Sound Problem on VGN-A115Z

[chanuk]

Hello all,

I have a Vaio VGN-A115Z.
I have the latest Realtek audio drivers from realtek.com.tw.
I am running Windows XP Pro SP2.
I have DirectX 9.0c.
I can play music on WinAmp and Windows Media player (mp3, wma, midi all works)

My problem is I can't hear sound anywhere else. There's no volume icon in my task bar (yes I have clicked the checkbox to enable this). The master volume is not on mute, the red mute button on the laptop is not on. I can't hear no music from Macromedia flash games. I tried uninstalling the Realtek and reinstalling the driver - no luck.

Could anyone please help me with this very strange problem.

[rich912]

Have you tried re-installing the pre-installed Realtek driver from the the pre-installed drivers folder from Vaio-Link?

[chanuk]

Hello Rich912,

Yes I have reinstalled the pre-installed driver. It used to work 100% perfect. I believe SP2 messed up the driver somehow. Is this a common problem?

[chanuk]

This is what I see in the Control Panel -> Sound Properties



As you can see from the above, I cannot play any of the Windows theme as the Play button is greyed out. The Voice Playback gives me the option to select Realtek AC97 and the MIDI lets me select Microsoft Wavetable Synth but as soon as I click OK and go back to the sound properties it's back to blank (just as above).

[rich912]

This is a strange problem and one that I have not encountered before! I assume that you are signed in with administrator privileges?

[chanuk]

I am yes. It is a very odd problem, out of my many years of computing I have not come across a problem like this. Again WinAmp and Windows Media Player plays music okay. It's like normal Windows sounds and Macromedia Flash player on websites that doesn't play any sounds.