No Sound

[Guest]

I recently reinstalled Win Xp and for some reason I have no sound. I have a
SB Live! sound card installed. When I look in control panel under Sounds and
Audio Devices it doesn't show no devices in the volume tab, but lists several
under the hardware tab. In Device Mgr. it lists my SB Live! under the Sound,
video, and game controllers section, but it lists many other things as well.
Could I have some kind of device driver conflict? If so, how would I know?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and
attention to my question.

 

[RJK]

Switched off the motherboard sound chip in bios, if there's one on your
board ?, ...Windows really gets it's knickers in a twist if it can see two
sound chips !

regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply, Richard. I haven't changed any bios settings...all I
did was reinstall XP, so I'm wondering if it could be something else. My
sound worked fine until I reinstalled my operating system. There are many
things listed in device mgr. under sound, video. Could windows have
inadvertently setup the onboard sound and this is conflicting with my SB
Live! card? I'm just confused as to what to do next to resolve the problem.
Thank you again for your response.

Best Regards,

 

[RJK]

My answer, "Windows really gets it's knickers in a twist if it can see two
sound chips !" really covered it !
You must switch off an on-motherboard sound chip in bios, BEFORE fitting a
PCI soundcard as previously explained, it's as simple as that.

It sounds as though there are various entries under "Sound, Video and Game
Contollers" in Device Manager, for the onboard sound chip, ...as you say.
....and there could be applications installed e.g. a "hi-fi rack" that would
make use of the onboard sound chip, this could be uninstalled, or ignored.

You could tidy up "Sound, Video and Game Contollers" in Device Manager, and
uninstall those entries that belong to the onboard sound chip, if they're
still there after switching it off in bios and rebooting, ...take care to
not, for example remove a "Unimodem half-duplex Audio device" that would
belong to a pci-data/fax/voice modem, if you use or have one installed.

Switch off the onboard sound chip in bios, save changes in bios and boot up,
and run your SB drivers & apps. cd. and all should be hunky dory

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

....after rereading this thread, I should add, XP is VERY good at stuffing in
quite reliable drivers for the humungus range of hardware found on
motherboards ...so you're probably right, XP could see your onboard
sound chip and installed drivers for it.

regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for you help, Richard. I took your advice and checked my bios
to see if my onboard audio was enabled...and as far as I can tell it's been
disabled. Here is a list of what is showing in device mgr. for Sound, Video
and game controllers:

*Audio Codecs
*Creative Game Port
*Creative SBLive! Series
*Legacy Audio Drivers
*Legacy Video Capture Devices
*Media Control Devices
*Standard Game Port
*Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
*Video codecs

Does any of the above look like a possible conflict? Thanks again for the
help.

Best Regards,

 

[RJK]

Hello again,

....having reviewed this thread, and noticing that you indeed have checked
your bios in which your onboard sound chip is "disabled" ! ...and that your
sound was working before reinstalling XP ...I NEVER seem to read an OP
carefully enough !

....barring something simple, like a faulty soundcard, (which happens now and
again), and things such as speakers audio signal lead plugged into wrong
jack at back of pci card, ( I've even speakers audio signal lead plugged
into the ATX 3.5mm sound jack - the socket you DO use if onboard audio chip
is switched on, and do NOT use whilst SB pci soundcard is installed - audio
jack plug of course goes into jack socket on rear of pci soundcard ! ),
....speakers not switched/or no power to speakers,
....we'll have to move on !
....earlier you mentioned "lots of other items" in Device Manager under the
"Sound, Video & game controllers," well there should be.

One thing to try of course is to see if you can get any sound out of the
onboard audio chip,
uninstall SB drivers, and maybe apps. and unplug/remove pci SB card from
motherboard, and reboot, go into bios and switch on onboard sound, and
install the driver for it, if necessary. If you end up with a yellow
question mark in device manager|hardware XP obviously couldn't find a driver
for it, so you can "update" that entry while you're in there and point XP at
the driver e.g. on the motherboard cd, or let XP find it on the web if
connected at this time, ...motherboard often supports several different
brands/models of soundchip, you of course need to know what's on your board,
so that you can point XP at the correct driver.

....can't think of much else to suggest !
....but, don't forget to get the speakers audio signal lead plugged into the
correct socket, I bet that's what you're doing wrong

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

Hello again,

....having reviewed this thread, and noticing that you indeed have checked
your bios in which your onboard sound chip is "disabled" ! ...and that your
sound was working before reinstalling XP ...I NEVER seem to read an OP
carefully enough !

....barring something simple, like a faulty soundcard, (which happens now and
again), and things such as speakers audio signal lead plugged into wrong
jack at back of pci card, ( I've even SEEN speakers audio signal lead
plugged
into the ATX 3.5mm sound jack - the socket you DO use if onboard audio chip
is switched on, and do NOT use whilst SB pci soundcard is installed - audio
jack plug of course goes into jack socket on rear of pci soundcard ! ),
....speakers not switched/or no power to speakers,
....we'll have to move on !
....earlier you mentioned "lots of other items" in Device Manager under the
"Sound, Video & game controllers," well there should be.

