Sound does not work on a Windows 7 computer. Sound does not work on Windows: what to do

As it usually happens - “I’m sitting, not touching anything, listening to music, and then BAM and the sound is gone.” Well, or when you turn on the computer, the sound does not play.

Or maybe it’s not there when you enter the toy? In this article we will look at the possible reasons for the loss of sound. This may seem banal and familiar to some, but not everyone knows this.

1) We check the sound in another music player, simultaneously increasing and decreasing the volume in it.

2) We check the speakers/headphones with the volume control.

3) Checking the connection. Perhaps the wire has simply come loose (which should be plugged into the Green socket or with a picture of headphones).

4) Right-click on the Dynamics icon on the Taskbar in the lower right corner and select Open Volume Mixer and check everything there.

5) You can click on Speakers right there, a window will open in which you can “walk” through the tabs.

The correct operation of the audio will be indicated by a corresponding inscription under its name and a green check mark next to the device icon.

In particular on the tab Additionally there is a Check.

On Windows XP:

Start - Settings - Control Panel - Sounds and Audio Devices.

On the Audio tab, in the audio playback section, make sure your device is correctly identified and set to default:

Go to the Volume tab. Make sure that there is no checkmark next to the “Mute sound” item.

It is also necessary that the mixer volume be set above zero.

6) We do the same as in step 4, but select Playback devices.

7) Increase the volume directly on the Taskbar by clicking LMB on Speaker.

8) RMB on My Computer - Properties - Device Manager - look at the line Sound, video and gaming devices.

On Windows XP:

RMB on My Computer - Properties - "Hardware" tab and click "Device Manager".

Of course, everything there should be as on the screenshot, no exclamation marks.

You can do this: RMB on the device, select Disable, and then Enable again.

If there are exclamation marks, it means you need to update the drivers. Either through installation disk, or in the way that I described in the article which video card is installed.

9) You can check the BIOS to see if this feature is disabled.

Due to the fact that their versions are different, I can only use my own example: the “Devices Configuration” menu item and the “High Definition Audio” sub-item - the switch opposite it should be in the “Enabled” position.

10) Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services.

Finding our Windows service Audio, if it is turned off, then turn it on. The startup type should be "Automatic".

If turned off, then RMB and Properties.

11) Check the sound by connecting other speakers or headphones.

12) If you have several audio outputs (Green connectors), for example like me, both on the front of the system unit and on the back and in the speakers, check everything.

13) The worst point and the worst reason is that the sound card burned out.

Don’t forget to reboot after completing “events”.

Typically, various difficulties in working with the operating system arise due to incorrect hardware configuration. If there is no sound on a Windows 7 computer, few users know what to do in such a situation. You need to independently try to restore the sound functionality if it is missing.

Equipment check

The first thing you need to do is find out if the sound card works on your computer. You can check its performance by following these steps:

• Click Start, and then, in the menu that opens, go to Control Panel.
• Click on tab system and safety.
• Go to special section .
• Enter the password, if you have one.
• In the window that opens, double-click on Sound, gaming and video devices.

You should find your sound card in the list. If it is missing, you need to read the instructions from the developer, which indicate how it should be configured. In the tab "Other devices" often there may be a sound card. Setting up a laptop is easier due to the fact that there is no sound card there, but there is special processor, responsible for sound.

Sometimes, there may be some problems that will be marked with a yellow question mark next to the board image in Device Manager. Such problems are often the reason why sound on a computer does not work. To see what problem has arisen, you need to:

• Go to Properties by right-clicking on the sound card icon.
• After selecting General, you need to go to “Device Status”.

If such a problem occurs, you just need to install new drivers that will restore sound functionality. You can find it yourself online suitable drivers, while wasting a lot of time. But you can save time and effort by downloading a program called . With its help, you can find and install the necessary software for the operation of the equipment in a matter of minutes.

After launching the program, it will begin searching for the necessary drivers throughout the Internet. The program, having detected the necessary drivers, will independently install them on your Windows, after which you may need to restart your computer. After rebooting, the sound should appear, but if this does not happen, then proceed to the next paragraph of the article.

Connectors

You should also check that the speakers were connected to the correct port. Often, users connect headphones or speakers to the wrong connector. Most motherboards or sound cards should have at least three connectors for input/output and microphone. To properly connect the speakers, they should be connected to the linear audio output.

