PC Troubleshooting Questions and Answers - No Sound Card Was Found Error

Renee writes in with a troubleshooting question

Question: I’m trying to listen to the radio online. I ran "dxdiag". The sound tab said "No sound card was found. If one is expected, you should install a sound driver provided by the hardware manufacturer." How do I know if it's the card or the driver? If it's the card, how hard is it to install one into Intel Celeron drive? If it's the driver, where do I get one? Thank you, Renee.

Answer: I would begin by going into Device Manager and looking under Sound, Video and Game Controllers and see if your sound card is listed there. It may have a yellow question mark or exclamation point indicating a problem. You can also check to see if you have an Other Devices section with it listed there. Either way you should be able to find out the make and model if its shown and find a driver online for it. Or you can right click it and choose Update Driver and see if Windows can find one for you.

If its not listed at all then you may have a hardware problem. You can buy a basic PCI sound card and should be able to install it in your computer and install the driver that will come on a disk with the card. There is a good chance your current sound card is built into the motherboard so you won’t be able to remove it but that shouldn't be a problem.

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