Graphics... sound...

[Guest]

I started having trouble with sound being distorted a while ago, but it would
work with headphones. The whole system came slow so a couple of months ago I
added a new hard drive for storage and wiped the old one.

When I came to reinstall windows, I found there was a password on BIOS (no
one remembers setting it but it hasn't always been there) so I had to plug my
hard drive into another computer and install it there, then move it back.
One thing I hadn't bargained on (this could be completely unrelated but I
don't know) is that it would automatically install all the hardware on the
computer.

I noticed a couple of days after the reinstallation (with the hard drive
back in my computer) that the screen flickered off a couple of times, mostly
when I was using programs with a lot of graphics. The sound was still
distorted... about a week later I tried to install some programs but just got
errors with Windows Installer. Now, the screen keeps going blank and
everything "sticks" every few seconds, and the sound skips at the same time.
Sound is now distorted with headphones as well. I have tried the drivers
that would install but they make no difference. I downloaded service pack 2
a few days ago but nothing changed. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm using Sound Blaster Audigy PCI 128 and... don't know about graphics,
there's nothing obviously visible on the card and it's not listed on device
manager (does this mean anything?)

 

[DL]

If you moved a hd on which you had installed win to another PC you would
have to do a repair installation of win.
The installation still 'sees' the hw it was installed on and it is unlikely
to work correctly without a repair install.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
I'm unsure as to whether clearing the cmos would remove the bios password,
if so you would then have to enable bios defaults.
You would likely also have to install the mobo chipset drivers and vid/sound
drivers - dont rely on win to do this automatically.

 

[Guest]

Thanks but I'm 99% sure it wasn't driver-related. Whole thing's dead...

 

[DL]

The crux of the matter is that if you installed an o/s on one sys, then
moved that hd to another sys, it wont work, iether at all or if so with
problems, untill you have done a repair installation and reinstalled chipset
and other drivers for the 'new' sys. - it doesnt matter if both sys had the
same sound cards
And I'm 99% sure you have a driver problem