Okay, so I know you are all bored and willing to help a computer illiterate person, right?
Okay, great! I’ve got a problem with my sound on my laptop. My computer can’t find the device. I don’t know what I’ve done. Might I have a virus? My mouse is acting up too, it won’t stay with the “No Tapping” option selected after, say, 30 minutes of manually turning the tap option off.
I don’t know what kind of specs the fine people willing to help me need, or where to find them. I’m assuming I have driver issues, if that’s the problem, where would I be able to find those at?
Budda,
Have you tried a system restore operation? If you have done something, Windows does allow you to go back to a previous working configuration.
Al
I’ve done this several times in the past and was planning on doing it immediately this morning, but my computer won’t even start up now. It’s staying on the Windows XP motion bar screen. This has happened to me, I think, twice since I got this new computer.
I’m running Windows XP Media Center Edition.
No Vista.
And I have no idea what I did before this happened. I just noticed it last night.
I’m very angry now, though. My system restore is still on the computer, I never had the chance to burn it to disk. I have XP system disks for my other two laptops, though. I wonder if those would work?
I can’t remember if the F8 menu is before or after the Windoze bar… try pressing F8 when your computer starts up. If you get a black screen with a bunch of options, select “boot in last configuration that worked” or something to that effect. That might help the boot issue.
The sound thing is, as has been said, probably a driver issue.
I got that boot screen after I manually shut down the computer when I tried it again. I selected that option and it did the same thing. I remember that last time it wouldn’t start up unless it was either plugged in or not plugged in, I can’t remember. But even then it ran like molasses.
I think I may have been ravaged by a virus. I’m only running Windows Live OneCare. Told my dad it didn’t work… but whatever.
Maybe, you are missing the audio driver. You may find the audio driver on your suppliers website. One of my friend had the same problem, and he just had to reinstall the audio drivers.
And if I have a virus… will it be transferred onto the disks with the important data? I will make a back-up disk, too. And the system restore is open, just haven’t started it yet. It gave me a prompt to start it once safe mode started.
Okay, thanks. System restore just finished running. I set it back to June 24… I know it was working then.
Hopefully it will work now, but it looks like it’s just sitting on the start up screen again. I guess I’ll have to burn the system disks and reformat it.
Budda,
This does not entirely sound like a virus. You may have had a drive failure. How long have you had the computer? Do you run it a lot? Is there a wierd mechanical noise when you power on like the drive has bad bearings? Do you have any PCMCIA cards installed? Try taking those out and starting. You might also want to check that the CMOS setup has not changed so that it doesn’t see your drive as the right size, sector, etc. I would also try making a boot disk on another computer with some DOS commands on it and see if you can read anything from the drive when you boot off the disk. If you can’t see anything, then there might be a problem with the drive or the drive interface.
Al
Another thing that is possible is the battery on your motherboard could be dead, this can cause it to ‘forget’ some things and result in generally wacky behavior.
Mouse may just be wear and tear (espicially the tap pad). As for sound a setting may have been changed in Windows or the BIOS preventing the sound from working. You could always go to the Lapto Manufatures website and re-downloading the Audio Driver for your laptop and the mouse / tap pad as well. If that works then its all fine and dandy. If not prep your laptop for formatiing (get copies of all your documents etc…). I have not had much luck with Restoring the system to the last known good date only b/c not many people know about it nor do they know how to work it properly. But it’s always a shot. Restore the system to its last known good date. If that don’t work, use the master restore CD / DVD (for the much newer models) to restore the system back to when it was first shipped to you. (YOU WILL LOSE YOUR DATA IF YOU DON’T BACK IT UP ESPICIALLY WITH THE LAST OPTION!!!). CMOS Batteries should be replaced every 3 - 5 years but don’t generally go bad ever. CMOS Batteries help the BIOS remember all the information & settings. If the battery should go all it will do is forget Time / Date and User Settings and should not have immediate effects on system operation except the before mentioned items. (User Settings in BIOS).
Hm… well, my computer is practically brand new. It was a replacement for my other laptop that the keyboard went bad on. They sent me a new computer and let me keep the old one, so I got a brand new computer for $80.
But I digress… the computer won’t let me copy anything or run anything in Safe Mode. I haven’t messed with it for a while because it stormed terribly here (tornadoes, hail, lightning, etc).
I’ve run the restore to previous time, but that too didn’t work.
Al, I’ve had the computer since January, I think. It does run a lot, but I turn it off when I’m done using it 98% of the time. No weird sounds. How do I get the CMOS? How do I use a disk with DOS commands?
The mouse and sound card aren’t really an issue right now. I think I know that the sound card is a driver issue. But the mouse can’t be worn out, it just won’t let the tap option say unselected.
Budda,
CMOS or the setup for your computer can be accessed by pressing one of the Function keys while the computer is booting up. Usually it is F1 but on some computers it is the DEL key. It should tell you during the boot up screen which to use. If your computer has a floppy drive and if another computer has a floppy drive you can format a system disk that allows you to at least see directories on the drive. You will need a DOS primer to know how to step through the commands. usually by typing c: you can get to the root directory on the C drive. Then type dir/p and you will get a directory listing one page at a time. Hit any key to advance and you will see if all is still on the drive. If there is nothing on the drive then you may have to format C: and rebuild. I think you may have other problems though.
If you suspect a sound card problem, you might disable it in the CMOS setup. Save the settings and then continue to boot.
There are some really nasty viruses out there that wipe the boot sector of the drive. That is where the turn on info for your computer resides. It might be recoverable but you will need a good virus program to do that.
If you have a windows XP install disk you can use Recovery Console to re-configure your computer.
If you insert the disk and boot your computer, before the install starts it will ask if you want to run the install, or run recovery console. If you run recovery console, you will get a DOS-like prompt. You will need the know the administrator password on your computer, because you will log-on to your existing winXP install. You will be running winXP off the CD, without a GUI, but logged into your existing winXP install.
What that means is you will have full access to any configuration setting for Windows. I’m hoping there is someone here who is more familiar with Recovery Console who can give you some ideas. I have only ever used it to perform a system restore when I couldn’t even boot into safe-mode, and I was following an online guide.
Recovery console is a very powerful tool. It has the power to destroy your Windows install, and corrupt your hard drive. BE VERY CAREFUL WHAT YOU DO!
Thank you all for your help. I fixed the problem… seems that my computer won’t start up if my digital camera memory card is in the slot. The sound problem has been fixed, too. Thanks again.
