For all its positives, Windows sometimes acts in unexpected ways like a sudden lack of audio. If your computer abruptly stops playing sound, try these easy steps to fix the issue:
No sound in one app
First, reboot your computer.
Confirm the program’s volume isn’t turned down or muted. In browsers like Chrome and Firefox, each tab can be muted individually—right-click a tab to see its status. (The option will say “Unmute tab” if currently silenced.)
If you still can’t hear anything in this program, try uninstalling and reinstalling it. Before doing so, first back up any data and/or write down how your settings are currently configured, as applicable.
Note: For paid software, your license for the program may be tied to a specific version, in that’s the case, you may need to do a little hunting to find its installation program on the vendor’s website. This same advice applies if you just prefer your version of the app over the current one.
No sound at all
First thing to check: The audio output device. Windows 10 can sometimes change it to a different source unbeknownst to you.
Make sure Windows is using the correct device for speaker output by clicking on the speaker icon in the taskbar. (Sometimes Windows 10 will switch output to a different device, unbeknownst to you.)
At the top of the pop-up window, you’ll see the name of the speaker currently in use—e.g., Speakers (2-Anker Power Conf ).
Click on that name to switch to the proper device, if applicable. If using external speakers, make sure they are powered on.
Reboot your computer.
Verify via the speaker icon in the taskbar that the audio is not muted and is turned up.
Ensure that the computer isn’t muted via hardware, such as a dedicated mute button on you laptop or keyboard. Test by playing a song.
Right-click the volume icon and click Open Volume Mixer. Ensure that all options are on and turned up.
Internal speakers still not working on your laptop? Plug headphones into the audio jack and test again. If the headphones work, remove them to continue troubleshooting the internal speakers.
For desktop systems with speakers plugged into the 3.5mm jack, try a USB speaker or USB headphones. (Or visa versa.) If the alternative device works, remove it to continue troubleshooting the initial set of speakers. (See our roundup of best budget computer speakers if you are in need of a new set.)
Right-click the volume icon again and choose Open Sound settings. In the window that opens, find Related Settings, then click on Sound Control Panel. In the Playback tab, confirm that your audio device (likely ‘Speakers’) has a green checkmark next to it. Then click Properties and make sure that Use this device (enable) is selected.
If your sound still doesn’t work by this point, you may have a missing or corrupt driver for your audio controller.
Uninstall the driver. Open the Device Manager (type device manager in the taskbar search box), go to Sound, video and game controllers, select the audio controller for the device that’s malfunctioning, and press the Delete.
Reboot the system and allow Windows to reinstall the driver, which it should do automatically. If it doesn’t, download the driver from your PC maker’s site or audio card manufacturer’s site, and reinstall it manually.
The idea of a home page has kind of fallen by the wayside with modern browsers, what with their auto-recall tabs and syncing across devices. But it doesn’t help that Chrome, arguably the most popular browser on full desktop operating systems, isn’t entirely clear on exactly what your home page is. This can be especially frustrating if your home page changes without your knowledge.
The Difference Between the Home Page and the New Tab Page
For some reason, Chrome makes a distinction between the New Tab page (the address that opens when launch Chrome, open a new window, or open new tab) and the Home Page (the address that opens when you press the Home button in Chrome or on your keyboard). Both of these have distinct behaviors by default. If you haven’t dug into your Settings menu, the default starting page for a new window or tab probably looks like this:
If you click the Home button next to the address bar or on your computer’s keyboard, you might get another site:
And if you’re wondering why I chose to use Yahoo as my home page in Chrome—I didn’t. Some unscrupulous program I installed changed that setting without my permission. This happens a lot, since search engines like to pay developers to hide that sort of thing in the installation process.
How to Manually Change Home Pages and New Tab Pages
You can manually change both the new tab page and the home page in Chrome’s “Settings” menu. Click the three-dot button in the upper-right corner, and then click the “Settings” option.
Under the “Appearance” section, you can see a couple of options under the “Show home button” header. Turning off the “Show home button” toggle removes the Home button from your address bar (though the Home button on your keyboard will still work).
Under that toggle (while it’s turned on), you can choose whether the Home button opens the New Tab page, or opens a different Home page that you manually type in. I’ve changed the Home page to google.com for this demonstration.
