No sound and other issues after bad Windows Update

im sure youve already checked this, but are you sure your speakers are connected properly and working? maybe try with some headphones?
 
Next up would be uninstall codecs, snd drivers, reboot, snd drivers back in, reboot, codecs back in.

Had a similar problem on a few pcs after something or other has updated itself and kiled the sound.
 
SB118 said:
Next up would be uninstall codecs, snd drivers, reboot, snd drivers back in, reboot, codecs back in.

Had a similar problem on a few pcs after something or other has updated itself and kiled the sound.
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Thanks for the help! Could you talk me through this step-by step so I know I have done it properly? I am a pretty good system builder but when it comes to stuff like this...
 
Start, control panel, programs and features. Then run the uninstallers for the relevant programs.

Reboot, then reinstall the sound drivers and codecs from where ever you've got them saved.
 
Oh, well before I installed the new codecs I only had the standard ones installed, nothing extra other than what came with Windows. I will try the sound drivers one last time, but that is why I bought the sound card, because I couldn't get the onboard sound to work with it's drivers.
 
Sec, you don't have the snd drivers set up right?

Uninstall them, then jump onto windows update and see if it picks up a new version.
 
SB118 said:
Sec, you don't have the snd drivers set up right?

Uninstall them, then jump onto windows update and see if it picks up a new version.
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Well, when it started I had my onboard audio drivers set up. As in the OP- had the bad windows update, recovered it and it worked fine. Then the next day I started it up and I had no sound. I went through the process of uninstalling and reinstalling the latest drivers all to no avail. So I thought that by getting a sound card that used different drivers it would fix the issue- it didn't. I put the sound card in the PCI slot, booted, installed the drivers from Creative's website. I got lots of pops while it was installing but still no sound. So I have the latest Win7 drivers for the sound card, which still doesn't work.

Here are the symptoms of my problem:
  • No sound- obviously
  • When I move the sound slider I don't get the little green bar that pops up showing that it is playing a sound
  • When playing audio or video files I get an error 'WMP encountered an error playing this file'
  • When playing youtube videos the playback obviously has no sound but is extremly choppy, normally playing a single frame for the length of a video (may be related)

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding and should help you understand my issue. It is also worth noting that I get a side-by-side error when opening a few programs.
 
Right, uninstall the extra sound card, uninstall the drivers from the origianl sound card (if they're still showing, is the old card still enabled?), shutdown, take it out the extra card, reboot.

See if it detects the card and installs drivers. If it does, reboot then install the codec pack.

edit, I've just spent the last 3 hours on a friends machine and achieved absolutely **** all, so i know how you're feeling!
 
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I have the onboard audio disabled, so should I uninstall it as well? So then I uninstall the drivers for the PCI sound card then reboot and allow windows to do it? Or do you mean physically uninstall the card? Anyway, I'm going to uninstall sound drivers for both my onboard and PCI card, leave the onboard disabled in device manager, reboot and see what happens!
 
Oh, OK. Just removed drivers and re-installed and it detected the onboard audio and detected the soundcard as a Multimedia Audio Controller and could not find drivers for it. The drivers from creative had it correctly detected. Still no luck.

At what point should I reconnect the extra card?
 
So the onboard sound is a creative based unit? If so, do the creative drivers load on it? If not, do the mobo drivers load ok? What does windows update find?

Try and avoid the extra card, we want to fix the current problem, not ignore it and make a new one.
 
SB118 said:
So the onboard sound is a creative based unit? If so, do the creative drivers load on it? If not, do the mobo drivers load ok? What does windows update find?

Try and avoid the extra card, we want to fix the current problem, not ignore it and make a new one.
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Sorry for not being clear. The extra card is a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Pro Fatal1ty edition, and the onboard is you standard Realtek-based stuff. I had both drivers installed and functioning correctly, but neither would allow me to output any sound. I have used the original onboard driver that came with the motherboard as well as the latest one from Gigabyte's website. And the one for the sound card was straight from Creative's website. Using either has exactly the same problems that I listed earlier. I think it was a good call on the codecs, as the fact I have the same problem on both cards with totally different drivers rules out driver issues, but points more towards damaged codecs, which would explain the poor youtube playback as well as MWP refusing to play anything.

Is there any way to fix the original Windows codecs with out a re-install? Before the problem happened I hadn't installed a single codec pack, so it must be the original codecs, surely?

I am a total novice when it comes to codecs, which is strange considering I do lots of HD video editing, 3D rendering and generally lots of stuff with After Effects and Vegas!
 
No need for the extra card, run using the onboard stuff.

Once you've uninstalled the old drivers (both), took out the extra card and reloaded the standard drivers, uninstall the codec pack, reboot, reinstall the codec pack (maybe go back and grab the "full" codec pack from the download page.

Not got a clue about windows drivers, i've always chucked on the KL pack for my movie needs.
 
Thats my issue. I have re-installed the drivers numerous times but I don't know how to uninstall the standard codecs. I have never installed a codec pack so I can't remove it. I am assuming all my codecs came with Windows. Using this software:
http://www.techyard.net/enabledisable-installed-codecs-easily/

I can see there are lots installed, but I can't just delete them. And surely if they are standard with windows, how would I re-install them?
 
But surely if I didn't have the codec pack installed before the problem started, how would it help? A bit of an update, using Codec Sniper I have found lots of broken codecs. How do you fix them, do you delete them or what?

Thanks so much for your time, you have been really helpful :)
 
Do you have the KL codec pack installed right now?

If so, uninstall it, reboot, reinstall it.

If not, install it.
 
OK, I have just installed it and ran the Tweak Tool. It came up with a single broken codec which I removed. However using Codec-Sniper it shows about 18 codecs as broken. How can I fix them or am I not on the right tracks?
 
I've never had to go further than reinstalling the codec pack when i've had problems.

Just had a look at codec sniper 0.1.0 and i see it has a delete function. Id delete the busted codec enteries, reboot and reinstall the KL pack again.
 
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