Computer sound

[HEPZIBAH]

So, today's question from the woman who should not be in charge of a computer...

I've been trying to watch some catch up TV online. So far I've tried BBCiplayer and Ch4. I can see the programmes on both my PC (Windows 10 using E) and my laptop(Windows 10 using Chrome)but I can't get any sound. I use the main PC for television watching and the sound is fine.
I've also noticed today that I can't get any sound from video clips played on L4U - but I know that I had sound for these on 1st January.

I've not twiddled with any settings. Any suggestions how I can get the sound back would be gratefully accepted.

[Horus]

Something that springs to mind Hepzi is that if your laptop has Bluetooth and you have had it connected to another bluetooth device, say some speakers, then it may have disabled the sound. If that is the case make sure you disconnect it (your laptop) from that device and the sound should come back on.

Otherwise check out the obvious things first:
If you can see a speaker icon on your taskbar click it and see if you have accidentally lowered the volume to off.
As above but in the programme you are using to open up a video such as YouTube.
Do you have any headphones currently plugged in as these will cancell your speaker outputs.

As a test can you hear sound if you do plug headphones into the speaker output jacks, front and back?
Have you recently done any updates?

You have several things you could try:
Set your PC back to a date prior to when everything was working OK like December 30th ?
Or go into Control Panel > Device Manager > Sound Video & Game Controllers > and under 'General' it will tell you if the device is working properly.
If not, (and if you wish to try), you could try re-installing the driver.

It is often the case that you have clicked on something by mistake to mute the sound so try those options first, obviously I can only offer you some advice on ways that may cure your problem as these things range from simple to complex at times.

[HEPZIBAH]

Thanks Horus, you've given me information that would never have occurred to me.

I'd already checked that my sound bar was on, and full, from both the screen and from keypad.

I have had my laptop and phone connected by bluetooth so will have a look tomorrow and see if there is any thing obvious there that I can recognise. I think I tried to connect phone to my main PC before I went away too.

I don't have earphones for either laptop or main PC.

[Horus]

Hepzi, what often happens is that the last connected device only is recognised by the bluetooth device, so my advice is to go to your phone and on the Bluetooth setting disconnect it from everything, do the same for any other device you may have such as a tablet or laptop. For example if you have a Kindle Fire and you play some music through a Bluetooth speaker or Bluetooth headphones, then you will find that any videos you try to play on the Kindle will have no sound track (without your headphones) even though the video plays OK, but once you disconnect from the Bluetooth speaker the sound will return on your Kindle. The other thing that happens is that most Bluetooth devices will only connect to one other device, so if for example a Kindle was connected to Bluetooth speakers you would find that your phone would not connect until you imobilised the bluetooth connection with the speakers on the Kindle, hope this makes sense.

[HEPZIBAH]

Thanks. I've just checked the bluetooth. It was ON on the laptop but even after having turned it off I still can't get any sound. It's off on my phone. I only use it for transferring photo's from phone to laptop/pc.

So, that's bluetooth ruled out. (I think!)

[Horus]

Then maybe you need to try 'Backup & Restore' to return to an earlier date when your system was working OK.

[HEPZIBAH]

I've finally managed to get the sound back on my laptop. I'm not sure how I did it as it has taken days of searching for appropriate commands/actions. Now all I have to do is try and do it again on the office PC!

[Horus]

Have a look at how the sound options are set up on the one that is working and set the other one the same

[HEPZIBAH]

Have a look at how the sound options are set up on the one that is working and set the other one the same

That's easy for you to say!

I don't even know how I came to find the settings thing that I did to get the sound back on the laptop. Finding out how to do things in the past was hard enough but I'm find things even harder to find since the '10' takeover! (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)