Now scroll down a bit to the “On startup” section. Here you can choose what happens when Chrome starts up. You can have it open your New Tab page, a specific page or set of pages (which is nice if you keep certain tools like Gmail constantly open), or simply open up the same tabs you had active the last time you had Chrome running. For this demonstration, I’m going to set it to open a single tab toknowyourcomputers.com
Now we have a manually-set home page, a new tab page, and a startup page. I’m going to close Chrome and demonstrate how these settings affect its use. Opening up Chrome again, we get the assigned startup page, easy-how-to-guides.com:
If we press the Home button on the address bar, we get the Google.com web page:
And if we press the New Tab button, we get the default New Tab page, with a search bar and my most frequently-visited websites.
Note that if you’d rather not think about any of this, you can manually set all three settings to either an assigned web page or the New Tab page. If you see any of them change (as often happens when downloading free programs), simply go back to the Settings menu and switch them back. Also be aware that some extensions can take charge of your New Tab page. When this is the case, Chrome will list the extension controlling the page in the Settings menu.
Wireless connections are now the order of the day. You expect them to work. They have to work. But what if they suddenly don’t work then its a problem. Don’t worry though sometimes troubleshooting them is easier than you think even if you are not a technical person.
Toggle Dell Latitude WiFi button
First before you embarrass yourself by calling tech support read this quick and easy fix on how I discovered and fixed mine.
Most devices are set to connect automatically to the networks either at home or work. I have the same setup and one day a friend of mine decided to play a trick on me. He intentionally turned off the WiFi connectivity with the external button on the laptop. I had the Dell Co i7 6230 latitude which has a button to switch off WiFi connectivity on the right side of the laptop next to the external graphic card slot.
I was surprised that my laptop wouldn’t connect somehow. Tried troubleshooting wizard, WiFi key combination nothing. Until I remembered the WiFi switch button. Slide it down is all it took and WiFi connectivity issue solved. Yes I was mad but well lesson learned, problem solved. So don’t make the same mistake
Where to find the Dell latitude WiFi button
If you own a Dell Latitude, be it an ultrabook or the e-series chances are that it has WiFi button that you can toggle on and off.
The location varies from model to model, look for a button like the one in the Dell Latitude below
Dell Latitude WIFI button. Toggle the button to turn WiFi on or off.
If the switch is set to off, you don’t see the WiFi icon on the LED indicators as you toggle it you should see the icon with the symbol below glow white. If you look at it it’s so easy to slide it by mistake even unintentional.
WiFi button, It turns white on a dell latitude laptop when its broadcasting and your laptop can connect to the network
Turn on WiFi with Fn Key Combination
Another way to enable your laptop WiFi is to use the keyboard combination. The functions keys perform various option on the laptop, disabling touchpad, connecting to a projecting, enabling and disabling connectivity etc.
To enable WiFi with Keyboard combinations press the function key labelled Fn on the keyboard simultaneously press the key with the network icon that I showed above. On most laptops its Fn + F2
This should enable the network.
Note some laptops don’t support this feature.
Airplane mode disabled WiFi
Disable airplane mode in windows 10 Yes we have included it here. No I don’t think you are stupid. It’s easy to miss the small things when you are on a deadline and angry that your laptop wont connect to the internet.
With that said check to see if your laptop is not on airplane mode.
On windows 10 its easier to disable airplane mode
First, Click Start and click on the Settings icon . (Note you can also search for settings and click on the settings icon).
On the Settings window Select the “Network & Internet” category
On the top left of the page, it should have “WiFi” followed by “Airplane Mode” menu options Select the “Airplane mode” menu.
Now look for the option that says Airplane mode off “Turn this on to stop all wireless communication”. If the switch is enabled it means you wont be able to receive any incoming connections including Bluetooth. Now toggle it to off, now you should have your connections back
Network Adapter malfunction
In some cases it can be a case of a system malfunction and your Dell latitude adapter just needs to be disabled and enabled.
To Disable and enable the dell latitude network adapter
Go to Device Manager.
Open This PC on your computer.
Right click on an empty space and select Properties.
The Device Manager.
Click and Expand on Network Adapter.
Right on your Network adapter e.g Intel.
Select disable, the menu should fold and unfold as it makes changes.
Now select enable, then try to see if you can connect.
Windows Network Troubleshooting Wizard
Windows has a bunch of nifty tools built in to help you troubleshoot. The network troubleshooting will also help you fix your network issues or give you ideas on what the issues might be.
To start the troubleshooting wizard, go to system notification area. Right Click on the Network icon, select Troubleshoot Problems.
Wizard will start, follow instructions from the wizard, and select the scenarios that seem to be likely happening on your computer.
WiFi Drivers
Drivers, Drivers, of course.
They always cause issues. They get corrupt, you install the wrong ones, they improperly configured, all these issues can lead to connectivity issues on your latitude.
