Hello,

After nearly a year of no problems, the on-board sound for my
motherboard has mysteriously disappeared. I was watching a movie on the
computer and had paused to play an audio file, but no sound came out.
Then I resumed watching the movie, but there was no sound from there,
either. I assumed that perhaps there had been some conflict, so I
rebooted -- no success.

After that, I checked the System information. The sound was supposedly
working perfectly. I removed the AC '97 WDM and installed the audio
driver that I got for my motherboard from the ECS USA site -- but that
one turned out to have a 'Code 10' error and did not work, either.

I did a system restore to the day before and that, too, did nothing.
Finally, I went to VIA's site and downloaded the Vinyl audio codec which
was compatible for this version of the AC '97 codec. Again, nothing --
it believes the sound is working just fine, but nothing's happening.
I've tested with headphones to see if it might be the speaker, but that
doesn't work either.

I finally tried going into the BIOS and disabling the sound, booting and
rebooting, turning the sound back to Auto in the BIOS, and seeing if
that'd work ... but nothing. I'm without sound, and for no obvious
reason.

Anyone have any experience with this kind of problem? I'm not sure what
else to check or try.

--
[Upon a Dzurlord learning of the murder of a critic by a painter]
"And it was well done, too. I'd have done the same, only-"
"Yes?"
"I don't paint." (Steven Brust, _The Phoenix Guards_)

Elio M. García, Jr. ((E-Mail Removed)) -- www.westeros.org

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Elio M.
Garcia Jr. ((E-Mail Removed)) said on Wed, 10 Nov 2004 02:49:17 +0100...
> Hello,
>
> After nearly a year of no problems, the on-board sound for my
> motherboard has mysteriously disappeared. I was watching a movie on the
> computer and had paused to play an audio file, but no sound came out.
> Then I resumed watching the movie, but there was no sound from there,
> either. I assumed that perhaps there had been some conflict, so I
> rebooted -- no success.

>
> Anyone have any experience with this kind of problem? I'm not sure what
> else to check or try.

One small bit of additional information -- I can see that the
microphone still works, as I tested it using Windows's built in WAV
recorder and the spectrum analyzer line moved as I spoke. So it can't be
that the AC '97 has totally conked out on me.

--
[Upon a Dzurlord learning of the murder of a critic by a painter]
"And it was well done, too. I'd have done the same, only-"
"Yes?"
"I don't paint." (Steven Brust, _The Phoenix Guards_)

Elio M. García, Jr. ((E-Mail Removed)) -- www.westeros.org

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:19:48 +0100 It was a dark and stormy night when
Elio M. Garcia Jr. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote :

Buy a cheap PCI sound card.They are way better than any on-board sound
chips.
My 10 penn'th



--
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http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
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"Shep©" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:19:48 +0100 It was a dark and stormy night when
> Elio M. Garcia Jr. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote :
>
> Buy a cheap PCI sound card.They are way better than any on-board sound
> chips.
> My 10 penn'th

A cheap PCI sound card is the same crap that they put on the mainboard,
except that it also takes a PCI slot.

Get a DECENT soundcard (which means NO CREATIVE JUNK!)

Why no Creative?
- Their drivers are garbage, large and don't work well.
- The cards don't conform to PCI specifications.
- Support is awful.