Izlude Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Howdy folksies. Got a laptop with what I suspect to be failing sound hardware and or speaker issues. I need your help in diagnosing this. Symptom: The speakers suddenly stop playing sound. They play normally after "every" reboot, but then after the "same amount of time", suddenly go blank. When I click the volume bar, I can see the green part moving (that lets me know that windows IS indeed playing sound) just that nothing comes out the speakers. First attempted drivers, next a reinstall of the OS (various versions to make sure). Same symptoms occur. I believe the same happens even with headphones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member Posted January 6, 2014 Member Share Posted January 6, 2014 Does it resolve itself upon reboot or randomly? Do headphones work consistently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raa Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 If it suddenly started happening and you've troubleshooted up to reinstalling the OS, I would say the sound hardware is failing. You can purchase an USB sound module fairly cheap off eBay or similar if you still need sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiranui Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Windows 8? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izlude Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Hi sorry for that huge delay in reply. Headphones work no problem, so I must amend that part. The speakers are the only ones that have the issue. Bootup, sound works for a few mins then disappears. Every reboot makes it work again. I also started to get a message about the hard disk failing and to back it up. That's a no brainer, will have to get a nice cheap Laptop SSD, since my sis only uses it for FB and video (kids game on it sometimes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cacoe Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I would say that it's a hardware problem but with the fact that a reboot resolves the problem, it sort of sounds like a software problem. Having said that, it's also odd that headphones work fine throughout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member Posted January 7, 2014 Member Share Posted January 7, 2014 I'd try a live linux cd/usb and see if the issue exist even there given that it is resolving on reboots. It probably is a hardware problem, but given the circumstances you can't be 100% sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izlude Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi snaphat, went ahead and tried a variant of your suggestion (another boot device) sound worked. So then I went ahead and got another drive. I then tested BOTH drives. The dying one (even with new installs of the OS) would have the sound problem. The new drive (after various tests) did not have any sound problems. How silly is that :P Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member Posted January 9, 2014 Member Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi snaphat, went ahead and tried a variant of your suggestion (another boot device) sound worked. So then I went ahead and got another drive. I then tested BOTH drives. The dying one (even with new installs of the OS) would have the sound problem. The new drive (after various tests) did not have any sound problems. How silly is that :p Thanks again. That's random, I'm not sure how that would happen.I'm going to assume there was more than just bad sectors in the drive and that it was affecting other hardware directly somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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