I recommend you download drivers from the Dell website, or if you really tech savvy, figure out which WiFi card you have and download it from the manufacturer’s website. Third party sources for drivers should be the last option so as to prevent driver conflict.
The Microsoft Windows operating system allows users to change the display language from one
language to another. Some restrictions may apply, depending on the version of Windows.
Follow the steps below for your version of Windows to change the display language settings.
Windows 10
Press the Windows key, type Regional & language settings, and then press Enter.
In the window that appears, click the icon.
You may type in a language to add or select from the list.
After you select a language, you’ll be asked to pick a region.
You should now see the new language under the Languages section.
Click the new language again and select the button.
In the screen that appears, under Language Options, click the button.
Once the new language is downloaded, return to the previous screen.
Click the new language again and then the Set as default button.
Restart your computer to display the new language.
Windows 8
Open the Control Panel.
Under the Clock, Language, and Region section, click the Add a language link.
Under Change your language preferences, click the Add a language option.
Select the language you want to add and click the Add button.
Note
Some languages have sub-options or different dialects you need to choose. If the Add button changes to “Open,” you need to select a sub-option for that language.
5. The selected language is added to the language list. To make the added language the primary
language, click the language in the list and click Move up until it’s at the top.
The language pack you added may need to be downloaded and installed in Windows 8 before it can be used. Next to the language name, if it says “Windows display language: Available for download,” follow the steps below.
Click the Options link to the right of the language name.
Click the Download and install language pack link under the Windows display language section.
After that process has download and install process is completed, restart the computer for the new display language to take effect.
Windows 7 and Vista
Note
Changing the language in Windows 7 requires you to have the Ultimate edition or Enterprise edition. Home and Professional editions do not have the language option.
In Windows 7, you first need to download and install the language pack you want to use. Then you can select and change the display language.
Download and install the language pack
Open the Start menu and navigate to All Programs > Windows Update.
Click the Optional Updates option.
Check the box for the language pack you want to download and install, then click OK.
Run the Install Updates process to download and install the language pack.
Change display language
Open the Control Panel.
Click the Clock, Language, and Region option.
Click the Change the display language link.
In the Choose a display language drop-down list, select the language you to use as the display language and click OK.
Restart the computer for the new display language to take effect.
It happens many times that a video you are trying to play isn’t playing or showing errors like “Video not playing.” This blog is going to explain how you can overcome such errors. There can be several reasons that your file is not playing, but the ways to fix them is limited. The reasons could be that your file is corrupted, bad sectors on a hard drive, virus attack, some electromagnetic interference, or other software issues.
[gravityform id=”1″] Errors that you may face
Cannot Play the File – “Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.”
Freezing – Video freezes unexpectedly while playing. This happens when there is an interruption while downloading the file.
Codec – Some Codec Issue. It may also happen that the file you are trying to play is not supported by the right codec your phone should have.
Sound Distortion – This one is different, but still an error worth mentioning. It is not only that you will face display problems; you could either face errors related to sound like distorted ones.
Blank/Black Screen – When you are watching a video, and the media player is continuously showing you black or blank screen, or sometimes it is distorted too, it may indicate that your file is corrupted.
How to Fix ‘Video not playing’ Error
Try Using VLC Media Player
The VLC media player is not only a popular media platform, but it may also help to fix some video playback issues. VLC comes with a lot of advanced features and is able to play videos of different formats if your current media player is not supporting any, you can always try VLC to check if it works.
Another case where VLC can help you is to fix ‘Video not playing’ error by converting it to any other format. VLC can convert your video format so that you can play a particular file in the environment where a specific format is supported.
Try changing the Codec
Switching to the right codec can solve your issue, as we know that if the codec is not right then the configuration of your file format won’t match its need and the video won’t play.
Try DivFix++
Try fixing your video with this old but very useful tool which is quite popular among users. To perform this, you will need to install the software and cut bad parts from the video by selecting the option “Cut Out Bad Parts.” Likewise, follow the whole procedure followed by Strip Index and Fix. Try this method and see if it works for your AVI file, if it does not work then you surely need to move to the next method.
The automated method used by Experts
If you have already tried all of the above methods and nothing worked for you, then you surely need to go for this one. In this method, we will take help from a third-party tool to repair the file. Kernel Video Repair Tool is the perfect answer to your query, and isreviewed by accurate reviews. With the help of Kernel, you can repair any sort of corruption in any file format. Let’s see how it works:
Try Converting video to some other format
Sometimes, the video you are trying to play may not play as the file format they are in is not supported by the media player. So, if you cannot play a particular video file, then you can use a video converter tool to fix the problem with the video file. You can learn how to convert an MKV File to MP4 manually and with an automated tool.
