Problem:

The computer has no sound; there is a SoundMax icon marked with a red pattern crossing it at the bottom right. If you hover your mouse over this icon, it will show SoundMax audio cannot be found and you cannot use SoundMax Control Panel, in Start/All Programs/SoundMax/Control Panel you get nothing.

Here, the SoundMax we mention is the control panel items of Analog Devices Co. Ltd. series audio cards.

If SoundMax is shutting down and you cannot apply the SoundMax Control Panel, you can follow the instructions below:

Step 1 If you use a separate audio card, please check whether the sound card is well connected with the main board.

Step 2 If you are using a built-in adapter, please check if you have disabled your built-in card in BIOS.

Solution: Enter BIOS when you start the computer, expand “Integrated Peripherals”, find your audio card option (eg audio ac97) in the popup box, set it to “Auto” or “Enable”, find out On Board Control AC97, set it to “Enabled”, do this operation and exit, enter the system, and then set the audio driver.

Step 3 There is no audio driver or the driver is set incorrectly.

Solution: Open Device Manager, double-click Sound, video, and game controllers and look for an exclamation point (!) or question mark (?) next to it. If so, it indicates that either no audio driver for the sound card was installed or the driver was not configured correctly. Then reinstall the correct audio driver.

Step 4 Your audio card is disabled in Device Manager.

Solution: Open Device Manager, expand the Sound, video and game controllers branch and check your audio device. If it’s disabled, there will be a small “X” next to it.

Then right-click on the device marked with a red “X” and click Properties.

Under Device usage, select Use this device (enable) and click OK.

Finally restart your computer.

Here are some troubleshooting tips that you can follow to resolve SoundMax audio not available issue.