Fired up he machine last night and I cannot get a peep out of her (has an on-board sound card / device); unplugged speakers, re-plugged, checked power, reinstalled drivers but nothing.
Looking at the sound management screen in Control Panel, the little green graphics equalizer is moving if I play some music but no noise coming out. Any suggestions?
I always have to set in-game sound on max, else I get clipping.
So try and put in-game slider on max, then reduce as you wish through Windows sound board.
Thing is - I could not even hear any music I was playing on Spotify 
Will fiddle with the setting again when i get home
Not an expert, but the driver could be missing or corrupted.
Right click my computer and “manage” or what it is called. Go to device management. Then Disable and then enable sound card driver.
If no change, perhaps re-install the sound driver. Win 7 should be able to find it for you automatically. But I would not do it yet, just in case the drivers are not found.
Make sure you have the correct output selected so you’re not trying to play through a HDMI or something instead of the speakers.
Thanks guys, followed suggestions and a few other things for a couple of hours last night but no joy.
Might buy a cheap sound card (probably better for sims anyway) and install that.
Have you tried plugging in some headphones? (I’m guessing so) Do you have more than one headphone socket?
On my gaming rig i use only logitech usb headphones.
they have an integrated soundcard.
30€ for good audio and a decent mic and no need for another soundcard…
but i would try to solve the problem… i’m sure ther’s a workaround…
Thanks to all for suggestions; got a friend of ours’ round who does a little II work on the side and the whole motherboard seems to have gone to the dogs with quite a few things failing (including TrackIR).
On the plus side, I am about to order a new MOBO / CPU and will spend c. £500 so suggestions on a postcard 
…
p
i heard in a other thread that when you make babies you can give your self a present like that …p
i heard in a other thread that when you make babies you can give your self a present like that …
I decided it was he most appropriate response 
Also, my old system dated from 2009 and would have had to have been replaced at some point, so why not now? 