Click on the “+” sign to add a corrupt video you wish to repair.
Select the corrupt video files.
Now click Repair files to recover the data present in the video files.
Browse a destination location.
The videos are successfully recovered. Go and check at their location. Then save the report and click Close.
Conclusion: In this blog, we have discussed several reasons and errors user face when their video is not playing and also discussed the best possible solutions. As per the whole experience, the conclusion of the practice is that the automated method is the best solution to fix ‘Video not playing’. Other methods may or may not work, but the automated method provides the full surety of the repair and recovery of the file without harming its quality.
Please I need help. My laptop doesn’t work because of the constant blinking underscore and my computer doesn’t work because of error 0xc0000098
Some users reported that they had encountered Windows boot error 0xc0000098 after cloning OS or upgrading to Windows 10. This error prevented them from booting up Windows. Of course, there are other situations where the Windows error code 0xc0000098 occurs. Anyway, you need to fix it.
When error 0xc0000098 occurs, you may receive the following error message: “Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. The Windows Boot Configuration Data file does not contain a valid OS entry. File: \Boot\BCD. Error code: 0xc0000098.”
Sometimes, the file will be replaced with a specific system file like ntoskrnl.exe, winload.exe, Ntfs.sys, aswVmm.sys, etc.
You may wonder what is causing 0xc0000098. One of the most common causes is that the BCD has no entries.
Further Reading:
What is BCD file? What role does it play in the computer startup process? To make sense of these problems, you should know the whole computer startup process. Please note that the startup processes in BIOS mode or UEFI mode are slightly different.
In BIOS boot mode, the boot process is as follows:
After the computer is powered on, the BIOS program is first started. BIOS firmware will perform self-test and then read MBR > DPT > PBR to find Bootmgr and to transfer control to it.
Bootmgr reads the \Boot\BCD file that shows the available operating system categories, and then goes to the boot disk to find WINDOWS\system32\winload.exe.
Bootmgr loads operating system kernel file ntoskrnl.exe through winload.exe. Thus, you can enter into Windows.
In UEFI boot mode, the boot process is as follows: UEFI firmware > Bootmgfw.efi > \Boot\BCD > winload.efi > ntoskrnl.exe.
Therefore, if the BCD file has no operating system entry, the boot process will be stopped and 0xc0000098 error occurs.
On the other hand, the no entry problem may be caused by disk write errors, power outages, boot sector viruses, or errors made while configuring the BCD manually.
Another reason for 0xc0000098 error is an installed incompatible hard drive driver. For example, both the Ntfs.sys and the aswVmm.sys mentioned above are such drivers.
The following content will tell you how to solve this error. Please read on to get solutions.
Note: To solve this problem, a Windows bootable disk like Windows installation media is necessary. If you don’t have these tools, you can create them by yourself. Click the above link to get detailed creation steps. Please note that the creation process should be performed on a normal running PC and it may format your USB drive.
Fix 1. Run Startup Repair
Startup repair will fix most common issues that prevent your computer from loading correctly. So, you can try this method first.
Step 1: Boot your computer with a Windows recovery disk.
Plug the Windows recovery disk into your computer.
Restart your computer and follow the wizard that appears on the screen soon after you boot the computer to enter Firmware.
Find the option that controls computer boot sequence and then choose Removable Devices as the first boot device.
Save changes and boot your computer.
Tip:Removable Devices option just allows you to boot your computer from a USB drive. If you use a Windows recovery CD, you should choose CD-ROM Drive. After fixing the problem, you should choose Hard Drive as the first boot device again.
Step 2: Follow the installation wizard until reaching the step shown as follows. Then, click Repair your computer to enter Windows recovery environment.
If there are disk errors on C partition such as problematic file system, bad sectors, etc., 0xc0000098 error may also occur. Therefore, you should run a disk check to fix it. In addition, fixing disk errors first will make you repair BCD file more smoothly later. To run a disk check, please refer to the following steps:
Step 1: Enter Windows recovery environment again to open Command Prompt window.
Step 2: Enter the following command line: chkdsk c: /f. Then, errors will be automatically fixed if they are detected.
Fix 3. Rebuild BCD
If the above methods don’t work, you need to fix the BCD error manually through the following steps:
Step 1: Open Command Prompt window in Windows recovery environment.
Step 2: Enter the following command lines one by one. These commands should fix the BCD error.
Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
Step 3: Open Command Prompt window.
Step 4: Enter the following command line: sfc /scannow.
