I Can Hear Music... And Sometimes I Can't

[featherfingers]

Lately my computer has been doing something strange. I'll log on and everything works fine. I can hear the sound playing from the videos and other sources I click, but then at other times when I log in, like now, I'll click on a video and all I'll hear is the sound of silence, and not Simon & Garfunkel's version.

Can anyone explain this strange phenomena?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

If it's Youtube that you're getting this from, I've seen this too. Sometimes a refresh fixes it. If it's general actions as well, you might benefit from a driver update. Do you happen to know what your sound card is? If not, I can tell you how to find out.

 

[featherfingers]

Hi, HDS! (Thanks for the help!)

Well, it's not only YouTube but the music player on my MySpace player won't work, either. I've tried refreshing and restarting numerous times but gave up after #4. I have no idea what a sound card is, either. You might as well be speaking Japanese to me when it comes to computer talk. I just tried playing my Windows Media Player, which was working earlier, and got a message saying I've got a problem with my sound device.

What do you recommend I do?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Myspace has been doing it to me as well. However, if Windows Media Player is also erroring, time to look for drivers. To do so, let us identify your sound card:

-Go to the "Start" menu and open the "Control Panel" (A link on the right)
-When the Control Panel opens, there are two paths: If you don't see "Pick a Category" above some icons, skip to the next step. If you see "Pick a Category" above some icons, click "Switch to Classic View" on the left in the sidebar. This will make it easier to direct you.
-Look for "System" (Has an icon that looks like a computer and a monitor)
-Click the "Hardware" tab in the little "System" window.
-Click "Device Manager" in the "Hardware" tab.
-Look for "Sound, video, and game controllers" (Or something with "sound" in it)
-Click the little "plus" to the left of "Sound, video, and game controllers" to expand that entry.


You should now see a list of "things." Let this one know what you see (No need to click, just type the names out).

 

[featherfingers]

I see:

Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
Realtek AC97 Audio
Video Codecs

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Ah, same as my laptop. Go to this site and grab the .exe (Click one of the "GO" links under "Download") from the row with "Windows 98Gold/98se/Me/2000/XP/2003(32/64 bits) for Driver only. For Windows 98 SE, DirectX(R)8 is required to enable advanced features. (Executable file)" in it (The top one). Once downloaded, run the installer and follow its instructions. Once done, try a restart, if it doesn't prompt you to.

 

[featherfingers]

HDS! It worked like a charm! Thanks for your help, man! I'll keep you posted if anything weird happens, but so far it sounds great! If there's anything I can do for you, just name it, within reason, of course. 🙂

 

[featherfingers]

I guess I spoke too soon, HDS. I just logged on and the music isn't playing again. I'll try restarting the computer.

 

[featherfingers]

Now the music is back but the computer is running very slow. This is pretty weird. Maybe I need to get my computer checked out by Rent-A-Techie.

When I do a Spybot scan, it finds problems such as Casalemedia and Adrevolver, or whatever that one is called. And sometimes my computer will get 'error messages' and the computer crashes, sometimes as many as four times within the span of two minutes. Sound like something serious is going on here, don't you think? Maybe I've got more to worry about than just not being able to hear the music.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

I would say so. It will be difficult to diagnose such a problem or series of such via thread posting. You may indeed want to have it cleaned. 🙁

 

[featherfingers]

I just cleared a bunch of useless cookies, which I've never done before and now my computer is running a lot more smoothly, HDS. I appreciate the help you've given me. My ears definitely thank you! I can hear music again!!!