Just since this afternoon I haven't been able to hear any sound from my speakers. This has happened to me before and was fixed with a quick reboot or a driver update, but this time it's different. I have updated my drivers about 3 times now (most recent, back to factory driver, then to most recent again). Still nothing. I have been restarting Windows Audio in Services, checking for any problems in My Devices, and still nothing. Also I have noticed that when I plug in earphones all you can hear is static, that seems to in time with the CPU and also gets very hot.
What else can I do? System restore is a no no since I've updated my drivers and hence deleted the previous restore points. Any kind of system checker I've downloaded seems to report everything is working fine. Which is making me think it might be the actual hardware that is broken.
Any advice or experience to part on the subject?
Do you have another machine that you can plug the sound card into and see if it does the same thing?
I get the static thing all the time when I plug in my earphones, and my soundcard's working fine.
Did you install anything new before the speakers stopped working?
Run a linux LiveCD and see if the soundcard works in there.. It wont help you with the windows problem but it will tell you if the hardware is busted or not.
Can't you open up the computer and look if anything on the sound card seems melted or burnt? The thing you say about the earphones (or did you mean the plug) getting hot suggests that there's a short circuit or lack of ground connection somewhere.
It's actually a laptop, so I think having a look is a no. All I did since hearing something from my speakers was burning some disks. I don't know if that would do anything. In general my laptop feels rather warmer than usual :-\ I think I'll need to get it checked just in case there is any more damage.
Also the static is all I hear(just in the earphones, and nothing in the speakers) , and it is pretty loud and completely uncontrollable with the volume control.
Well I don't believe the sound card would break on a laptop unless it either 20 years old or You got some crazy over heating problems that damaged the sound card. Most likely is the laptops speakers are broken. I think even earphones have to go through the speakers but just cause I don't believe the card is broke.
Overheating can do some weird things broke my mothers laptop kept freezing and it was cause it overheated so much that it damaged the CPU. So check to make sure your fan is working also dust can be an issue.
Hope this helps you.
Might be worth rolling back your drivers just in case the drivers you had before are different from the generic ones, though it's likely that this is a hardware fault from the sounds of things.
edit: get it? sounds of things
My guess is also overheating. That is the #1 cause of any hardware failure in a laptop.