sound card not recognized

[GeorgeB]

Hi,

I would appreciate some help with this one. Last night I
had nothing better to do and decided to update the driver
for my SondBlaster Live card, in my XP machine. After I
did that, the computer lost the ability to play any sound,
WM does not see a sound device and cannot play anything, I
don't even get system sounds. I did a number of system
restores to two previous days, reinstalled original
driver, installed older drivers - NOTHING. The only thing
HP tech support advised me to to is to completele restore
the computer to its original state, which of course could
be done but I'm trying to avoid. Is there anything else
that I could do, before I do that? Would it help to
physically take out the card and put it back in, to see if
the computer recognizes it??

Many thanks,

GB

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I would appreciate some help with this one. Last night I
had nothing better to do and decided to update the driver
for my SondBlaster Live card, in my XP machine. After I
did that, the computer lost the ability to play any sound,
WM does not see a sound device and cannot play anything, I
don't even get system sounds. I did a number of system
restores to two previous days, reinstalled original
driver, installed older drivers - NOTHING. The only thing
HP tech support advised me to to is to completele restore
the computer to its original state, which of course could
be done but I'm trying to avoid. Is there anything else
that I could do, before I do that? Would it help to
physically take out the card and put it back in, to see if
the computer recognizes it??

That would certainly be a good thing to try. Uninstall the SB Live
drivers (look in Add/Remove Programs). Don't reboot but rather shut
down. Then open the case, ground yourself, and remove the sound card.
Then start your machine and make sure the SB Live doesn't show up in
Device Mgr. It probably won't - I'm just a tad anal about being sure
about these things. Then shut down the machine and put the card back
in, in a different pci slot if possible. Hopefully when you start the
machine, Windows will find the "new" card and you can install the
drivers that came with the machine.

Malke