Sound Card or Input fault?

[The Poizon]

Hi all,

Im new to the forums and would like some advice on my computer. (Im a gal and dont know much about this stuff so be gentle )

Ive got a Dell Dimension desktop, and to be honest - have had nothing but problems since I got the damn thing and now I think ive even got a problem with my sound card or the input from my amp has gone dodgy. Ive got a Teac hifi with 2 sony speakers which are hooked up to my computer aswell.

Last night, I was listening to my music and all was fine, turned the volume down to take a phone call and when I turned it back up again - well, there was basically no volume. I whacked the volume up to full and you could only faintly hear the music. Checked all the sound controls and everything was what it should be, it works fine when I put a CD in the hifi but no sounds from my computer are coming out.

Now, im really skint at the moment - if it's the sound card, how much am I looking at to spend? If it's the input on my hifi then Teac can sort it out.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[PC eye]

The solution there is simple if you just happen to have a set of pc speakers to plug in rather then a line out to the input on the Teac. If the Teac is seeing a problem like a now bad jack which is unlikely by your description you should hear sound blazong from the pc speaker set.

With low or no sound by trying a different output like a speaker set you have then narrowed things down to either a hardware or software/driver problem. Often with preinstalled operating systems drivers can be lost. But if the Dell there sees an expansion card for sound those can go suddenly needing to be replaced.

What is the quick method? Going to the Dell support site after seeing the product information to see a card is installed or onboard sound is being used for that model. Once you select the desktop, series, and model number you select the correct update for the version of Windows you are running and proceed to install those.

If a driver was knocked out sound will be heard again. If not? Bad jack, bad card if installed, or something with the Teac went.