Pure magic: rebooting

Tags: Windows, computers.
By lucb1e on 2012-01-03 13:03:15 +0100

So you got a really weird problem, every diagnostic you run is positive but the function just won't work. You tried about everything there is to try, but the mad girlfriend bug persists.

I had this today with the sound on my mother's laptop. The sound device was enabled, working fine it said, the Windows Audio service was started, the volume was at 80% and not muted, and it even showed the volume on the volume bar when it was supposed to play. You just didn't hear anything. Headphones didn't work either.

The solution was simple, about the second or third line in every tech support script: reboot the computer.

After performing a reboot, Windows even greeted me with the startup sound. The problem had completely disappeared.

Conclusion: Rebooting is pure magic. If you have an odd (Windows?) problem you can't fix within 5 minutes, try this first.