Howdy, when I initially turn on my computer I dont get any sound out of my sound card. Dvd's wont play and cd's either. But if I restart windows, boom, everything starts working. What am I missing or how can I find what program is using my sound card during initial bootup.

Is this a new problem. Did it used to work OK? If so any new hardware or software?

As a diagnostic step you can go to: start > Run... > msconfig > Startup

You can turn off everything here and see if a reboot makes a difference.

You can go back and reselect the items and or do "trial and error" if removing them all resolves the problem to determine the specific program.


You could also try and diagnose the issue when the sound is not working via the Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices.

Verify, for example, that the sound is not being muted etc.

Hey jephree, nice to hear from you. No its not a new problem. No the volume slider isn't muted. Yes it has a brand new dvd/rw installed that is compatible and works when I reboot. I'll try you're msconfig suggestion and get back with you later about it. If something was muted in contol panel via sound and audio devices, wouldn't rebooting from start menu in windows not fix this when it actually does? Like I stated, it works fine after computer warms up and I do a resart off the start button in windows. Wierd, huh. I also forgot to state the error message when it doesn't work is that sound card isn't working or,,,,,,,,verify another program isn't utilizing the sound card.

Unless you knowingly installed an independent "Sound Card" this audio device is most likely a chip on your motherboard.

If you do have an independent "Sound Card" the on-board audio should be disabled.

The "Double Boot" would indicate a possible BIOS conflict with Windows.

Another possibility would be a "Voice Modem" or etc.


Are you saying that the computer was always like this?

Yep, the computer was always like this. It does have an independant sound card. You are probably on to something about a conflict because at a cold boot it takes a little longer for windows to boot than it does on a reboot. It does have the sound jacks on the mother board but I'm using the jacks on the card.

Went into bios and disabled audio support and saved changes and restarted windows, sound worked. I'll update you later when I shut down and let it sit overnight and restart to see if I still have the same problem or it fixed it. Thanks again jephree for your suggestions. Happy trails.

Hopefully that will do it.

Let us know if we can help further.

Hello again, booted up computer. Still has same problem. Disabling audio support in bios didn't seem to fix it. Still have to reboot to get sound. Doe de doe, doom de doom doom. I'll leave audio support disabled since the sound card still works after reboot.