Sound card trouble

[Erdrick Holmes]

I was listening to music and it immidiatly when silent, at first I thought the speakers came unplugged but they were fine, then I switched speakers to find out if they had a short in them or not and no sound still came out the I called my uncle and he said "I should clean the sound card" can anyone tell me how to "clean" a sound card?

[Pancaek]

The only thing I can think of would be to take apart your computer and give it a good vacuuming.

[Citizen Bleys]

Your uncle either doesn't know what he's talking about or he's having fun with you.

For sound to cut out in the middle of a song doesn't make any sense. First thing I'd do is reboot, the problem's probably in software somewhere, and clearing the RAM might fix it. Next thing is to check for device conflicts.

[crono_logical]

What exactly were you doing when it cut out? Installing drivers for something (maybe another piece of hardware) or opening some program game etc. or anything else?

If you switched speakers and it still didn't work, then perhaps try changing the wire connecting the speakers to the computer. If it still doesn't work, then it's either the software as Bleys said, or the hardware. Check the card is firmly plugged into the motherboard and not loose, it might have been dislodged if you pulled the wire connecting it to the speakers too hard (this is assuming it's not an on-board card). If you want to be certain it's not the card, take it out and install it in another PC and see if it works there - which if it does, then it's almost certainly the software or drivers on your computer in which case try a reboot first as Bleys said (tends to fix stuff in Windows :p ) or reinstall the drivers again.

[Citizen Bleys]

Just in Windows? It's simple logic--If something got messed up by a program, that messup is sitting in RAM. Turning the power off erases RAM and hence the messup. It ought to work in any OS.

Mind you, I've never fixed a problem with a reboot in Linux, and I haven't tried any OSes other than Windows, Linux, and MS-DOS, but still...

EDIT: I was going to mention in my first post: Skye-chan has a point; You should vacuum the dust out of your computer frequently...at least once a month. That being said, I usually do it only once per year

[Sita Atis]

So it is safe and good to use a vacuum to clean the dust from.. motherboards etc?

[Samuraid]

It should be ok as long as you are careful not to bump or scrape any of the components inside, and make sure that you don't discharge any static electricity.

[crono_logical]

I vacuum my computer while it's on - it's not like anything is going to get sucked off the board unless you hit it pretty hard or something :p I do be careful, of course, especially near the fans, since I don't want those getting broken :p

[chappu]

Oh, yes, be careful. Each time you open your box, make sure you touch something grounded to get rid of static, you know, one spark and you might as well chuck it away...

[crono_logical]

*implies that he doesn't have to touch ground since he runs the computer with the box open always* ^_^