Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Google Fail

UPDATED - I have since fixed the problem. Ended up restoring my computer to factory settings. It was a pain in the ass but at least it's working now.

All it takes to be somewhat proficient at computer troubleshooting is a basic knowledge of how to use Google. That's it. 99% of computer issues can be solved with the help of Google. (That's my own rough estimation.) I have no patience for people who don't know how to use the search function on their web browser. If you're experiencing a problem, chances are you're not the first person who has come across this particular problem and if at least one of those people wrote about it, Google will find it.

Google has yet to fail me, except now. I've poured over countless discussion threads, forums, articles, and even an instructional manual to no avail. I even asked my dedicated Twitter following to help me with my predicament, and they gave some great, helpful responses (mixed in with some stupid, worthless ones) to which I tried to only find nothing to be effective again. So this is my last resort, last ditch effort in hopes to solving this. I'm sorry it took something like this to take me out of a mini-retirement from blogging, but I have to try, right?

The problem: No sound from any video on any internet site (YouTube, GoogleVid, Cnet, etc.) I have installed latest versions of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Active X, so video quality is fine (I can watch the video) but there is absolutely no sound.

My System - 64-bit Windows 7 Dell desktop.

Anti-Virus Software - Microsoft Security Essentials

Speakers - They do work! I can hear MP3's from iTunes or VLC Media Player, Windows start up sounds, and mouse clicks!

Web Browser - I'm currently on latest version of Firefox and this is my default browser, but have Google Chrome and IE9.

Things I have tried
-Checking volume on speakers, on the embedded video, and within computer setting. (I'm all Turnt Up!)
-Restarted my computer
-Tried in all three web browsers
-Deleted cookies, temp internet folder, history
-Uninstalled and reinstalled all web browsers and tried them separately. (Tried Firefox without Google Chrome installed on my machine, tried Google Chrome without Firefox on my machine.)
-Uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe Flash player.
-Installed prototype Adobe Flash player for 64-bit systems. (Adobe website site said both should work).
-Uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and tried.
-Went in and updated registry files (With help from discussion thread on Google)

Updated - Downloaded latest sound drivers from Dell website. Still didn't work.

None of these worked. Google has failed me. Can anyone help??? Somebody??? Please??

5 comments:

  1. Hi Tyler, I saw your post on fbook and had hoped you'd have some luck there. Anyway, I have two recommendations.

    1.) (You may have already tried this...) In your sound settings on your computer, there might be a tab called 'mixer,' under that setting you should be able to adjust the volume for embedded videos. (If your computer just updated it may have been reset.)

    2.) I would highly recommend that you 'rollback' your sound card driver and if that doesn't work then reinstall the sound card driver. You can get this from the dell 'drivers & downloads' website. I believe that may have just updated their drivers too.

    Those solutions have worked for me in the past.

    Good luck!

    Mitch-

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  2. Also, if this is a recent issue such that the audio was working previously, then I would try and find / load an old system restore point and see if that solves the issue.

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  3. I would sell the laptop on craigslist or ebay and get one that works!

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  4. Have you tried the time machine feature to roll the hard drive back to before the problem started? Sometimes works . . .

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  5. http://www.codecguide.com/fix_for_flash_sound_problems.htm

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