Help! Sound randomly dying on my laptop

J

jbj

Poor old Geordie's array...
Now usually I would assume the thing was on it's way out but my brother is having the exact same problem with the exact same model of laptop.

When it's first booted up now 9 times out of 10 there's no sound at all

Not even anything coming from the headphone jack if you put in phones or run a stereo cable out...

If you restart it, most of the time you get the sound again

BUT also a lot of the time after a while of having sound, it will cut out again so I'll maybe get sound on a few Youtube vids and it'll be fine then do something else then try to watch another video later and get no sound.


I had a thought that it might have been down to a Window's update that happened when we were both on holiday. I did a system restore and it seemed to fix the problem but another update went on and now when I do system restore it doesn't seem to help.


Any ideas of what's causing it and more importantly -what I can do about it.
 
Why do Laptops always go wrong? I havnt had a laptop yet that hasnt gone mental after 3 or 4 years.

Desktops just seem to work fine.
 
jbj said:
So next question: How do I reinstall the audio drivers?
Click to expand...
The manufacturer website should have a downloadable driver in the support section. Usually it's just a matter of putting in your model number and getting a list of driver files.

Download the latest version, double click the file and it should walk you through the rest.
 
Yeah, I haven't had a laptop that lasted more than a few years. I think the longest lived one I had was an ibm thinkpad.

They used to make USB sound cards. Sort of look like a thumb drive. My son had one in his laptop when the internal sound card went.
 
So I've downloaded the driver from the manufacturers website but I've no clue what I do from there...

In the download menu once I open the zip file it lists a bunch of folders and files but I've no clue what to do now and there's no readme. I don't want to start messing around and end up making it worse!
 
I've just run an auto search for both the sound devices in the control panel and windows says they're up to date and using the best suited drivers for both of them.... :shrug:
 
Mark Wein said:
So did he get a Mac yet?

:embarrassed:
Click to expand...
I was just about to get a Mac before a couple of DJs I know had theirs shit the bed at gigs within a week of each other thus the only reason I was going to go for one - i.e. they're meant to be indestructable to DJ on - went right out the window :embarrassed:
 
In fact now that I think about it, the leader of my band who's in a somewhat famous band of his own were doing a DJ set on a mac a while back and the thing was nothing but trouble for them too :embarrassed:
 
jbj said:
I was just about to get a Mac before a couple of DJs I know had theirs shit the bed at gigs within a week of each other thus the only reason I was going to go for one - i.e. they're meant to be indestructable to DJ on - went right out the window :embarrassed:
Click to expand...
Nothing is infallible. I have a mix of machines right now....two iMacs, an iMac mini and two PC laptops. They all work just fine. Do DJ's keep a backup machine ready on gigs?
 
jbj said:
I was just about to get a Mac before a couple of DJs I know had theirs shit the bed at gigs within a week of each other thus the only reason I was going to go for one - i.e. they're meant to be indestructable to DJ on - went right out the window :embarrassed:
Click to expand...

I saw Transatlantic play in Holland a few months ago. Neal Morse's Mac crashed mid gig (think he kept his sounds/patches there) - so yes, they can fail.
 
Mark Wein said:
Nothing is infallible. I have a mix of machines right now....two iMacs, an iMac mini and two PC laptops. They all work just fine. Do DJ's keep a backup machine ready on gigs?
Click to expand...

Depends on how serious and professional they take it.

90+% of my work is weddings so I've not only got a 2nd laptop set up and running on another mixer channel, for all the formal songs I have both machines playing simultaneously so if anything happens to the main one, a quick cross fade to the other means there's next to no impact on the song.

I know plenty of guys who don't use back ups but doing weddings is stressful enough without worrying if your mchine is going to die on you and ruin the night.
 
jbj said:
Depends on how serious and professional they take it.

90+% of my work is weddings so I've not only got a 2nd laptop set up and running on another mixer channel, for all the formal songs I have both machines playing simultaneously so if anything happens to the main one, a quick cross fade to the other means there's next to no impact on the song.

I know plenty of guys who don't use back ups but doing weddings is stressful enough without worrying if your mchine is going to die on you and ruin the night.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't work without that sort of redundancy if I was that reliant on the technology to make it through the night.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top