If, after connecting the speakers to the socket, there is still no sound, then you need to connect the speakers alternately to other sockets. Headphones work on the same principle. When you unplug the headphones from the jack, the sound disappears automatically and will only appear if the audio device is connected to the correct port.

Mains power

Usually, the reason for the lack of sound is quite trivial; the speakers may simply not be connected to a physical outlet. The speaker plug should be connected to a working outlet that produces 220v. But it’s not only the lack of network connection that causes the sound to not work; the volume controls are also often turned down to the minimum. Because of this, there is no sound coming from the speakers.

You can open the volume section in the following way:

• Start;
• Go to Control Panel;
• Hardware and Sound tab;
• Sound;
• Go to the "Volume Settings" menu;
• Turn the volume slider up.

The mixer can also be the reason for the lack of sound performance, this point should be taken into account. Laptops often have buttons or wheels to control the volume. Therefore, it is worth checking the presence of the wheel, and, if possible, turn the volume to a high level.

Software check

If the methods described above did not help configure the sound, then you need to check whether there is sound in the programs themselves. It may be that there is simply no sound in the software. Any program has its own volume settings to save time and not switch to Windows installations. Therefore, you need to check the volume settings everywhere, both in speakers and speakers, and in programs, to make sure that all possible actions have been performed.

Various kinds of sound problems in Windows can arise due to improper use or configuration of the equipment by the user himself. Any virus that can be accidentally introduced onto your computer by downloading free files, can damage not only the sound on the computer, but also other parts of it. It is imperative to monitor what software installed on the computer.

A fairly common situation is the loss of sound on personal computer or on a laptop. The article below will tell you how you can try to identify the problem yourself and solve it without involving any computer experts.

First, you need to determine why there is no sound on the computer. In most cases, the problems are as follows:

• Problems with speakers or headphones - from a poorly connected wire to their breakdown;
• Problems with the software - from incorrect settings to sound card drivers;
• Sound card malfunction - in most cases, only repairs under warranty or repairs at your own expense in specialized service centers will help here;

Problems with speakers or headphones

The first thing to rule out is a malfunction of the sound output device. To begin with, it would be a good idea to check the wires - whether they are connected correctly and whether they are fully plugged into the connectors they need. The sound card connector into which you need to plug in speakers or headphones is usually green.

If everything is plugged in correctly, but there is still no sound, it would be a good idea to check the sound through some other speakers or headphones, thereby completely eliminating the possibility of a breakdown of the audio output device. If there is still no sound, then the problem is in the computer.

Problems with the software

It is quite possible that the system has some problems with the software - incorrect settings or “lost” drivers.

Under " incorrect settings" means that the volume settings in the system are messed up.

In order to make sure that the sound settings are not at a minimum, you need to click on the sound icon in the tray (in the form of a speaker) and look at the position of the volume slider.

If the volume is set to 0, then this is equivalent to muting the sound in the system. In this case, you need to set the volume higher.

For various reasons, problems with drivers may occur on your computer - for example, due to viruses, or some kind of system failure. You can check the audio driver status as follows:

Reinstalling the driver

The very first thing you need to do is find the right driver. Most often the most in a simple way will find it on the disk that came with the computer.

As an example, the photo shows the disk that came with the motherboard.

You can also download the required driver from the Internet; for this you need to know the model of your sound card. In most cases, it is built into the motherboard, so you can easily find the necessary information on the built-in sound card on the Internet.

Installing the Realtek sound card driver

In most modern computers, the sound card manufacturer is Realtek. You can download their sound card driver. To start downloading, you must first tick the “I accept to the above” box, and then click the “Next” button. Then, you will need to select the desired driver by bit size operating system(You can find out by opening "System Properties").

• For 32-bit (86-bit) operating systems Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, you need to download drivers called " 32bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver only (Executable file)"
• For 64-bit (64-bit) operating systems Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, you need to download drivers called " 64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver only (Executable file)"
• For operating room Windows systems XP you need to download drivers called " Windows 2000, Windows XP/2003(32/64 bits) Driver only (Executable file)"

To load the selected driver, you must click on the "Global" button in the same line.

