Nothing will play sound?

Question

When I try to play music on Windows Media Player, I get the following message: "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly." I HAVE UPDATED MY DRIVER, I still can't get it to work.

Ok, I downloaded Realtek AC'97 blah blah, and rebooted my comp, now under sounds and audio devices, it says there is No Audio Device, I looked under Hardware and under Realtek AC'97 it says "This device cannot start"

How do I disable onboard sound?

Answer 1

If you installed a sound card have you disabled onboard sound? This is normallly done in the CMOS Setting as you boot your computer. Sometimes having onboard sound enabled and having a sound card can cause conflicts.

If you have not installed a new sound card or if you already did the above then first i would recommend uninstalling and then reinstalling Media Player. If that does not work then go to your control panel and click System (on Win XP you may have to change the view from Category View to Standard View which you can do my selecting standard view at the top of the left hand pane).

Once your in the System Menu select the hardware tab and click divice manager, if there is any problems detected by windows they would have a little exclamation symbol next to the icon in the device tree.

If nothing there then try Microsoft's Knowledge Base Support at

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/default.aspx

Answer 2

Delete your sound drivers from Windows' Device Manager. Reinstall your sound cards (or motherboards) sound drivers and restart.
If this doesnt work, make sure that your sound card, if not integrated to motherboard, is seated in the slot correctly.
If none of that works, time for a new soundcard.

Answer 3

Go to control panel and then sounds and make sure your sound card is the preferred device for playback and recording