No, I'm not deaf . . . but audio has suddenly disappeared
 

Good morning!
I seldom use audio when reading newspapers online - in fact, I usually navigate away from talking heads from last night's TV news reading (badly) at me while I'm trying to read more detailed reports.

But now that all sound has gone - as from yesterday - I suddenly miss it.

The reason for its disappearance: I must've unintentionally pressed something.

I Googled my problem and followed the most commonly given instructions: Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager. But I couldn't fix it. Messages popped up after I reached Device Manager saying "This device is working properly".

The audio system is Realtek. The laptop is a Lenovo Flexi 3 which I bought a few weeks ago . . . and it works perfectly.

I surf the net as well as using Word (for work) and Thunderbird's email client (for work and personally).

I don't really need audio but I like to know it's there. I'm good at what I use - but computer illiterate in respect of the rest. I don't understand instructions that are highly technical. Is there a simple tweak - something I can tick or untick - to get things working again?

Can anyone help sort out this time-wasting problem?

Can you change screen brightness by pressing F11 and F12? If so, press F1 or tap on F3 repeatedly.

If you need a key combo like Fn-F11 and Fn-F12 to change brightness, then use Fn-F1 and Fn-F3 to try to get the sound back.

I blame Bill Gates.

Try "alt"+ "4"

I lost access to my Outlook e-mail the other day, Quote: cannot access default files Outlook.psc. and expecting to lose an arm and a leg at the I.T. repair shop nevertheless I took my laptop in, and the man did just that, i.e. restored my Outlook within 45 secs of walking through the door,( and didn't charge me, having emptied my wallet a few weeks ago over something else ) this after a weekend - these things always happen at 16.59 on a Friday - of Googling, downloading rubbish programmes "guaranteed" to enable one to read Outlook.psc files ( or something like that ) Nothing worked, hence my trip to the shop at 09.01 on Monday.

His rationale being that alt+4 re-starts, i.e re-boots ( I think ) which is not the same as shutting down and re-starting, which I'd done many times over the weekend in a vain attempt.

Don't ask me, but give it a try, nothing lost.

Thanks to both of you (since I'm not sure whose advice did the trick). But the trick has been done . . . and I now have sound again. Panic over! The man at the computer repair shop didn't charge me for pointing out that the F1 to F4 buttons have - on my keyboard, at least - pictures of speakers in order to increase, decrease, mute and unmute. So, it had been working all along . . . but I'd inadvertently muted it. Thanks again!

Of course if computer manufacturers would only supply proper instruction manuals with their products, a lot of these problems would be solved fairly simply.....:hmm:

But they don't. I've had my Dell vostro 3300 for years and still don't what functions are activated by the F1 and F2 keys.....

See my previous ..... of course I meant key f4, not just plain 4.