IDEA: Tool to easily disable/enable hardware device

[TucknDar]

I've been looking for a tool that lets me easily (shortcut, hotkey) disable and enable a hardware device.

Reason: I recently bought a new laptop that has an annoying whining noise coming from the speaker. It's not really noticeable when I listen to music, watch a video, etc. i.e. something with sound, but when I don't want to listen to anything, it's annoying. Disabling the soundcard makes the noise go away. Ideally I should get a new laptop, but I'm not too hopeful that the problem will be fixed with a new laptop (more people with same problem), and I'm hoping for a BIOS and/or driver update that'll fix the problem... 

...anyway, as long as the problem persists it would be great to have a tool that I can use with a hotkey to toggle the soundcard easily. I'm on Win7 x64, btw. I've tried MS' devcon, which is a "command-line utility [that] functions as an alternative to Device Manager" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272), but apparently it doesn't work on Win7 (not disabling/enabling anyway, it reads the list of devices all right).

I'm sure an AHK script could be written for this purpose and I'm hoping for some assistance from one of the fine coders of DC 

[rjbull]

I know this isn't the answer you wanted, but, doesn't your laptop have a key for that already?  Mine has.  The (blue) Fn function overlay key (situated between left Ctrl and left Win keys) operates with keypad right and left arrows to increase and decrease volume, and as a shortcut to silence, Fn-F6 silences the speaker altogether.  The keys have the extra functions shown as blue icons.

[TucknDar]

Yes, I've tried mute, but unfortunately muting the speakers doesn't have any effect on my problem.

[Target]

this doesn't help, but it sounds like (?) a power hum (leaking from the PS?)

if it is then disabling the soundcard probably won't have any effect (the fact that muting has no effect would seem to support this...)

[f0dder]

...anyway, as long as the problem persists it would be great to have a tool that I can use with a hotkey to toggle the soundcard easily. I'm on Win7 x64, btw. I've tried MS' devcon, which is a "command-line utility [that] functions as an alternative to Device Manager" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272), but apparently it doesn't work on Win7 (not disabling/enabling anyway, it reads the list of devices all right).

-TucknDar (March 23, 2010, 02:58 PM)

Are you remembering to run it from an elevated command prompt?

Also, have you tried disabling any sound-related mixing devices you don't use? Probably not related, but on a number of computers, I've had annoying background noise until I disabled stuff like Mic in and midi.

[TucknDar]

this doesn't help, but it sounds like (?) a power hum (leaking from the PS?)

if it is then disabling the soundcard probably won't have any effect (the fact that muting has no effect would seem to support this...)

-Target (March 23, 2010, 07:15 PM)

As I said, disabling the soundcard DOES have an effect, which is why I'd like to find a tool to help me out

Are you remembering to run it from an elevated command prompt?

Also, have you tried disabling any sound-related mixing devices you don't use? Probably not related, but on a number of computers, I've had annoying background noise until I disabled stuff like Mic in and midi.

-f0dder (March 23, 2010, 07:34 PM)

Yes, I ran it with elevated privileges. Devcon is able to find all hardware devices, but it wouldn't let me disable a device.

I'll try to see if disabling some mixing devices, thanks.

Thanks for your replies, all

[Target]

As I said, disabling the soundcard DOES have an effect, which is why I'd like to find a tool to help me out

-TucknDar (March 24, 2010, 01:56 AM)

aah, my bad (DOH!!)

[PhilB66]

You should be able to do that with Device Remover

[MilesAhead]

For the time being, this AutoIt3 script will pop up the Device Manager.

[Select]

Run("RunDll32.exe devmgr.dll,DeviceManager_Execute")