Just installed Avast free 6.0.1203 and now having sound problems.

[B Trevathan]

I just installed Avast free antivirus 6.0.1203 on a Compaq Presario SR1303WM running Windows XP with service pack 2 after installation upon restarting the speaker icon is missing from the system tray and I have no start up or shutdown sounds and no system tray balloon popup sounds and when in My Computer there are no sounds. I can hear files when I play them in players like Windows Media Player, Itunes and Rhapsody. If I go into the control panel I can adjust the volume there and hear it.

I checked it is not muted and I checked that Silent/gaming mode was not selected. After using MSConfig to disable avastUI from start up and restarting the speaker icon was back in the system tray but still no start up sounds so I stop the Avast service and I tried to change its start up type to disabled but I got an access is denied warning. Upon restarting in normal configuration I am right back where I started with no speaker icon in the system tray and no system sounds.

Help Please

[CraigB]

Try another reboot and you should really upgrade your xp to SP3.

[Asyn]

...and you should really upgrade your xp to SP3.

+1 Do this asap..!!

[B Trevathan]

Try another reboot and you should really upgrade your xp to SP3.

Reboots didn't help.

I would like to update but this computer only has 256 MB of RAM and 64 MB of that is being used for video leaving only 192 MB to work with and every update will make this computer slower and slower, it already takes forever to do anything and also this is not my computer I am doing this for somebody.

[B Trevathan]

...and you should really upgrade your xp to SP3.

+1 Do this asap..!!

Believe me I know, I know, I would like to update but this computer only has 256 MB of RAM and 64 MB of that is being used for video leaving only 192 MB to work with and every update will make this computer slower and slower, it already takes forever to do anything and also this is not my computer I am doing this for somebody.


What can I do to fix the problem (without updating or adding more memory)

[CraigB]

What was the previous av and how did you remove it ? what is the systems audio ?  ie( realtek )

[ady4um]

I have recently read (and posted) some other topic about sounds and Avast not working as it is supposed to work, but no actual resolution was found.

[OT] and JFYI, installing SP3 "shouldn't" request more resources than SP2, and there are reported cases here in the forum where Avast should be removed (using the Clean Uninstall utility from Avast) before updating to SP3 (related to changes in Windows Validation/Registration after the SP3 update). In any case, I have no idea if updating to SP3 is going to resolve your problem.
[/OT]

Being at least the second case, I think that someone from Avast Team should come to this topic to provide some specific technical guidance (so to solve the problem for "all" users/cases).

EDIT_UPDATE: I think the other topic was: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=81521.0

[B Trevathan]

What was the previous av and how did you remove it ? what is the systems audio ?  ie( realtek )

norton 2006 and it was not working right and warning that it needed actvion, I think in add/remove programs it said last used in November 2006. I uninstalled it and all norton/symantec programs and rebooted each time and then used norton's removal tool for extra good measure and I restarted a few times after that before installing Avast. The sound worked fine until after installing Avast and restarting then thats when the problem started. I think the audio is realtek not sure though but seems like I remember it saying realtek97 or something like that??

[CraigB]

ady4um the avast sounds issue in that topic is completly unrelated to this issue regarding system sounds.

[CraigB]

What was the previous av and how did you remove it ? what is the systems audio ?  ie( realtek )

norton 2006 and it was not working right and warning that it needed actvion, I think in add/remove programs it said last used in November 2006. I uninstalled it and all norton/symantec programs and rebooted each time and then used norton's removal tool for extra good measure and I restarted a few times after that before installing Avast. The sound worked fine until after installing Avast and restarting then thats when the problem started. I think the audio is realtek not sure though but seems like I remember it saying realtek97 or something like that??

Please check the audio in device manager, does it have a check mark over it ? if so try repairing avast first then reboot but i dont think that will help but worth a try, if still no change uninstall avast, does it work now ? if yes then you may have to go to device manager and see if you can update the drivers for the audio before reinstalling avast.
Actually you can try updating the drivers first if you like.

[DavidR]

@ B Trevathan
No wish to state the blindingly obvious, but did you check if it is hidden using the left < icon in the tray ?

You could also try place the Volume icon in the task bar notification area again, see image2.

[B Trevathan]

I have recently read (and posted) some other topic about sounds and Avast not working as it is supposed to work, but no actual resolution was found.

[OT] and JFYI, installing SP3 "shouldn't" request more resources than SP2, and there are reported cases here in the forum where Avast should be removed (using the Clean Uninstall utility from Avast) before updating to SP3 (related to changes in Windows Validation/Registration after the SP3 update). In any case, I have no idea if updating to SP3 is going to resolve your problem.
[/OT]

Being at least the second case, I think that someone from Avast Team should come to this topic to provide some specific technical guidance (so to solve the problem for "all" users/cases).

EDIT_UPDATE: I think the other topic was: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=81521.0

Believe me I've been doing this for a while and anytime you do an update it will slow down your computer a little bit and if you do several updates at once like with a service pack you will really notice the slow down, don't take my word for it try doing a N&P, format and install Windows XP on a machine with only 256 MB of RAM and notice how fast everything pops up then start installing each service pack and see if it doesn't slows down.

In that topic I think hes talking only about sounds related to Avast where as I am talking about problems with system sounds.
I did a search before starting this topic and found a few post similar to my problem but they were old post and running windows 98

[B Trevathan]

Please check the audio in device manager, does it have a check mark over it ?

In device manager I didn't see any check marks or exclamation points on anything when this problem started but I'll check again.

[B Trevathan]

@ B Trevathan
No wish to state the blindingly obvious, but did you check if it is hidden using the left < icon in the tray ?

You could also try place the Volume icon in the task bar notification area again, see image2.

Thats a good point though, one of the first things I do is unlock the task bar and unhide hidden icons in the tray.

[Asyn]

Believe me I've been doing this for a while and anytime you do an update it will slow down your computer a little bit and if you do several updates at once like with a service pack you will really notice the slow down, don't take my word for it try doing a N&P, format and install Windows XP on a machine with only 256 MB of RAM and notice how fast everything pops up then start installing each service pack and see if it doesn't slows down.

Well, SP3 is actually faster than SP2.