One thing to try of course is to see if you can get any sound out of the
onboard audio chip,
uninstall SB drivers, and maybe apps. and unplug/remove pci SB card from
motherboard, and reboot, go into bios and switch on onboard sound, and
install the driver for it, if necessary. If you end up with a yellow
question mark in device manager|hardware XP obviously couldn't find a driver
for it, so you can "update" that entry while you're in there and point XP at
the driver e.g. on the motherboard cd, or let XP find it on the web if
connected at this time, ...motherboard often supports several different
brands/models of soundchip, you of course need to know what's on your board,
so that you can point XP at the correct driver.

....can't think of much else to suggest !
....but, don't forget to get the speakers audio signal lead plugged into the
correct socket, I bet that's what you're doing wrong

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

Hello again,

...having reviewed this thread, and noticing that you indeed have checked
your bios in which your onboard sound chip is "disabled" ! ...and that
your sound was working before reinstalling XP ...I NEVER seem to read an
OP carefully enough !

...barring something simple, like a faulty soundcard, (which happens now
and again), and things such as speakers audio signal lead plugged into
wrong jack at back of pci card, ( I've even speakers audio signal lead
plugged into the ATX 3.5mm sound jack - the socket you DO use if onboard
audio chip is switched on, and do NOT use whilst SB pci soundcard is
installed - audio jack plug of course goes into jack socket on rear of pci
soundcard ! ), ...speakers not switched/or no power to speakers,
...we'll have to move on !
...earlier you mentioned "lots of other items" in Device Manager under the
"Sound, Video & game controllers," well there should be.

One thing to try of course is to see if you can get any sound out of the
onboard audio chip,
uninstall SB drivers, and maybe apps. and (after powering down of course),
unplug/remove pci SB card from motherboard, boot up, go into bios and
switch on onboard sound, and install the driver for it, if necessary. If
you end up with a yellow question mark in device manager|hardware XP
obviously couldn't find a driver for it, so you can "update" that entry
while you're in there and point XP at the driver e.g. on the motherboard
cd, or let XP find it on the web if connected at this time,
...motherboard often supports several different brands/models of
soundchip, you of course need to know what's on your board, so that you
can point XP at the correct driver.

...can't think of much else to suggest !
...but, don't forget to get the speakers audio signal lead plugged into
the correct socket, I bet that's what you're doing wrong

regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for your reply. I never could get the integrated audio to work
hence the installation of the SBLive! card. As I said previously, I had
sound for the past couple of years unto just a few days ago when I decided to
reinstall XP. The speakers have not been unpluged from the SB card so we can
eliminate that and the power is also on to the speakers, so that can also be
eliminated. I find it odd that XP doesn't find the audio card since it's PnP.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Kind regards,

 

[Elmo]

Thanks again for your reply. I never could get the integrated audio to work
hence the installation of the SBLive! card. As I said previously, I had
sound for the past couple of years unto just a few days ago when I decided to
reinstall XP. The speakers have not been unplugged from the SB card so we can
eliminate that and the power is also on to the speakers, so that can also be
eliminated. I find it odd that XP doesn't find the audio card since it's PnP.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Kind regards,

Turn off the computer, unplug the audio card, and restart the computer.
Turn off the computer, insert the audio card, and restart the computer.

Also try plugging the card into a different slot. Try removing the
modem, and other devices, reboot, reinsert the devices. If done in the
"right" order, all devices may work properly.

 

[RJK]

....brilliant ...Elmo, ...that crossed my mind, and then I forgot to write
about it.
i.e. 1st PCI slot, beside AGP slot, on some motherboards is "shared,"
....though there's often not enough room to fit them like that !
....and something reminds me about some motherboards where the last, (or
furthest from AGP slot), PCI slot is shared with something, maybe a AMR
(Audio modem Riser) slot ?? ...so make sure there is at least one empty
PCI slot between AGP slot and SB PCI card, (if it's and older board with an
AGP slot ....we could be talking about newer stuff with pci-e !!!!),

....but thereagain, that chap says SB card was working, and after
reinstalling XP it's not working, ...so if SB card PCI slot position hasn't
changed, ...hardware hasn't been swapped about, and the onboard sound chip
has remained switched off in bios, ...one is heading towards an IRQ
conflict, ...or resource confilict.

....is "Plug and Play Aware OS" or equivalent "label" in bios set to "Yes" ?
....read loads in the past where it was reccommended that it be set to "No"
for XP ....I never did understand why !
I've always had less problems when its' set to "Yes"

....good idea to add in cards, and USB devices one at a time
....anyhoooo, I think I'd unplug everything except graphics card, ((....now
there's a thought ....PCI graphics cards turn up now and again, (sometimes a
nightmare they are)), install XP, install motherboard drivers, then fit SB
card and install drivers and proceed from there.

....regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses. I have only 3 cards installed. an Nvidia 5200mx
128 mg graphics card, SB Live! 5.1 Audio card and a modem (don't use modem as
I have dsl instead of dialup, but it's still installed nevertheless.)

I'm going to follow-up on the bios thing about the pnp for os and see if
it's set to yes or no. I was kind of hoping to avoid removing the cards and
reinstalling them one at a time...but if I have to...I will do it. Any other
suggestions, please let me know. Thank you again

Kind regards,

 

[Guest]

Oops...my video card is an Nvidia fx5200, 128 M, not MX5200, sorry about the
misinformation.

Kind regards,