troubleshooting sound problems

Computers use sound cards to send sound signals from your computer to your speakers. A sound card is a piece of hardware inside the computer that can be built into the motherboard or a standalone card. These cards are usually PCI cards which is the most common add-on card type. There are companies who make external USB sound cards but they are not very common.
These sound cards use drivers to communicate with the operating system. For most users the operating system is some version of Microsoft Windows. Of course there are other operating systems such as Macintosh OSX and Linux. If the operating system doesn’t have the correct driver installed or no driver at all then it won’t know what to do with the new hardware and most of the time return some sort of error.

There are a few ways to install drivers for your sound card. The most common way is to install the driver/software from the CD that came with the sound card. Sometimes you will install the software before the card and sometimes you will install the card before the software depending on the manufactures instructions. The software contains the drivers and any other sound management utilities such as a mixer for example. Windows also has a way for you to manage your sound settings.
If you don’t have the CD that came with your sound card you can usually download it from the manufactures website if you know the model of the sound card. Another way to install drivers is from Windows update. This will only work if Windows recognizes your card and knows what drivers to look for. Sometimes if you restart your computer Windows will see that you have new hardware and ask you how you want to install the software for it. There will be a section asking you if you will allow Windows to go to search for drivers online and see if it can download the correct driver.
You can also go into Device Manager and find the sound card and double click it to open its properties. Then go to the Driver tab and click on update driver and follow the prompts to have it search your computer, CDROM or Windows update. If you don’t see your sound card look for an unknown device or an icon with a yellow question mark or exclamation point on it. This indicates that Windows sees the device but there is an issue with the driver. This is a good place to look if you are having sound problems with an existing sound card that came with your computer. The driver could have become corrupt or you may have inadvertently downloaded a new driver during Windows Update that is causing a conflict. There is a button to roll back the driver to go back to the previous version which may solve your problem. You can also remove the device from Device Manager, reboot the computer and let Windows detect the sound card again and reinstall the drivers.
If you are having problems with an existing sound card not working all of the sudden and everything looks fine in Device Manager then the next step is to check your speakers and speaker connection. If you have any other speakers or even an iPod or Walkman headset you can plug them in and see if you get sound. If so then your speakers are most likely not good anymore. Also make sure they are plugged into the right jack and that the plug is in all the way.
Next make sure your volume is turned up. Some speakers have separate volume controls on the speakers themselves that can be used in addition to the volume control within Windows. The speaker control is usually in the lower right corner by the clock and you can click on it to adjust the level. You can also double click on it to bring up other sound level controls.

If you don’t have the speaker icon by the clock then you can add it by going to Control Panel and then clicking on the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. From there check the box that says Place volume icon in the taskbar.
The next step is to check more of the options under Control Panel and the Sounds and Audio Devices section. Under the Volume tab you can check the volume, make sure it’s not on mute, and check the speaker volume and configuration. The Sounds tab allows you to configure what sounds play for what events in Windows. You can also turn off the Windows sounds if you don’t like them. It won’t affect your other sound settings. The Audio tab lists your sound device for playback, recording and MIDI music. Make sure the default device is what you have installed in your computer and not another device or older device that may have been removed. The Voice tab is similar to the Audio tab except its for voice playback and recording using some sort of microphone. The Hardware tab lists your installed audio devices including CD/DVD players. You can do basic troubleshooting from here as well as run the Sound Troubleshooter Wizard by highlighting the device and clicking on the Troubleshoot button. You can check the properties of the device as well as the driver configuration from the Properties button.
Another trick is to take the sound card out of its slot and put it a different slot if you have one available. If your sound card is built into the motherboard then this is not an option although you can add an actual sound card and use that instead of the built in sound card. You may want to go into the BIOS to disable the onboard sound card to avoid any conflicts. Finally it is possible that the sound card or speaker jack on the card has gone bad and you may end up having to replace it with a new one.

common pc problems

Common PC problems

Windows stops responding or freezes
Possible causes

Overheating
Bad hardware such as RAM
Corrupt driver
Software related issue
Computer reboots by itself

Possible causes

Virus issue such as the Blaster worm
Bad power supply
Overheating
Software or operating system related issue
Computer performs many Illegal Operations

Possible causes

Poorly written software is installed
Corrupt files
Corrupt drivers
Data being improperly read from source
Bad memory

some computertips keyboard short cuts

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Go to the Inbox CTRL+SHIFT+I
Go to the Outbox CTRL+SHIFT+O
Check for New Mail F5 or CTRL+M
Start a New E-mail message CTRL+SHIFT+M
Open the address book CTRL+SHIFT+B
Start a New appointment CTRL+SHIFT+A
Start a New contact CTRL+SHIFT+C
Start a New meeting request CTRL+SHIFT+Q
Start a New a task CTRL+SHIFT+K
Make the Find a Contact box active F11
Open the Advanced Find dialog box CTRL+SHIFT+F
Mark an e-mail message as read CTRL+Q
Delete an e-mail message, contact, calendar item, or task CTRL+D

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Front Page 2000 Shortcut Keys
Front Page has quite a few shortcut keys. My favorites are:

Center a paragraph CTRL+E
Left align a paragraph CTRL+L
Right align a paragraph CTRL+R
Display HTML tags CTRL+ /
Apply the Heading 1 style (ect.) CTRL+ALT+1
Apply the Normal style CTRL+SHIFT+ N
Not listed in their help is:
Cycle through Normal / HTML / Preview Ctrl-PgUp/ Down
If you are at the last row in a table, the TAB key will add a new row below the current one.

