Help help: Computer questions - Ask an IT professional in this thread. - Help.com

NoGifts wrote:
What kind of a business are you running that you don’t charge anything for? This is not a good business plan.

I think I was a bit un-clear.
I make enough money through the software security company for which I do level 3 support. The “business” (on the side) is really just a way for me to give back to people and help them with their technical issues. I do free support 24/7, and i never ask for so much as a first name. I don’t charge anything so i don’t care who asks for help, I just provide it.
I just love doing tech support. :-)

X_glitter
whoa there! Don’t you dare let him pay for NIS09 again! Once you have a valid subscription it is always tied with your Norton account. In order to re-download it at any time you can use www.norton.com/nis09 (and if you need the product key, try mynortonaccount.com) - if you still can’t get it working, norton has free support 24/7 at 1-800-745-6061.

The problem is that your BIOS has fudged the firmware for your onboard sound card.
I assume your sound card came with your computer and is integrated into your motherboard, right?
Without more information i can’t give a perfect answer, but i can give some options -
1 is to buy a cheap-o PCI sound card and that should fix your problem.
2 is to roll back your BIOS (good luck getting HP to help you with that one)
3 is a longshot, but have a look in device manager: (hold windows key+pause and select “device manager”) then see if you can find your sound card.
If you CAN, try updating the drivers for it. Use the automatic update service, and if nothing shows up, do a manual google search for the model number.
If you don’t see it in the device manager then your best bet is a new sound card, or option 4.
4 is the last option simply because of its’ involvement. You want to re-install your current BIOS. Use the same method as currently and when/if you hit a snag, let me know so I can help you through it. My tech support site is www.timstechtips.com - I can’t guarantee I can fix it, but I can guarantee I (or someone else there) will try.
We don’t charge anything and we won’t ask for so much as your first name. It’s all free. Please try the options listed above before calling. :-)

blue tooth sound basically creates its own sound interface which like emulates a sound card of its’ own. You would need external hardware to make those work.
If those are the only devices you have then your onboard sound card isn’t showing up. You either need to find the old version and “downgrade”, or “re-upgrade” and reinstall the new version, or finally, buy new hardware. A very basic soundcard is very cheap.

BaconByAnyOtherName wrote:
a lot of the time when im playing a game, itll be running just fine, no stutters or glitches or anything…suddenly itll just minimize. whats up with that?

if it helps:

Windows XP laptop
1.83 GHz
2 Gigs of RAM
about 4 or 5 gigs empty on i think 30 gigs of memory total.

This is a problem that I can only diagnose with direct troubleshooting. Please use www.timstechtips.com and click the button in the top-right.
I can tell you another process is temporarily stealing focus. Could be a background process or it could be a virus
(the only reason to suspect it’s a virus is that it’s obviously poorly written.)

I’ll reply here when I have more information or please feel free to reply if you have something to add. Thanks.