflicts. No warnings or error messages that I can detect. The list looks like this:

I/U-port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI-buss
I/U-port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Kontroller for direkte minnetilgang (DMA)

I/U-port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
I/U-port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON 9200

IRQ 21 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller
IRQ 21 Realtek AC'97 Audio
IRQ 21 OHCI-kompatibel IEEE 1394-vertskontroller

IRQ 22 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller
IRQ 22 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Adapter

Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI-buss
Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON 9200

I/U-port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
I/U-port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON 9200

The IRQ-list looks like this (I don't know if it's helpful):

IRQ 0 Tidtaker OK
IRQ 1 HP PS2 Keyboard (2K - 3) OK
IRQ 4 Kommunikasjonsport (COM1) OK
IRQ 6 Standard diskettkontroller OK
IRQ 8 CMOS/sanntidsklokke OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-kompatibelt system OK
IRQ 10 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management OK
IRQ 12 Logitech PS/2-portmus OK
IRQ 13 Matematikkprosessor OK
IRQ 14 Primær IDE-kanal OK
IRQ 15 Sekundær IDE-kanal OK
IRQ 16 RADEON 9200 OK
IRQ 18 Conexant HSF V92 56K PCI Modem OK
IRQ 20 Standard utvidet PCI til USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 21 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 21 Realtek AC'97 Audio OK
IRQ 21 OHCI-kompatibel IEEE 1394-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 22 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 22 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Adapter OK

I'm still open for good suggestions on what to try next.. :-)

Knut

[chrisbliss18]

Here are a couple possible solutions.

Click "Start", click "Run...", type "msconfig", and click "OK". Click the "Services" tab, find "Windows Audio" in the list, put a checkmark next to "Windows Audio", click "Apply", click "OK", and restart your system.

If that doesn't work, try the following.

- Click "Start"
- Select "Control Panel"
- Select "Add Hardware"
- Click "Next"
- Select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware" and click "Next"
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, select "Add a new hardware device", and click "Next"
- Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)" and click "Next"
- Select "Sound, video and game controllers" and click "Next"
- Select "(Standard system devices)" under "Manufacturer", select "Media Control Devices" under "Model", and click "Next"
- Follow the remaining prompts

[knut]

Tried both these suggestions but there is still no sound.

The Windows Audio was already checked in msconfig, so I clicked it off and on before applying and restarting. When I reinstalled "Media Control Devices" in the "Add hardware" control panel, everything went OK. I restarted the PC after this step too, but sadly, no improvement in the situation.

I really appreciate your efforts and suggestions! Thanks :)

[just_a_nobody]

[Windows XP]: You can try restoring your system to the default audio settings by using a simple registry tweak. Click the "Download Now" button and select Run from the resulting menu. Click "Yes" when prompted to restore the default settings. http://www.5starsupport.com/download/defaultaudio.reg
Note: As always, be sure to make a backup copy of your registry prior to making any changes to it.

Backing Up Registry
Click START, then RUN. Type "regedit" in the box, without quotes. Click OK. When the registry editor opens, click on FILE, then EXPORT. Choose the location you want the backup (example: My Documents) to be saved in, and then, type a name like "regbackup-todays date" and click OK.

[knut]

Thanks. Tried that too. Still no sound device detected by Windows. In my "Sound" control panel all entries in the tabs for "Volume", "Sounds" and "Voice" are still disabled. In the tab "Hardware", a standard system device "Media control device" is now listed 4 times. The name of the device is "Mediekontrollenhet" in Norwegian, so I'm not quite sure that it's called "Media control device" in English. Oh well.

[knut]

Hi all! I'm still struggling to get my sound device back into Windows, but still no results. Yesterday I uninstalled and reinstalled win xp sp2 and all the updates, as someone tipped me that it might help. Unfortunately it didn't. Maybe it would be an idea to try to physically remove the sound card from the motherboard? Anybody tried that?

[Highfive]

I'm having the same problem here and none of these solutions have worked yet. It's soundMAX intregrated audio that's being used with my motherboard.

Is there NOTHING on the net out there about how to fix this? It sounds incredible considering how many motherboards use this sound device.

[chris5126]

Just a quick note to all make sure you use the manufactures drivers not microsoft as they are written specifically for your sound card where as microsoft drivers are often written for a range of similar products so unistall the current drivers download one from your manufactures page and then install that one.

[zap50]

I'm having the same problem here and none of these solutions have worked yet. It's soundMAX intregrated audio that's being used with my motherboard.

Is there NOTHING on the net out there about how to fix this? It sounds incredible considering how many motherboards use this sound device.

