MTA:SA fix
Cannot find audio card installed when GTA SA or MTA starts
When MTA or GTA San Andreas starts, a message says it cannot find an audio card. MTA's team links this message to a missing sound driver or sound device, so check your cables and the Windows sound output first.
Steps
Check the cables
Make sure all cords and cables of your speakers or headphones are plugged in.
Source: Microsoft
Windows 11: choose your output device
Only on Windows 11.
Select Start > Settings > System > Sound. In the Output section, select the speakers or headphones you use. Then start MTA again.
Source: Microsoft
Windows 10: set the default device
Only on Windows 10.
Open Control Panel, select Hardware and Sound, then Sound. On the Playback tab, right-click your speakers or headphones, select Set as Default Device, then select OK. Then start MTA again.
Install your sound driver
In the search box on the taskbar, type device manager and open it. Expand Sound, video and game controllers. Right-click your sound card or audio device and select Update driver. Then select Search automatically for drivers (on Windows 10: Search automatically for updated driver software). If Windows finds no new driver, look for one on the website of the company that made your sound device.
Careful: Do not just copy driver links from another player's forum topic. An MTA Team member said the driver links in his answer were chosen for that one player's PC.
See also: GTA San Andreas no sound or missing radio songs (Steam), No sound, or sound disappears at low FPS
An MTA Team member on the MTA forum (2017): this message, like an X on the volume icon in the taskbar, means that no proper sound driver is installed, or that there is no sound card.
In 2018 an MTA Team member fixed this message on one PC in the Windows sound settings. First he set the output to Realtek Digital Output, and after that MTA started. Then he set the speakers as the default device again. He said this was not a final solution: depending on your setup, it may stop sound from being heard.
That player did not confirm the fix, and another player wrote that it did not work for him.
The message wording here comes from players' posts on the MTA forum. No source showed the game's exact text.
Still not fixed? Copy the whole message, not only the code, and check your log in the Fix tool. It is read on your own computer.
Other problems like this
- Change MTA's language or skin: Please disconnect before changing language
- MTA sound gets quieter after every restart (Radio and SFX volume drop)
- Mouse freezes after joining any MTA server
- Chat box is too big, in the wrong place, or old lines fade away
- Mouse does not move the camera in MTA:SA
- Low FPS or an FPS cap in MTA:SA
All fix guides · Every MTA:SA error code · Crash codes and offsets
Where this comes from
Microsoft Support and MTA Team answers on the MTA forum
- support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-sound-or-audio-problems-in-windows-73025246-b61c-40fb-67
- forum.multitheftauto.com/topic/105653-cannot-find-audio-card-installed/
- forum.multitheftauto.com/topic/92830-gta-sa-can-not-find-audio-card/
- forum.multitheftauto.com/topic/100826-mta-has-no-sound/
Read on 23 October 2026 and written in our own words here.