Thread: Getting the sound to work on my new computer

The sound doesn't function on my new computer. I have XP Professional installed on it, and I am pretty sure there's a soundcard in it. When I, for instance, try to play an mp3 file in Winamp, I get an error message saying something about a bad direct sound driver.

When I use the feature that makes a search for new machine ware in the control panel, and click "yes" on that the machine ware has already been connected to the computer, I get a question mark as the icon of "Unit for multimedia sound". When I move on from there, Windows tries to search for drivers for the device, but fails to find any. Hope you can understand the problem. Do you know what I should do to get the sound to work?

Did the computer come with a driver cd? If so, load the cd and find the audio driver on it. Install it and see if that fixes it. Short of that, download one from the manufacturer's site.

I don't know what sound card I have. It doesn't say in the papers I got with the computer. Can I found out what sound card I have using the computer?

Originally posted by Zewu
I don't know what sound card I have. It doesn't say in the papers I got with the computer. Can I found out what sound card I have using the computer?

Where did you get the computer from? You should be able to go onto the computer manufacturer's site and get the motherboard (if onboard sound) or audio card manufacturer. They will probably have drivers on their site too.

You may even want to uninstall the sound card and reinstall it. If the system has both onboard sound and an actual sound card there could be a conflict. Expecially if dx decided it likes the onboard better but you are trying to run the card. If there is a card present make sure to disable the onboard from bios so windows will stop detecting it.