No Sound *Sometimes* on Windows 7

My Windows 7 (64 bit, Dell) computer seems to randomly pick when it wants to play sound and when it has better things to do. I upgraded the soundcard’s firmware and tried all sorts of things but could never make the problem go away without having to reboot. Tonight I found a way to get the sound back immediately.

  1. Right click the speaker icon.
  2. Click “playback devices”.
  3. Double click “S/PDIF”.
  4. Click “Supported formats” tab.
  5. Click on the word “44.1 kHz” to select it (not the checkbox, the word itself).
  6. Click “Test”.
  7. You then get a warning box.
  8. Click “Yes”.

Source: memolipd on m-audio forums.

I tried it tonight and my sound came back right away. I’m not sure if this will end up being a permanent solution or not. I will update this post if I find that it doesn’t have a lasting effect.

Not a permanent solution, it seems. Sound disappeared again the next time I turned the computer on. The good news, I guess, is that this trick worked to bring the sound back again.

Update: September 1, 2011

That solution worked for a while and then stopped working. Next solution:

  • control panel
  • sounds
  • click on speakers
  • properties
  • disable all enhancements

That seems to be working for now. I turned the computer off and on again and the sound still seems to work. I’ll update again if it stops working.

By the way, downloading the RealTek drivers — something that is suggested on many sites — didn’t work.