Fix 4. Run SFC
If you can’t rebuild BCD successfully or the 0xc0000098 error still persists, you can use SFC (System File Checker) to replace the corrupted system files. Please refer to the following steps:
Step 1: Open Command Prompt window.
Step 2: Enter the following command line: sfc /scannow.
Fix 5. Restore or Reset PC
If all of the above methods don’t work, you can consider restoring or resetting PC. System restore can fix certain types of computer crashes or other computer problems and revert your computer’s state to that of a previous point in time.
These are the 10 Ways you can solve your slow internet speed.
What’s more annoying than having a great wifi or Ethernet connection, but slow internet speeds? Nothing. Nothing is more annoying than that. When it happens to you—and it will, especially if you jump onto wifi access points at your favorite local businesses—you’re going to wish you could do anything to speed up your connection.
While we can’t reach out from Lifehacker Headquarters and tell your public wifi point to speed things up, nor can we tell that person next to you at the coffee shop to maybe go easy on the BitTorrent today, we can give you a few suggestions to troubleshoot, fix, or simply survive a slow internet connection.
10. Check your speeds (and your internet plan)
Sometimes, your internet connection is slow because you’re paying for crappy internet. Log onto your provider’s web site (or give them a call) and find out what plan you have. Then head on over to fast.com (or any number of alternative sites) and run a speed test. If what you’ve measured is close to what you’re paying for, then your network is working fine and your internet plan just isn’t very fast—the best way to speed it up will be to upgrade.
If your plan is speedy and your connection is not, it’s time to troubleshoot.
9. Give your hardware the universal fix
Before you go cursing your internet provider, give your modem and router a quick reset (i.e., turn them off and on again) and see if that helps. Check the other computers in your house to see if their internet is slow, too. If the problem only happens on one computer, the problem is that computer, not your router or modem.
8. Know your hardware’s limitations
If you’re paying for a super-fast internet plan—say, a fiber connection that gets you a mighty 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps)—you’re never going to see those speeds if the primary wifi router in your house is some antiquated wireless-n device. Similarly, you might have an awesome wireless-ac router (with a faster-than-1 Gbps top speed), but if you’re connecting to it with an older or cheaper laptop, or even a regular PlayStation 4 gaming console, you’re going to wonder why your transfer speeds are so slow. Same deal.
We’ve talked about these issues extensively, so here’s the super-short version: When possible, get a great router with a lot of potential throughput (two-stream wireless-ac at least), which should generally give your speedier devices the best possible speeds (on a 5GHz wifi network, of course). If a particular device is underperforming by a significant degree, check its network specs. It might be doing the best it can, but it just can’t go any faster. Your network isn’t slow; your device just can’t keep up.
7. Fix your wifi signal
Speaking of wifi, you might find that your router and internet are fine, but your wireless signal is weak. This can cause a slowdown—or, at minimum, a latency-filled browsing experience. In that case, you may need to reposition, tweak, and boost your router with a few tricks.
There are more than we could share in one paltry paragraph—in fact, we have a whole top 10 list just for fixing wifi, so check that out if you suspect your wireless signal is the problem. (And, yes, there are plenty of free apps you can use to check signal problems and see how well your router handles the rest of your concrete house.)
6. Turn off or limit bandwidth-hogging apps
If your hardware seems to be in working order, see if any other programs are hogging the connection. For example, if you’re downloading files with BitTorrent, regular web browsing is going to be slower. You should also try installing extensions like AdBlock Plus and Privacy Badger, which will block some of the bandwidth-hogging ads, animations, and videos that can use up your connection. (You can also try a different browser entirely, like the privacy-minded Brave.)
File-syncing services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive might be moving data in the background, which can eat up your bandwidth and slow down your internet connection. Check these, and other bandwidth-hungry apps (like your favorite digital download services for games) to see if you can limit their download and upload rates, which might free up room for you to browse the web and catch up on your Netflix queue without issue.
Computers often download necessary updates in the background. Depending on your operating system, you configure your PC to schedule updates when you’re not using your computer. Better yet, you might be able to limit the bandwidth it uses, in case its hogging up your connection (for the most noble of intentions).
5. Try a new DNS server
When you type an address into your browser, your computer uses something called DNS to look up and translate that into a computer-friendly IP address. Sometimes, though, the servers your computer uses to look up that information can have issues, or go down entirely. Thankfully, you have plenty of faster, free options to use, like Google DNS or Cloudflare (to name two of our favorites). Or you can use a utility like Namebench to actually test what’s the speediest for your location and go with that.
A better DNS might not speed up average webpage loading time enough for you to notice, but you never know—milliseconds are milliseconds.
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