You need to run the downloaded file and follow the simplest instructions in Russian - in short, you just need to press the “Next” button all the time. At the end of the driver installation process, you will need to restart the computer, and then check whether the sound problems are resolved or not.

If all else fails

If checking audio output devices (speakers/headphones), checking volume settings and reinstalling the driver did not help, then it is quite possible that the problem is already at the hardware level. In any case, it would be a good idea to contact service center, in which they will diagnose and identify the problem.

I have no sound on Windows 7, I have no experience in troubleshooting such malfunctions in this operating system, but I really want to figure out what’s wrong and fix the problem myself. You have a similar article about Windows XP, but unfortunately it didn’t help me. Denis.

No sound on Windows 7

The reasons for the lack of sound in Windows 7 are sometimes simple, and often it takes quite a long time to find the problem. Very often, when asking a question, users do not provide complete information about the problem, for example, they do not say that they tried to update the day before sound driver or tried to connect other sound speakers to the computer or made changes to the settings of the Sound tab in the Control Panel. Or maybe you installed some plugin on your laptop to improve the sound quality of the players installed on your system and after that you no sound on Windows 7. But no matter what happens to you, friends, do not despair, there is a solution to your problem and, as usual, we will start with the simplest.

• Note: at the end of the article, as an option, there is a way to work with a little-known to a novice user - Universal diagnostic tool for Windows 7, it can automatically find and fix various problems related to more than just no sound. We have also published a new article, in which you can learn in detail how to set the exact name of your sound card, how to download drivers for it from its official website, and how to install them.
• If you have Windows 8, read our article
• If your built-in sound card has failed, read our article.
• If you are not satisfied with the sound quality on your laptop, you can.

Even very experienced users There are situations when for some reason they disconnected the sound speakers from the system unit and then forgot about it. Check that everything is securely connected. The output for connecting audio speakers is marked green.

You can check the serviceability of the sound speakers by connecting headphones to the sound output; if there is sound, then the speakers are faulty. Also, if there is no sound in Windows 7, you need to go to the device manager and pay attention to whether you have the option next to Sound devices Exclamation point in a yellow circle. Start->Control Panel->right-click on “Computer” and select Properties from the menu, then Device Manager. If the yellow circle is present, then your sound driver has simply crashed and you need to reinstall it again.

How to do this? Read our article How to install a sound driver(link above), but on the other hand, the sound driver just doesn’t crash, which means that some of your actions led to the problem, by the way, Windows 7 has a system restore service, which you of course know about, so you can use it in this case.

• Note: In order not to rack your brains over which of the two hundred programs and games you installed yesterday led to sound problems, you can use simple restoration system, fortunately in Windows 7 it is usually turned on for everyone and you can roll back a little with help.

Just yesterday, my friends asked me to fix the problem of no sound on their computer. The day before, for some reason, they downloaded and installed two multimedia players on the Internet at once, after which they lost sound. First of all, I looked at the speaker volume indicator in the Taskbar to see if it was completely turned down, but everything turned out to be fine.

I also right-clicked on the Speakers button and selected Playback Devices from the menu.

At the Dynamics item there was a green check mark as expected.

Although sometimes when there is no sound in Windows 7, the Sound window displays only Digital Audio (S/PDIF)

or absolutely nothing is displayed, then click on an empty space with the left mouse button and a menu will appear in which you need to check two items “Show disconnected” devices and “Show disconnected devices”

and we will immediately see our Speakers, right-click on them and select Enable.

We do the same with headphones, then “Apply” and “OK”.

It’s strange, but for my friends, the Sound window displayed Speakers marked with a green checkmark and in the device manager there was a working sound device with support for NVIDIA High Definition Audio

Everything indicated that the sound was fine. I brought headphones with me and connected them to the sound output located on the back of the system unit and made sure that there was actually no sound, which means the sound speakers were also working.
The first thing in this case is that the sound device driver may be damaged or not working correctly, which means you need to go to the device manager and try to update the driver, which will not always help, in this case you need to completely remove all sound devices from the system.

After the operation was performed in the operating system, my friends started hearing sound. By the way, in this case, you can also use system recovery and, of course, a complete reinstallation of the driver.
Another time there was a different problem, a person installed Windows 7 on his computer, everything would be fine, but there was no sound, there was eloquent information in the device manager.

