No sound after installing IE7

[Llhweiir]

Against my better judgement I installed IE7 today (normally I use Firefox), and was instantly rewarded with a total loss of sound on my system. Nothing is being played back - every audio-file I try to play is met with an error message that translates something like this( please forgive bad grammar or incorrect :

"The file cannot be played due to a problem with the audio unit. It is possible that there is no audio-unit installed on the computer, the audio-unit might be used by another program or the audio-unit might not be functioning."

I have tried looking at "Control panel -> System -> Unit manager" and as far as I can tell my audio unit "Realtek Highdefinition Audio" is working.

Also, I have removed IE7 since the incident but nothing happens...

Any ideas on how to get the sound back?

[halokid]

what version of windows are ya running?

[Llhweiir]

what version of windows are ya running?

XP Home ed.

[Llhweiir]

Update:

I found an "unknown audio unit" in the unit manager. Ii was said not to work properly due to lavk of drivers. I initiated an automatic updat the drivers - and then the system said that it was trying to update the "Microsoft Kernel system audio unit". However, the update was unsuccessful due to "the drivers are not meant fot this system"...

Does this give us any clue on what to do?

[pat]

I'd check some of the obvious first, make sure it's not muted or turned all the way down.

Then I may just go into device manager and uninstall the device, restart and then try and reinstall the drivers.

[Chandler]

For HD Audio audio devices you must first install a Microsoft hotfix to enable UAA support in Windows XP SP2.  Only then can you install the Realtek driver.

The hotfix is KB888111 but it is not available for download directly from Microsoft.  It will be included on your motherboard's driver CD and I believe is also included with the full download of Realtek's driver.  Whether or not they include non-English versions of this update is up to the Realtek and/or your motherboard manufacturer.

[Llhweiir]

For HD Audio audio devices you must first install a Microsoft hotfix to enable UAA support in Windows XP SP2.  Only then can you install the Realtek driver.

The hotfix is KB888111 but it is not available for download directly from Microsoft.  It will be included on your motherboard's driver CD and I believe is also included with the full download of Realtek's driver.  Whether or not they include non-English versions of this update is up to the Realtek and/or your motherboard manufacturer.

All I know is that my Realteaj driver worked fina a few days ago.

I am afraids I do not have a motherboard CD. The PC came with XP installed and with a 3 year telephone support - that's it. The support is not woth the money however, since the only advice they have is: "- Huh, well... hmmm... well... I guess you have to restore you PC to factory settings..."

[Buffalo2102]

You could try this one....

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/11036/eng/kb888111.exe


Buff

[Llhweiir]

You could try this one....

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/11036/eng/kb888111.exe


Buff

Nope, didn't work. I forgot that I have SP3, and then the update wouldn't install.

[Llhweiir]

Try this.

Right click on the audio volume control icon in lower right.

Left click Adjust audio properties.

Under audio tab, select the correct audio device.

Occasionally there are two devices, and the one you do not want gets set as the default when IE is updated.
That might or might not be the case for you, but its worth looking at... and good to be aware of in general.

ps  My guidelines are for Windows 2000, as the XP machine is in use upstairs at the moment.

Thanks for the suggestion JA, but that didn't work either...

Under "adjust audio properties"->audio tab the system insists that I have no device what so ever... However, in the unit manager I seem to have both Realtek and the Microsoft kernel-what-ever-it-was-called-again. The Microsft one registers as not functional, but if I try to uninstall it, it magically reinstalls itself within seconds...

And one more thing - I notice today that my TV-card seems to be malfunctioning too... No error message, just no audio or visual.

I am baffled! ???

Soon, I will do what the support tells me and wipe the entire system...

[Llhweiir]

Man, that one keeps getting tougher and tougher!
Will a system restore get it?

I have tried restoring the system to one of the automatically ceated system restore point, but that doesn't work. My guess is that a complete restore to factory settings should solve the problem. It seems that there is something wrong with the drivers, and that it was somehow caused by me installing IE7, and since a total reformar/restore puts all the drivers back to the way they where in the beginning my guess is that it will work... Can't be sure though...

[halokid]

Sp3 may be your problem despite the audio patch, a few people have been having some problems with audio drivers working in sp3....if everything else has failed i might suggest reverting back to sp2, reinstalling drivers+k*****88patch as mentioned., test it to see if it works, then if you really feel the need for sp3, then re install it. I would atleast try under sp2 if you havent. there may be  another solution in this link.
http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=2669190&siteid=17&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=1

ps. this still doesnt explain the correlation between ie7 install, but it may have corrupted some  registry or somethin... Do you know when your pc upgraded to sp3?

[Llhweiir]

Try taking a look in the original disks that came with the computer.
Some manufacturers provide a 2nd disk for certain drivers.
The drivers you need might just be included there.
If only one disk, they might be accessible for use.

You can also buy a new audio card and install it and use that method I listed above to select it to use.
The drivers will either install automatically from your operating system, or they will be on a disk in the box.

The computer came with XP already installed, and with a separate partition that are used to resore the system back to factory settings... ie I have no XP- disc available...

[Llhweiir]

Sp3 may be your problem despite the audio patch, a few people have been having some problems with audio drivers working in sp3....if everything else has failed i might suggest reverting back to sp2, reinstalling drivers+k*****88patch as mentioned., test it to see if it works, then if you really feel the need for sp3, then re install it. I would atleast try under sp2 if you havent. there may be  another solution in this link.
http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=2669190&siteid=17&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=1

ps. this still doesnt explain the correlation between ie7 install, but it may have corrupted some  registry or somethin... Do you know when your pc upgraded to sp3?

I think I upgrade to SP3 in april 2008.

I'll have to think twice before downgrading - the installation-pgm warns me that there is a number of pgms that might not work after the downgrading.

[Llhweiir]

I finally got around to restoring the system back to factory setting - and as I thought the sound came back just fine... But, now a number of other thing is wrong - the included program-repair-guide doesn't work and IE7 just wont install at all...But all this is another subject which I may address in a new poast someday...

Thanks for all the ideas and help!

[Llhweiir]

Update:

The computer did not survive the return to factory settings - it begun to restart every 3-4 minutes. According to the support it is likely something wrong with the motherboard, and the company came and picked the computer up to repair it.

[Llhweiir]

The computer came back a while ago - with a new HD (500 GB instead of the old 200 GB). Everything workes fines now, guess the soundproblem was caused be the defect harddrive.

Case closed! Thanks for all the ideas everyone!

[Buffalo2102]

Glad you got it sorted.

Buff

[Llhweiir]

New motherboard, too?
Did they install the OS, or did you?
How did it get registered with Microsoft... them or you?

Any information from them as to what the problem was?

Cwazy Wabbit

No, only the harddrive was replaced.

The OS came installed when I got the computer in the first place - and they also did a complete system restore now. I created a new recovery disc the forst thing I did since I felt I couldn't trust the old one anymore.

I suppose they registred it... I sure didn't...

No detailed information - just that their test showed that the HD was defect, and that they decided that it should be replaced.