Audio Stopped Working With New UPS

My APC UPS stopped working. I had a replacement CyberPower unit ready to go and installed it. Now there's no audio. Everything's hooked up right as far as I can tell, and another speaker won't play either, so it's not the speaker. When I pulled the CPU box away from the wall to get to the back, the green speaker wire plug came out of the box because it was too short, but it looks OK, and the connection hole in the computer seems OK. I have the (I guess) standard Realtek audio software. I've played with all the speaker/sound settings. Who knows if I got them back the way they're supposed to be, for example, line vs. Realtek Output Digital (Optical), and others. For example, see attachment.

When I turn on the speaker, it makes a scratchy sound. It did that at first. If I recall, I took that as a good sign and don't think I actually played anything to make sure. When I later tried to actually play something and turned on the speaker, it didn't make that sound. The speaker is getting power and should be getting input, but no sound. I don't know what optical output is, but it's just a standard speaker.

You have "digital" selected instead of "Speakers". But according to your screenshot Speakers are not plugged in. Check where you plugged in the speakers. In most cases the "Green" jack is the speaker jack.

If you are plugged in to the correct jack, check the speaker cable and the end that is connected to the speakers (if its a plug in type).
You can also test the speakers by plugging into the front Headphone jack.

Thanks to both of you.

The speaker wire is plugged in to the green jack (I've tested all the different colored jacks). I just plugged in to the headphone jack in front. I heard the sound I expected from the speaker the first time I turned it on, but still no sound. I turned the speaker off and back on but did not hear the scratchy sound the second time. Plugging in to the headphone jack did 'activate' the Speakers symbol in the graphic I showed. And again, I did test a second speaker before I wrote the first post.

If you plugged two different, known good, speakers into the green rear speaker jack and nothing, try recycling the sound. Go to the Device Manager, locate the Realtek sound listing. RIGHT click on the Realtek and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the Realtek sound. See if this fixes it. If not play some audio and wiggle the speaker plug that's plugged into the rear speaker jack and see if you get any sound. Finally, the speaker jack may have been damaged from the cable becoming unplugged and if that is the case you will have to use the front panel for the speakers.

fireberd, I went to Device Manager and found 4 Realtek entries. None said 'driver', but I wasn't comfortable messing with them. So, I made a system image, then restored my image from last weekend; the sound worked. I went to all the settings having to do with sound and wrote down the relevant settings. Then I restored my bad image and tried to re-create the 'sound' settings. However, everything didn't match up, e.g., the 'speaker' entry was missing from the drop-down box in Settings that contained the other 2 Realtek entries. So, I again restored the image from last weekend and updated stuff like Documents and Pictures from backups and re-downloaded the software for the new UPS. Again, the sound still works.

I, as usual, don't have a clue; I hate computers.

Thanks again to you and Berton.

The disc image saved the day. I don't know how many times people have had problems and a saved disc image would have been the easy fix or only fix.. Backups are not for IF its ever needed but for WHEN its needed.

FWIW my Realtek sound driver, in the "Sound Video and Game Controllers" section is just listed as "Realtek(R)Audio"