Had a new Hard drive installed in my laptop, since then the volume does not work. I hear beeps when battery is low, or notifications, but thats all. I cant watch the news or a video? whats the solution?

take the new battery out
see if it will kick start just on mains power

if you hear a beep as it powers up mother board is ok
if the mother board is dead and no beeps it wont start up

try this each time from power up
if you hear a beep hold down
one of these F5 of F1 or F 12 wait to
see if a menu from the mother board itself is visabe
then follow the prompts

if nothing also suspect hard drive or chip failure

When you plug in the power cord is there any lightswhatsoever on the laptop, where the plug goes in or on the AC Adapter of thepower cord?

When you press the power button do you hear fans running, hard drive spinning,lights on the computer, hear any beeps or lights constantly blinking, hear theDvD/CD drive click and the light on the drawer of the DvD/CD turn on for asecond or two? If so the laptop is trying to boot or may have booted, butthe screen is not showing for some reason.

Beep tones and blinking lights tells the technicians what is going on with thelaptop and why it is not booting. Most times it's a motherboard issuewhen you hear beeps or blinking lights continuous.

Maybe your power cord is bad if you don't get anything to happen whatsoeverwhen you press the power button. And if that's true maybe you wasoperating off the battery the last time you had it on and since the power cordis bad, it was not charging the battery so the battery is drained and the powercord is bad.

Maybe you have a Static Charge Buildup. Remove the Power Cord, Remove theBattery, then Press and Hold the power button for 30seconds. After 30 seconds plug the power cord back in (leave the batteryout) and hit the power button to see if it boots. If it does, you can putthe battery back in and let it charge.Maybe your DC Power Jack which is where the power cord plugsinto the computer is bad. Take an ink pen and push the tip inside thejack and see if the little pin wiggles, if so the jack is bad. You'll have totake the laptop apart to fix it. Most times it is soldered onto themotherboard, so you will have to desolder the old and solder a new one.

You're in trouble. The drive has failed, time for a new one.

Sounds like this is most likely a hard drive issue... You may have scratched your disks with the bump. When you boot up your computer, you should hear a beep - this is your POST (bios startup). If you hear this beep, but the computer does not boot any further, it is almost certainly a Hard drive issue. Some computers don't always play an audible 'beep' but if your computer shows the initial boot screen then goes black, or freezes up during the OS load, you can expect that you will need a new drive. If this is the case and you have experience in a fresh installation of an Operating System as well as experience in installing a hard disk drive into a laptop, then you can buy a new hard drive and DIY. If you do not have experience in these areas, I strongly suggest taking your computer to an expert to have it fixed.


If you don't hear the beep or the initial boot screen never displays, you may have a major issue with the motherboard itself. Either you have dislodged a necessary connection between components or you have broken a circuit. In this case, unless you are a seasoned hardware professional, I suggest bringing your computer to an expert to have it looked at.

Method 1: Add the Volume iconTo add the Volume icon to the notification area of your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Copy and paste or type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK: mmsys.cpl
3. Click to select the Place volume icon in the taskbar check box.
4. Click OK.

If the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area of your computer, you are finished. If you cannot add the Volume icon or if you receive an error message when you try to add it, the Sndvol32.exe file might be damaged or missing. Go to method 2. Back to the top Method 2: Save a new copy of the Sndvol32.exe file on your hard diskIf the Sndvol32.exe file is damaged or missing, you must extract a new copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer's hard disk. PrerequisitesThis method requires you to have your Windows XP installation CD.

Note If you do not have access to the Windows XP CD that contains the installation files, ask the network administrator for help if the computer is at your workplace, or contact Support. To contact Microsoft Support, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/ (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/) To extract a copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer's hard disk, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD drive or DVD drive. Press and hold the SHIFT key as you insert the CD to prevent it from starting automatically.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Copy and paste or type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK: cmdThe command prompt opens.
4. Type the drive letter of the CD drive or DVD drive, type a colon, and then press ENTER. For example, if your computer's CD drive is drive E, type the following, and then press ENTER: e:
5. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER: cd i386
6. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER: expand sndvol32.ex_ system_root\system32\sndvol32.exeNote system_root is the path and folder name where the Windows system files are located on your computer. This is usually C:\Windows. If the folder that contains the Windows system files on your computer is C:\Windows, type the following, and then press ENTER: expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exeNote There is a space between "ex_" and "c:\windows" in this command.
7. Type exit to exit the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
8. Verify that you can start Volume Control and that the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area (if you selected this option in method 1).

If the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area, you are finished. If the Volume icon is not displayed in the notification area, go to the "Next steps" section.

Resource
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319095

do you know anthing about Dell Inspiron 1520 battery ?

You experience one of the following symptoms on a Windows XP-based computer:

* The Volume icon is not displayed in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar.
* When you try to add the volume control icon to the notification area, you receive the following error message: "Windows cannot display the volume control on the taskbar because the Volume Control program has not been installed. To install it use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. "

Therefore, you cannot start the Volume Control program and cannot adjust the volume and sound level settings of your computer.

There are two possible causes of this problem:

* The Volume icon has not been added to the notification area of your computer. (The Volume icon is not displayed automatically when you first install Windows XP.)
* The Sndvol32.exe file is damaged or missing.

Solution:

Method 1: Add the Volume icon

To add the Volume icon to the notification area of your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Copy and paste or type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK:
mmsys.cpl
3. Click to select the Place volume icon in the taskbar check box.
4. Click OK.

If the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area of your computer, you are finished. If you cannot add the Volume icon or if you receive an error message when you try to add it, the Sndvol32.exe file might be damaged or missing. Go to method 2.

Method 2: Save a new copy of the Sndvol32.exe file on your hard disk

If the Sndvol32.exe file is damaged or missing, you must extract a new copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer's hard disk.

Prerequisites
This method requires you to have your Windows XP installation CD.

To extract a copy of the Sndvol32.exe file from the Windows XP CD and save it on your computer’s hard disk, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD drive or DVD drive. Press and hold the SHIFT key as you insert the CD to prevent it from starting automatically.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. Copy and paste or type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK:
cmd
The command prompt opens.
4. Type the drive letter of the CD drive or DVD drive, type a colon, and then press ENTER. For example, if your computer’s CD drive is drive E, type the following, and then press ENTER:
e:
5. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER:
cd i386
6. Copy and paste or type the following, and then press ENTER:
expand sndvol32.ex_ system_root\system32\sndvol32.exe

Note: system_root is the path and folder name where the Windows system files are located on your computer. This is usually C:\Windows. If the folder that contains the Windows system files on your computer is C:\Windows, type the following, and then press ENTER:
expand sndvol32.ex_ c:\windows\system32\sndvol32.exe
Note There is a space between "ex_" and "c:\windows" in this command.

7. Type exit to exit the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
8. Verify that you can start Volume Control and that the Volume icon is displayed in the notification area (if you selected this option in method 1).

Hopefully the Volume icon is now displayed in the notification area.

it may be drive issue,:

- replace the hd and cmos battery,
- change boot device priority in BIOS
to 1st: cd/dvd
2nd: hd
3rd: floppy or network boot or usb-boot

- exit BIOS saving changes: yes
- reboot from windows cd-rom for testing the cd drive
- try booting from new hd (if bios recognizes it,
then install operation system

- if still the same prob, see a technician about this issue

go into your Intel PROSet/Wireless Application Settings (issue a Control + P from within the application) window. The setting that I changed was to uncheck the 'Show Information Notifications' box. This seemed to work for me.

Right click your volume icon in notification area and adjust volume settings in there. Try headphones and see if its still the same, in case its your actual speakers going bad.

Char S.