December 25, 2011

Troubleshooting Common Sound Problems

It’s happened to pretty much everyone. It seems like someone always running into issues with their sound functioning. If things were as simple as playing movies in your direct tv, then running into PC sound problems would not be such a big deal. There are a number of things you can check to help you get your sound back working again. One of the first is to simply make sure your speakers are turned on, that is if they use power. You should also make sure the speaker volume is up, but not too loud so that if you get it working it blasts in your ear. If you speakers aren’t coming on make sure the power supply is plugged in.

Next you need to check the physical connection to your PC. Make sure the speakers are plugged properly into the personal computers input. Typically, this is 3.5mm green jack, although optical or coax inputs are more commonly being used to connect computers to speakers. Whatever your computer uses make sure that both ends are plugged in properly. In addition ensure that if your speakers have the ability to become unplugged from a subwoofer, ensure they have not come loose. If you have a keyboard with sound controls make sure you do not have the computer muted.

Finally you need to check your computers settings. In Windows you can double click the sounds icon bringing up the controls for the sound settings. Make sure the volume slider is up at least half way, there may be more than one depending on your version of Windows. In Windows 7 the volume sliders are application specific, meaning that each application that uses sound will have its only volume slider. Also ensure that the application you are watching video or listening to has its volume up at least some of the way.

Troubleshooting Computer Problems Online

Screen shot of the Grepcode open source search...
Image via Wikipedia

Troubleshooting Computer Problems Online

When something goes wrong with your computer and you are unsure of what the problem is, the number of options that you have at your disposal is relatively limited. You can call a technical support hotline, you can bring the computer in to a repair shop, or you can try to do the repairs yourself. The cheapest option is generally going to be the best option if you have some basic understanding of how computers work. But how will you be able to diagnose the problem so that you can determine what to do about it?

One of the easiest solutions is to use the internet to determine what might be wrong with your computer. Go to your favorite search engine and perform a search for words relating to your problem. You might search for “computer running slow” or “blue screen of death when I use FireFox” or a variety of other keyword collections depending on whatever is going wrong with your computer. Indicating in the search engine exactly what kind of problem you are having is going to help you find websites where people have had to deal with the same type of problem.

Once you throw your symptoms into a search engine, you should be able to find experiences of other individuals that have dealt with something similar. Read forum threads, blogs and technical support websites for the valuable insight provided by the people who have been in your shoes and you should be able to get some valuable help with solving your computer problem. This is definitely the cheapest way to get computer troubleshooting help, and you may just find the answers that you were looking for without having to deal directly with an expensive expert at technical solutions or a lengthy troubleshooting call with a tech support company.