[SOLVED] No audio output device is installed

Jonboy

Jonboy

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Aug 29, 2013
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Worcestershire, England
Hiya,

I have recently serviced my sons laptop - Toshiba Satellite U300 which was running very slowly, prone to freezing and had no sound output.

I have been able to restore and update Vista 32 bit so that it is performing correctly. I have added a partition and installed Win 7 64 bit with great success. On both operating systems I have a residual problem with the sound. It appears to be a poor connection or cold joint somewhere. After 30 mins or so of running or rebooting several times the sound output will kick in. Initially the loudspeaker icon shows a red cross and the message when hovering is 'no audio output device is installed'.

Win7 attempts to resolve the problem and reports 'the device may not have been detected'. On one occasion possibly with a vista trouble shooter I got a report saying the audio device is connected at the atapi interface?

Can you suggest any DIY remedy?

I have clean reports running SFC scannow on both systems and one problem on Win 7 diagnosed by the surt tool - a missing graphics catalog and will report this in another thread.

Many thanks

Andy
 
Yes the latest Realtek HD Audio Drivers are installed. When the sound kicks in there's no problem. It just doesn't detect the audio device when the machine is cold.
Andy
 
Because notebooks are so proprietary, I generally recommend users stick to the notebook maker's site for drivers, and not the device makers. So did you get the drivers from Toshiba? (See my link in your other driver thread).

While a cold solder joint is possible, they don't normally manifest into problems years down the road, unless the device has been through some sort of physical abuse (Ex: notebook dropped or sat upon). Rather problems generally show up when the device is fairly new. If really a hardware issue, I would suspect a failing component, or bad "mechanical" connection (Ex: plug/jack connector) rather than a solder joint that has decided to go bad. Of course "normally" and "generally" are not absolute and there certainly can be exceptions, but I suspect a driver compatibility issue, or a connection issue.

Any errors noted in Device Manager?

If sounds are really needed you may end up needing to get an external USB sound card.
 
Hi Digerati,

Sorry I've cross threaded a little and answered some of your points in my thread in the Win 7 Forum.

Yes I downloaded all available Toshiba Drivers for Win 7 64 bit from the Toshiba Archive Support site. All 4 of them. The rest came from Microsoft, Intel or Realtek.

The machine had the problem before I restored Vista 32 bit which was running very slow and flaky, often hanging. Now I cannot detect any issues with Vista either on SFC scannow, disc check, Surt tool or device manager - all devices working properly (when present). The audio controller is not shown in Device Manager when booting up cold and the sound icon showing a red cross in the sys tray.

I created a separate partition onto which I have installed Win 7 64 bit. This suffers the same cold starting problem. I don't think these two systems are sharing any drivers, because they are on separate partitions on the hard drive? The Win 7 installation is now running without any reported faults on CheckSUR.

I like the idea that a mechanical connection somewhere is not making good contact. Where to start looking is the issue?

The external sound card you flagged up looks cool. If all else fails......

Many Thanks

Andy
 
Just taken off the two covers on the back. Taken out the hard drive. Cleaned connections and refitted. Then removed a small card about the plan size of a razor blade, which said Intel on it, cleaned the terminals (on the short end) and replaced it (two spring clips hold it in place) pops up for removal like the memory modules.. Also snapped open a 4 pin connector on the main board next to the processor. 2 red and 2 black wires coming from it.
On reassembly Win 7 sound icon showing normal but no sound. Troubleshooter says speakers are disconnected. Couldn't fix it.
Tried boot on vista Sound icon showing ok but no sound. Tried volume slider up and down - nothing - then 20 secs later the sound has kicked in with the windows hard stop sound. Now playing media player no problems. Tried Radio Paradise streaming - playing no problem.
Ok going to restart in win 7........
Would you believe it - windows start up music plays - sound icon normal. Radio Paradise streaming working fine.

So have I made a better connection somewhere?

Can you confirm that the 4 wire connector is the speaker connection? I'd like to know what the other card is? It's next to another card which is screwed in with three wire connections coming of it -I think that is the wireless/bluetooth card. So the one I removed could have been a graphics card or a sound card?

Any answers please? Wonder if it will start tomorrow when cold?

Ciao!
 
...............................Wonder if it will start tomorrow when cold?

Yes! That windows start up sound - music to my ears!

Looks like that's another one solved?

Thanks to one and all.

Andy
 
As an addendum to the above I feel obliged to report that the fault reappeared when the machine was switched on after a few weeks rest. I managed to find a pictorial set of instructions on www.irisvista.com on how to dismantle the Toshiba Satellite U300 and I fitted a replacement Audio Card bought off eBay for £4.00 (secondhand).

Now it works like new.

Andy
 

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