Sound card problems are rife with Microsoft Windows, and can be some of the most frustrating to fix, particularly as a sound problem doesn’t always mean that you can’t hear sound altogether. It may be a problem directly related to one particular application, or it may be a distortion that defies logic. Either way, thankfully, there are fixes available that tackle the most commonly reported sound card errors. There is also a troubleshooting strategy that you can use to get to the root of the problem.

First of all, let’s take a look at some of the symptoms you can pin to a faulty sound card:

No sound at all from speakers or headphones.
A sound starts but cuts off unexpectedly, not necessarily in the same place.
A sound that cuts and scratches while breaking up.
The computer slows down dramatically when an app attempts to play sound.
The computer crashes altogether upon a sound being played.
Error messages appear drawing attention to the audio output.

You can use the default Windows troubleshooter, as provided by Microsoft, but this is not always guaranteed to work. It will often tell you the simple basics, such as ensuring your speakers aren’t failing and updating drivers from a third party provider.

Driver faults make up a huge majority of genuine sound card problems. We might have the best sound card in the world installed, with complete audio support. But think again - if the wrong driver is installed, you can forget about getting the most out of your hardware. Always ensure, when you install a sound card, that you check the manufacturer’s website and make any upgrades that are available which were not introduced early enough to be supplied with the software CD.

You should also look out for patches that have been released to cover existing problems. It can’t be stressed highly enough. Most sound card problems can be resolved by simply updating your drivers and ruling out the chances of a failed installation.

Alternatively, you might want to make sure that Windows is configured to actually use the Sound Card that you have installed. There’s an easy way to do this.

Go to Start and then Settings.

Enter your Control Panel.

Go to the Sounds menu.

Click Events and then scroll until you find an event which has a loudspeaker icon pinned next to it.

You will be able to Preview it, and from here click on Play. If your sound card is correctly setup, you will hear the preview sound. If you don’t hear a sound, it would suggest that the sound card hasn’t been set up to run at all.

If tis is the case, follow the steps below.

Go to Start, then Control Panel in your Settings.

Click on System and move to the Device Manager tab.

Make sure that the plus sign is selected next to Sound, Video and Game Controllers.

If the option had been turned off, it’s no wonder that you weren’t receiving any sound. The sound card would not have been prepared to emit any! Save and apply your changes and then reboot the computer. You should notice that the sound kicks in immediately and your sound card begins to output the desired audio.