In such cases, you need a disk with drivers for the motherboard that came with your computer when you purchased it. On this disk you need to see whether the drivers on it are suitable for Windows 7. If the drivers on the disk are intended for Windows XP, naturally you should not install them, you need go online and download native drivers for your sound card on its official website.

How to do this is written in detail and step by step in the article. Often, not only searching for drivers, but also correctly determining the name of the device is a problem for a novice user, so I still advise you to follow our link and read the article. If you still don’t find a driver for Windows 7, but you have an installation package of drivers for Windows XP, you can try to install it in the Compatibility Troubleshooting mode, but I’ll tell you, friends, this is not exactly the best option.

It happens that it is not possible to find the reason for the lack of sound at all; if the built-in audio card fails, in the device manager there may be a red circle with a cross next to it, or there may be nothing, in this case, many decide to completely reinstall the operating system, then install it on the sound card drivers and if in this case the sound does not appear, you just need to buy and install a separately installed PCI interface sound card. It is advisable to buy it together with a disk containing drivers specifically for your Windows 7-64bit or 32bit. You also need to know that immediately after you have installed a separate PCI sound card in the system unit, the built-in one in most cases must be disabled in the BIOS, otherwise the sound will not appear. Many people do not attach importance to this, and in vain. High Definition Audio should be set to Disabled.

A simple PCI interface sound card is not expensive at all, about 100-200 rubles, and for example, I always carry it with me. The first signs of failure of the integrated sound card are occasional missing or low-quality sound. This means it’s time to replace it with one installed in the form of an expansion card.
By the way, individual PCI interface sound cards are different, for example Sound Blaster manufactured by Creative Technology, are essentially a very high-quality and professional solution, but cost from two thousand rubles.

But keep in mind that if you have such a card, as well as a good audio system, and in some game you decide to shoot with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, your neighbors may misunderstand this and decide that you are actually firing at houses with a machine gun.

An interesting story about how we searched for the missing sound with our reader.
Denis wrote me a letter saying that he had no sound on Windows 7-64bit, suspicion of a faulty built-in sound card. The sound speakers are missing, they were checked on another computer and they were fine. Didn't help reinstalling Windows 7 and installing native drivers from the disk on the motherboard that was included when purchasing the computer. Also, the downloaded driver package from the official Realtek website did not bring any results after installation.

Our reader bought and installed a sound card installed separately in the PSI connector; before purchasing, he inquired whether there was a disk with drivers for Windows 7-64bit for it. Next comes the most interesting part: he puts the side cover of the system unit in place, then connects all the cables and sound speakers, and turns on the computer. I remind you that the sound card came with a disk with drivers, which it successfully installed, but the sound did not appear. He wrote me 10 letters, we sorted out all the faults that could be there, but the sound still did not appear, I began to have thoughts that the purchased sound card was also faulty, this happens or it is not fully inserted into the PCI connector. Denis, at my request, took the card to the service center where he bought it, where they checked it in front of him and it turned out to be working.

In his last letter, Denis sent me a screenshot of the system unit and showed me his mistake, it turns out that he still connected the speaker cable to the old built-in faulty sound card, like this. Our reader’s system unit was under the table and our friend, according to him, had to act literally by touch. It’s not surprising that they made such a mistake and it’s excusable for him, since you’ll agree, friends, in the absence of experience, the chances of connecting the speakers incorrectly increase greatly. So I ask you to take all of the above carefully.

The arrow shows the sound output of the purchased audio card, the place where the speaker plug needed to be connected; on top you can see the same connector, only belonging to the failed built-in sound card.

Universal Windows 7 Diagnostic Tool

As I promised, I will give an example of working with the Windows 7 Universal Diagnostic Tool, let's try to use it to fix the problem of no sound in Windows 7.
Control Panel->System and Security

Support Center

Maintenance and Troubleshooting.

As you can see here, you and I will be able to solve many problems that arise, and not only with sound. Equipment and sound.

Play sound.

Hello, our dear readers. Today we want to tell you about one of the most common problems that clients often contact us with. The topic of today's article: “Why there is no sound on a computer with Windows 7 or XP and how to fix it.”

