[erwilson83]

I have a Hewlett Packard laptop (hp pavillion zv5000) and it's about 16 months old. Over the last 8 weeks I have had a problem with the sound coming and going. One day it will work, I will reboot the next day and there will be no sound. All of my volume controls are turned on and not muted:) I have tried to see if there is a relation of when it happens and when it doesn't...there is no relation between software etc. It does this with Windows media and Real player it's not occuring with just one of those either. Sometimes even if I'm on the computer it will all of a sudden have sound where as before it wouldn't. So it's not occuring only with I turn off/on either! Please if you know of anything that would help I would greatly appreciate it! I need my sound!
Thank you

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Welcome to G2G erwilson83

Am I correct in thinking then that when you get this problem, that all applications, including Windows itself are affected? i.e no Windows startup sound can be heard etc.

If so, then the first thing to try & eliminate is whether this is a problem with the speakers or not. I assume you are using the laptops built-in speakers, right? Are you able to connect a pair of external computer speakers or headphones instead? If so, does that resolve the problem?

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G erwilson83

Am I correct in thinking then that when you get this problem, that all applications, including Windows itself are affected? i.e no Windows startup sound can be heard etc.

If so, then the first thing to try & eliminate is whether this is a problem with the speakers or not. I assume you are using the laptops built-in speakers, right? Are you able to connect a pair of external computer speakers or headphones instead? If so, does that resolve the problem?

[erwilson83]

Thank you for helping:) Yes Windows is affected as well...No sound whatsoever! I am using the laptop speakers no external...when I hook up headphones there is no sound as well. It is puzzling:)
Let me know what you think next.
-erin

[Samm]

OK, next time you experience the problem, can you go to device manager (Run command, type devmgmt.msc), expand the Sound controllers branch & check the entries in that branch. Make sure none of them have a yellow exclaimation mark on them or a red cross.

Next, click on the View menu in Device manager & select 'view resources by type'. In the window that opens, expand the IRQ branch & look for the entry that relates to the sound card. Make a note of the IRQ number next to it & see if any other devices are also using this IRQ. If so, let me know which devices also use it & the IRQ number itself.

Also check in the system tray (by the clock in bottom right corner of screen) & see if the speaker icon (volume control) is there.

[erwilson83]

Thanks...I checked all of that and it is fine nothing out of the ordinary. I had a friend over this weekend and he checked it out and it does work when you put headphones in the jack and the sound will come out of my speakers when the headphone plug in is not all the way in. He said it looks like something is wrong with the jack itself. What do you think?
Thanks again for all of your help! I really appreciate...so let me know what your thoughts are now!!!

[Samm]

Thanks...I checked all of that and it is fine nothing out of the ordinary. I had a friend over this weekend and he checked it out and it does work when you put headphones in the jack and the sound will come out of my speakers when the headphone plug in is not all the way in. He said it looks like something is wrong with the jack itself. What do you think?
Thanks again for all of your help! I really appreciate...so let me know what your thoughts are now!!!

Let me see if I've got this right...
With the headphones plugged in, you get sound coming from the headphones.
With the headphones plugged halfway in, you get sound coming from the speakers (I assume you mean the speakers which are integrated into the laptop)
So what happens if you then remove the headphones altogether? Do you still get sound coming from the built-in speakers or not?

[erwilson83]

Correct...when I take the adapter out of the jack there is nothing coming out of the laptop integrated speakers. It's weird!

[Samm]

Hmmm, does sound like a bad connection somewhere then. Possibly the only solution may be to simply use headphones or external speakers in that case.
The only other solution (apart from taking the entire thing apart & seeing if it's fixable, which I wouldn't recommend) may be to buy an actual mini jack connector, like the one on the headphones, and leave it half plugged in!

[erwilson83]

That is what i've been doing is leaving an adapter half way in! It works...right now anyway:) I do appreciate all your help and at least I know it's not my soundcard which is on my motherboard!! That makes me happy:)