Possible Reasons if Computer Sound is Not Working
Reason #1
The most common and the easiest thing to do is to check if the sound card has been installed or not. That could be the culprit for the computer sound problems. It is a card at the back of the machine, or may be on the computer motherboard in case of new computers. To see whether the drivers for sound card are installed, you need to go to the Start menu and then go to settings then control panel and then click on the multimedia icon. That will get you to the properties box. There would be 2 areas, playback and recording. If these are not installed there would be a 'none' listed under preferred device. Selecting that will hopefully solve your problem. This applies to Windows 95/ 98/ NT.
Reason #2
Well, you have successfully resolved the problems related to the sound card. Everything is fine with regards to sound card. It is the time now to see if the other settings are in place. For starters, confirm if the volume and mute controls are in place. Any mark near the mute box has to be removed. Verify by double clicking on the sound icon on the task bar, usually on extreme bottom right of the screen have the sound volumes set midway or higher.
Reason #3
The other culprits are the speakers. Make sure that the speaker connections are proper. There is also a chance that the volume of the speakers could have become low. Check if that is the reason for the sound not working on your computer.
Reason #4
In case conflict exists between the sound card and the other devices installed in your computer, there is a chance that the sound card driver is not properly installed for the other devices as well as the sound card.
Reason #5
There could be a faulty sound driver in your system. So instead of reinstalling the sound card drivers, et all, you may have to replace the original sound card with a new one. This is actually a no brainer. For installing the new sound card, you may have to check out the manual or consider asking for professional help. That would resolve the problem.
The last resort, if none of these things work, is to do a thorough check of the hard drive. This is obviously not to scare you but to give you an idea of the possibilities.