We suggest not looking for those to blame, but moving directly to solving the problem. First you have to find the reason that could cause this breakdown. Try to remember your actions the day before that could have caused the sound on your computer to disappear. By the way, if you are the happy owner of a laptop, netbook or ultrabook, then we have a separate article for you on a similar topic - what to do if the sound on the laptop disappears. Still, there is some difference between laptops and system units.

For example, they updated the sound driver, connected other speakers, or edited settings in the “Sound” tab, etc. In fact possible reasons there can be a lot. We tried to collect the most common ones encountered in practice at our urgent computer assistance center. If you remember any others, please write them in the comments to the article.

As usual, let's start in order: from the simplest to the more complex.

Speakers or headphones are not connected

No matter how funny this option may seem, it is often the reason why the sound on the computer does not work. You probably already guessed how to fix it.

Therefore, do not be afraid to once again check the reliability of the speaker connections. Perhaps you or someone in your household turned off the speakers the day before and forgot to return everything to its previous state.

Speakers or headphones are not connected correctly

This reason is very similar to the previous one, but there is a slight difference. You seem to have connected the playback device to system unit, but for some reason there is no sound on the computer, and you don’t know what to do next.

The problem may lie in the fact that you connected to the wrong connector on the motherboard or sound card. Usually the required connector is light green in color. Although there are exceptions. For example, if you have a multi-channel speaker system. To make it clearer, look at the image.

If the front panel jacks do not work

There may be several options here. Let's look at them all in turn.

• The front panel is not connected at all - this could happen during careless computer assembly or modernization. It is necessary to open the case and check the correct connection. What may happen is that the USB in front of the system unit will work, but the sound will not.
• The necessary settings have not been made - if everything worked fine before, but, for example, after reinstalling Windows it stopped, then most likely they were not installed necessary drivers and the settings have not been made to output the signal to the front panel jacks. This will be the reason why there is no sound on the computer in Windows 7 or xp.

First you need to install the audio driver. After this, “Manager” with settings should appear in the notification area (bottom right near the clock). In the settings, you need to check the box “Disable detection of front panel sockets.” If you did everything correctly, it should work.

• The front panel is faulty - this may be the case. Then you will have to buy a new computer case.

Problem with audio drivers

If you have lost sound on a computer with Windows XP or 7, then you definitely need to check if everything is ok with the drivers. It happens that they “fly off” or are not installed at all if you recently reinstalled the operating system.

We'll tell you what to do. Let's start by going to "Device Manager". Here, look to see if an exclamation mark appears in the yellow circle next to “Sound Devices.” This sign indicates a broken or incorrectly installed audio driver. This means you will need to reinstall it (information about the method can be found on the Internet).

In this case, it is worth understanding what user actions led to the driver malfunctioning. So as not to look for the reason in hundreds installed programs and games, you can use a simple “System Restore” to return the state of Windows back a few days.

If the driver is not installed at all (see the picture for how it will look), then it is all the more clear why there is no sound on the computer. The solution to the problem is exactly the same - find and install the necessary driver. Just be careful, because incorrectly installed software can cause even more harm. For example, the computer may start to slow down. Read about what can lead to such a breakdown in our special article.

If at first glance everything is fine with the driver

We have also encountered a situation where the Device Manager shows that all the necessary drivers are installed, but there is still no sound on the computer. Now we’ll tell you what to do and how to fix it.

It happens that when installing some codecs, players or other programs, inconsistency may arise in the operating system. And the audio device may begin to work incorrectly.

You need to open Device Manager and look for audio devices in it. Right-click on them and select “Delete”. After this, reboot the PC. After rebooting, the audio device should automatically reinstall and it happens that everything starts working.

Audio devices disabled in BIOS

It's hard to imagine that you could somehow accidentally go into the BIOS and change the settings. But nevertheless, we also encountered this when clients lost sound on their computer for this very reason. So it wouldn’t hurt to check this too.

Go into the BIOS and see if the built-in sound card is disabled. To do this, find the “High Definition Audio” item. The parameter should have the “Enabled” position, i.e. in Russian "ON".

Windows Audio service disabled

All Windows 7 or XP users, if there is no sound on their PC, should make sure that the Windows Audio service is enabled. To do this, go to “Start”, then “Control Panel” - “Administration”, open “Services”. Here you need to find the “Windows Audio” service - check if it is enabled. The startup type must be set to “Automatic”.