I had the same problem , and I fixed it by using the win xp disk and using the repair option.

[degarb]

I had the same problem , and I fixed it by using the win xp disk and using the repair option.

I too have this issue!! No luck with repair option. No luck with sfc. No luck calling creative. No luck yet with MS support.

My mixer just disappeared one morning with no sound on bootup, after years of working fine. I had two sound cards that worked before for years, then nothing. I've bought
two more brand new cards of different manufacturers,
but no luck getting them to work.
Only, I've tried installing 3 sound cards with their
install cd. I've repaired xp pro. I've installed SP2.
I've searched the web for a solution. I've called
creative, and was told it is a Microsoft problem.
I've changed motherboards, too as a precaution.---No
luck. Still no sound, no mixer device, no irq
conflicts, no sign that the devices are not working in
device manager. Latest drivers, something is wrong in
the OS that windows repair doesn't fix. Unstalling/reinstalling drivers doesn't fix.

This seems to be a not so rare xp issue. XP pro here.

It may be a reg, sys file, or surround sound issue. Just reformatting and reinstalling windows is a bit like bulldozing/rebuilding a house to fix a roof leak that a good roofer could fix in 15 minutes. It shows a weakness in the knowledgebase, or framework that everything is hanged upon. Mostly, constant wiping and reinstalling is just a stupid hackshop (ala bestbuy) answer for everything, because of laziness or economic pressure not to spend time understanding the problem.

[zap50]

I too have this issue!! No luck with repair option. No luck with sfc. No luck calling creative. No luck yet with MS support.

My mixer just disappeared one morning with no sound on bootup, after years of working fine. I had two sound cards that worked before for years, then nothing. I've bought two more brand new cards of different manufacturers, but no luck getting them to work. Only, I've tried installing 3 sound cards with their install cd. I've repaired xp pro. I've installed SP2. I've searched the web for a solution. I've called creative, and was told it is a Microsoft problem. I've changed motherboards, too as a precaution.---No luck. Still no sound, no mixer device, no irq conflicts, no sign that the devices are not working in device manager. Latest drivers, something is wrong in the OS that windows repair doesn't fix. Unstalling/reinstalling drivers doesn't fix.

This seems to be a not so rare xp issue. XP pro here.

It may be a reg, sys file, or surround sound issue. Just reformatting and reinstalling windows is a bit like bulldozing/rebuilding a house to fix a roof leak that a good roofer could fix in 15 minutes. It shows a weakness in the knowledgebase, or framework that everything is hanged upon. Mostly, constant wiping and reinstalling is just a stupid hackshop (ala bestbuy) answer for everything, because of laziness or economic pressure not to spend time understanding the problem.

I totally agree , in my case I changed out hard drives and moved all my files over and this is when this happened to me , I got lucky in the fact that it was succesfully repaired without losing any data.

[SyndicateMan]

I am not a big "computer" person. Meaning I don't understand a lot of lingo so try to help me.

I like everyone else keeps getting this "no mixer" thing when I click on the volume control and I didn't touch anything or have a virus. Should I try installing drivers or what??? I don't have the XP disc because I got the computer with the software already pre-programmed on to it. So what do I do? Also the Windows Troubleshooter didn't help me at all(not suprised). If you can help, I'd be really thankful.

[Kurama52]

I just got this problem! After a bit of searching, I found this on another site. It worked for me, hope it does for you

"I had this problem as well. It happened randomly in the middle of downloading music.
But thanks to some tech help from another site, the fix was pretty easy.

Go to Start --> Run, and type in services.msc.

A window will pop up with a list of services. Scroll down to Windows Audio. Right-click
and click on Properties.

Make sure that "Startup type" is set to automatic. Also, make sure, under "Service
status," start is selected. (Mine was somehow set on stopped. I clicked start and
-- voila! -- it worked.)

Hope this works for you, too."

[degarb]

Nope doesn't work here. windows audio service is already automatic.

I called Microsoft, and the Indian guy got all hung up on the fact that I changed the mother board 2 months after the problem developed. I don't think he understood, the problem happened over a month before changing the boars, and so could have nothing to do with old cpu drivers.

I think the os programmers who know what dlls/sys files and reg entries are needed for an audio mixers, are the only ones that can help. Geek knowledge doesn't seem to be enough, since no one can answer the simple question: what are all dlls, sys, inf, and reg entries needed to removed and repaired to get a device mixer.

[gemini4]

What is the default playback device in Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices the Audio Tab?

[degarb]

What is the default playback device in Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices the Audio Tab?

None, obviously, since there is no mixer available, per above thread. When this is true, there is no mixer, thus everything will be greyed out.