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Fast Access to the Desktop
To get an Explorer view of the Desktop

Press Ctrl-Esc or click the Start button
Press R to go to Run. Note: If you are using a Win keyboard, you can get to this point by pressing Win+R
Type in a period

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Opening Up the Task Manager in NT 4
In Windows NT 4, to quickly bring up the task manager, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc


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MS-Natural Keyboard Shortcuts
Open the start menu - Submitted by Daniel F. Win
Display the pop-up menu for the selected object - Submitted by Daniel F. Win+F1
Start Explorer Win+E
Find Files or Folders Win+F
Find computer Ctrl+Win+F
Minimizes all windows Win+M
Undo Minimize All Shift+Win+M
Display Run Dialog box Win-R
Cycles through taskbar buttons Win+Tab
Displays System Properties Win+Break

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Getting to My Computer from the Control Panel

If you're in Control Panel, hitting the Backspace key will switch you into the My Computer folder.


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Undo
Press CTRL + Z to undo things like renaming a file in Explorer


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Minimizing All Windows
To minimize all windows:

Press Ctrl-ESC to bring up the Task Bar
Press Alt-M
This makes it a lot easier to minimize windows when all your open applications are full screen.


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Shortcut to System Properties
To access the System Properties screen quickly, simply hold down the ALT key while double clicking on the My Computer icon.

While holding the windows key, press the Pause / Break key.
This will open up the System Properties box.
From here you can easily get to the Device Manager


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Duplicating the Right Mouse Click
Pressing the Shift-F10 key will be the same as clicking the right-mouse button.


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Accessing Programs from the Start Button
To access your programs more quickly from your start button, with out aid of a mouse, hit ctrl+esc to open your start menu.
Then, type the letter for the directory you are looking for.
For example, to access the ever popular game of solitaire, CTRL+ESC, then "P" for programs, "A" for accessories, "G" for games, then "S" for Solitaire.
If there is more than one entry for the letter, keep hitting the letter until you reach your desired location. Then, hit enter.


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Quickly Starting Explorer
You can quickly start an explorer session by holding down the Windows key on a Microsoft Keyboard and pressing the E.key


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Remapping the Keyboard
You can download Keyboard Remap (20 K) from Microsoft to reassign you keystrokes.
With this you can also assign a key to function like the Windows key on the Microsoft keyboards.


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Internet Explorer Shortcuts
Here are a few IE keyboard shortcuts: Go ‘Back’ to the previous page Alt+Left Arrow
Go ‘Forward’ to the next page Alt+Right Arrow
Add to Favorites on the current web page Ctrl+D
Open the History folder Ctrl+H
Open the Organize Favorites window Ctrl+B
Lets you open a new web page Ctrl+L
Open a new browser window Ctrl+N
Reload the current page Ctrl+R
Close the active Internet Explorer window Ctrl+W



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Bringing up the Properties Window
While holding the ALT key double click on an icon to bring up the properties.


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Resizing and Moving a Window
To Resize or Move a window:

Press Alt-Space
Press the S key - To Resize
Press the M key - To Move
You can now use the arrow keys to resize or move the window


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Key stroking is faster than mouse moving
In desktop you can press "m", "My Briefcase is highlighted, press "enter" will open this applet.
If you do not press "enter",
The next "m" key stroke will highlight "My Computer".
"Ctrl"-"Esc", press "P" for Programs, "enter","M""enter", you get to the first program or folder that starts with "M"
Other applets will also be opened the same way.

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Explorer Shortcut Keys
F4 - Displays the Combo Box
F5 - Refresh the display
Ctrl+Z - Undo last action
Backspace - Go up one directory

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Quickly Search for Files
To quickly open up the Find all Files window

Press Ctrl+ESC ESC
Press F3

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To copy a file with a Mouse/Keyboard combo

Drag the file while holding down the CTRL key - A + will appear on the icon

To move a file with a Mouse/Keyboard combo
Drag file while holding down SHIFT key - Nothing appears on the icon

If moving a icon with the mouse and an arrow appears, it will create a shortcut.
You can press shift or ctrl at anytime during the drag
and it will change this little part of the icon.