Audio issues

[Balishang]

Well today I lost all sound on my computer. I get absolutely nothing out of my speakers. I went into device manager and under "other devices" is listed "multimedia audio controller" with a yellow questionmark under it. Tried just right clicking and updating driver, no dice. Soo I checked in PC Wizard to see what audio I had (it is just integrated btw) and it said I have AC'97. So I went to Realtek's website and d/l'd the latest driver and half way through the installation I get a message that the driver is not signed by Windows so I ignore it and installation starts to continue and......
BSOD.

So now I have no idea what to do. I can't update the driver without getting BSOD and can't think of any work arounds. This is my secondary computer and its kinda older but its a Dell Dimension 3000 series. I was running XP SP2 when I first got this issue today and after I found the issue I downloaded SP3 to see if that would help, which it didn't, so I am now running SP3 if it matters.

 

[Baez]

When it BSOD's what does Windows event viewer say? It's very likely that it is just the audio hardware but it could be something else so check that first.

Also download the drivers directly from Dell. Their hardware is sometimes different than the norm. I've found them for you here: Audio Driver.

 

[Balishang]

ah thank you so much! after i d/l'd the driver I still didn't have sound so I went into the advanced volume control properties and in the drop down box where there used to be only soundblaster live 24 bit now had soundmax digital integrated audio as an option. so i went into device manager and disabled the soundblaster and voila! thanks again!

 

[Baez]

No problem