Wasn't sure which forum to post this in, but basically the audio on my computer is majorly bugged.

When I start up my computer, I will (on most occasions) hear the windows log in NOISE. But after that, none of my applications will output audio unless I open them straight away.

In the audio part of Control Panel, it tells me "No audio device" but this is not the case, I have my speakers properly connected and the latest drivers installed. The only way I can resolve the problem, is to restart my computer, then whatever program I need to use to have sound I have to open first. It will give me sound from that program, but nothing else - and it will still tell me no audio device detected, DESPITE the FACT that it is playing (some) audio.

I'm using Windows XP, Packard Bell speakers (and headphones have the same problem too), and onboard audio as far as i'm aware.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!You may need to reinstall your motherboard chipset driver.
Reinstall sound driver afterwards.I have reinstalled all the drivers that came with my motherboard now, and still got the same problem. Any other ideas?Did you uninstall/reinstall sound drivers afterwards?I did that, it seemed to work but after a couple of minutes it was telling me no audio device detected again, and no sound was being produced Is it on-board sound? It may be going south.Yes I think so, I don't have an additional sound card if thats what you mean. The audio driver is Realtek HD Audio.

Its a fairly NEW Motherboard though.The only way to find out for sure, is to borrow a real sound card from a friend...Put in a new sound card the other day, and the problem has gotten better, in that it will give me sound most of the time, but still on occasions it will tell me No Audio Device detected, and I get nothing...Did you try another slot?One thing is...you arent killing a SVCHOST.EXE process in task manager? these processes are all related to different things in windows...one is apprearances, one is sound, and one is networking...and a fewmore...(hey this is off the top of my head )...any ways, as a temporary fix, try this.

Click Start > Run.

in the box type "SERVICES.msc" (without the quote marks)

when the big list of services appears, scroll through the list to find "Windows Audio" (It's in alphabetical order )

highlight it and on the side, note if it says service is stopped, running or started...if stopped, click start this service. if running, click restart this service and if that doesnt work, stop the service, then start it...and try to play audio after that just note this gets annoying so we still need to find a permanent fix

Kurtis