my "sounds and audio devices" problem

[MeanMystaBean]

i have a windows xp and when i go to "sounds and audio devices," i can't click the play button in the "sound" tab.

when this problem occured, i also could not hear any sound effects when im playing final fantasy 7 for pc. the music and sound effects was fine, but now i can only hear the music.

does these problems have a connection. and how do i fix these problems.

 

[PC eye]

One tip for fixing driver problems with sound is to right click on the MyComputer icon and go to the hardware tab and into the device manager. Once in there scroll down to the sound and game controllers section and open that up. Look for any item with a yellow mark next to it. When you rightr click on anything found there you can choose the update driver option and reinstall sound drivers to refresh/replace ones already installed to make them active.

Are you using onboard sound or a pci slot model? While you are in the dm look for "other devices". Sometimes when drivers get knocked out you will find the device even a sound card listed there. You simply right click and choose the update option there to see that corrected. You may have to completely remove and reinstall all drivers and software if you are running a card that was installed.

 

[MeanMystaBean]

i dont see any yellow marks or anything and i dont know if it is onboard sound or the pci slot model

 

[MeanMystaBean]

also, i forgot to mention that i cant hear midi files. i can play it, but not sound/music

 

[MeanMystaBean]

to add to all this, i also dont hear the logon/logoff sounds when i logon/logoff.

 

[PC eye]

What system is this on, a prebuilt or custom build? The first thing you will have to know is what is used for sound. If there's a pci card installed the onboard sound if present has to be disabled in the system bios. If there is no card found the onboard may have already been disabled there. One of those would explain why there is no sound unless a sound card that was installed simply quit.