So, my computer now has no sound...

[Katana_Geldar]

I had sound yesterday, as I watched The Chipmunk Adventure on Youtube. but this morning I wanted to play Culpa Innata and I had a fatal error, saying that DirectSound failed to initialise. I'm not sure if my current lack of sound has anything to do with this, but all I can hear through my headphones is dead air.

Any suggestions? I run XP and can answer a few questions if people are willing to help.

[Brother Oni]

First thing to do is to check whether you can get some sort of sound through your headphones, so check the connection and try playing something from Youtube/Winamp/WM player, etc.

If you can get sound, then the issue is to do with DirectX or your sound drivers (which it probably is, considering your DirectSound failed to initialise).
Do you know how to update/reinstall drivers or DirectX?

If you can't get sound, double check your sound options (Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> Audio Tab, Sound Playback) and check that the default device is correct (if you have USB headphones, then that would be listed here, if you have a 3.5mm jack plugged into your computer then it'd be your soundcard).

Let us know how you got on with that and we can help further if required.

[Yora]

First thing: Restart your computer and see if the problem disappeared. Good advice for almost all problems.

Second I agree with reinstalling audio drivers. It solves a great deal of problems and these days it's very easy to do and can be done even by people with no computer knowledge with a very small amount of direction.

[Lioness]

Whenever this happens to me, it's usually because my drivers failed to do stuff...I downloaded them again, and just reinstall them whenever it happens.

[Katana_Geldar]

well, it's working now.

Huh.

[KuReshtin]

Probably just the driver for the sound card that had a hiccup, then.
might just have needed a reboot of the machine.

[Katana_Geldar]

Now it's NOT working again and I still can't start Culpa Innata, same DirectSound can't initialise.

[Brother Oni]

Ok, to quote the IT Crowd, "Have you tried turning it off then on again?"

If that doesn't work, you need to reinstall your sound drivers and probably DirectX again.

The DirectX installer can be found here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displayLang=en).

For your sound drivers, you need to find out what make and model your sound card is, then go to the manufactuer's website and download and install the updated drivers.
If you're not sure what soundcard you have, it should be under Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab, Device Manager, and I think it's under Sound, Video and Game Controllers (haven't got my XP computer in front of me to check)

[grimbold]

this happened to me once
asides from rebooting it (which i did) nothing seemed to help for a couple hours, and then bizzarely it worked

[Erloas]

It sounds to me like your sound card is failing. There is a very good chance its integrated, which would mean replacing the motherboard. However you also have the option of disabling the sound in the BIOS and installing a discrete sound card in a PCI slot. I believe you should be able to find those for $15-25 or so.

[Katana_Geldar]

It worked again when I rebooted. :smallannoyed:

[Brother Oni]

It worked again when I rebooted. :smallannoyed:

It may still be worth your while to re-install your drivers/DirectX just for preventative maintenance purposes.

[KuReshtin]

It may still be worth your while to re-install your drivers/DirectX just for preventative maintenance purposes.

I would replace the 'may still be' with 'definitely is still'.

If it keeps bugging out, make sure you reinstall the driver.
There are no ifs, buts or maybes about it.