Driver Software Update programmes? Suddenly no sound and no obvious reason.

[jwig]

Does anyone have any good advice about any good (free) programmes that will check and update drivers automatically please? There seem tobe any army of free driver checkers but they inevitably involve registration and fee demands. I'm never sure if what they say you absolutely need urgently to prevent your computer keeling over is really the truth. I amsuddenly unable to hear any sound on my system,despite checking all hardware connections and drivers I know to check. Any suggestions gratefully received many thanks.

[1101]

The best advice is to avoid these type of programs.
I very much doubt they will solve your issue, may even make things worse.
If you must, go to the PC's manufactures support page for updated drivers.

lack of sound could also be faulty speakers/cables/sound card or even a setting in Windows itself.
Look in the control panel/system/hardware/device manager & look for 'yellows' or 'reds'

90% of the PC's out there chug along quite happily without ever having any driver update since the day they were sold.

[wainuitech]

The best advice is to avoid these type of programs.
I very much doubt they will solve your issue, may even make things worse.
If you must, go to the PC's manufactures support page for updated drivers.

lack of sound could also be faulty speakers/cables/sound card or even a setting in Windows itself.
Look in the control panel/system/hardware/device manager & look for 'yellows' or 'reds'

90% of the PC's out there chug along quite happily without ever having any driver update since the day they were sold.

X2 Old story, if it aint broke dont fix it.

If you have installed different drivers then either roll back to the previous ones, or completely remove the ones playing up ( audio in this case) download fresh ones from the manufactures site.

[pctek]

I amsuddenly unable to hear any sound on my system

So, you used one?

Avoid them, it's all a con.

The only place you should get drivers is the hardware manufacturer - sound being the motherboard manufactuers site.

And then only if there is an issue....

[jwig]

You guys are great! thank you so much for your sound advice..thought it was a bit too promising and got bailed out before any commitment...am running Vista..all up-to-date with updates but can't complete download to run of MrFixit , nor can I uninstal Avast (says files are missing??/) which I became suspicious of to-day when I never heard the update guru speak her lines. That is when I discovered the sound problem and checked out the hardware and connections. All good there. Did usual Ccleaner cleanup and a registry clean and now running a Malwarebytes scan to see if there isany rubbish causingthe problem. will follow your suggestions,thank you all, 1101. wainuitech and pctek so very much for replying so soon and for setting me straight. Will let you know my progress. So far I can't do a restore to anywhere...gives me Error Code 0x80040154 so wonder if I should run chkdsk but forgotten how to do it!

[jwig]

Further to my original post, I have got nowhere with all the fixes I have tried but at least was finally able to do a reasonable restore through Safe mode. The system repair utility says it can't repair whatever is wrong. The sound is not back but all speakers and cables are fine..tested seperately with other gear. Should I be looking at a re-instal: the thought isn't appealing with the number of updates, ( at least 3 days worth by the looks )??Device manager says all is working fine; have uninstalled, re-installed, tried to run Microsoft fixit, which wouldn't download no matter what...even tried portable version...no luck1

Any more suggestions gratefully received.

[dugimodo]

Random Idea and probably not the case, but you haven't plugged in any USB headphones or sound devices have you? they tend to take over as default device and it's caught me out before.

Somewhere in control panel under hardware and sound - manage audio devices (vista may name it differently) check that your playback device is set correctly, and if there are level bars play some audio and see if the levels are going up and down. You can also right click on the speakers and click test or configure to see if there are any options there.

My friends PC running XP was losing sound and it turned out to be a dial-up modem getting set as the default audio output after a driver update.

[jwig]

The problem seems to have been corrupted Windows Vista files. Thanks to all for help. I did a temporary instal of Linux Mint and immediately had sound. sfc/scannow found some unrepairable errors so backed up data and did a factory state re-instal. So far so good except for the endless Windows updates.