h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Above and beyond the call of duty this one, I'm sure you have enough bloody IT queries at work all day, but I though I'd ask anyway as I don't really know who else could help;

I installed the software that came with my digital camera (Camedia Master, it's called) and the cd also installed QuickTime Player for some reason. "Fair enough", I thought.
But the next time I booted up, QuickTime seemed to have uninstalled Windows Media Player (which I usually use for sorting all my media) and I couldn't find it! Which I thought was a bit rude.
Anyway, I then uninstalled QuickTime, and downloaded and installed Windows Media Player.

I NOW CAN GET NO SOUND OUT OF MY COMPUTER AND AM CLOSE TO SMASHING IT INTO A MILLION PIECES

I've tried everything I can and can find nothing that solves the problem. What do you think I should do? I need sound to listen to my band's tracks, listen to us on the radio etc I'm going crazy!

Hate to sound awfully simple here but perhaps you have muted your sound through any of the media programs you have used. This happens to me a lot because I often switch between media types and can have several things running at once (I mute the ones im not paying attention to).

So check everything is unmuted, and also check the volume control in the taskbar - other than that I'm too unskilled to help further

Lesson one.
You don't need to install software that comes with digital cameras. You'll find it works miraculously well without bothering.
Lesson 2. Don't let these things install software you don't need or want...ever.

I expect you'vel already learnt those though.

I can't believe software such as media player or quick time is capable of disabling your sound card but just in case, try downloading fresh drivers for your sound card. For this you'll either need to know what it is (manufacturers web site should do) or have the instruction manual that came with it. If it's a named PC make then Dell/Packardbell/Acer etc. website should have driver updates on there somewhere.


Or, what was said above (more likely I expect).

Assuming you are using XP, go to Add/Remove programs, click the "Set Program Access and Defaults" button on the left, and make sure that Media Player has a tick next to it to show the program.