Win XP Pro refuses to recognize any audio devices

[dirkman]

For almost a year, my WinXP-Pro tower has refused to recognize any audio
devices. The board-resident device stopped working spontaneously. Some time
later I installed a cheapo Dynex card just to get things going again. No
joy. I note that both the onboard audio device and the Dynex card report no
problems. I have alternately enabled one or the other with no effect. On
the Sound Control Panel the Volume Audio and Playback menus all state that
there is "No Sound Device", and all configuration buttons on these menus are
disabled. Checking the resources, I noted that there was an IRQ conflict
between the devices and the LAN card, which is in use. Hoping to end-run the
problem (if it is a problem), I purchased a USB mini-sound card and
installed it. No change -- a fully functional device cannot be used because
the system does not recognize it.

To forestall any questions, yes, I have been through the troubleshoot
dialog. Things kind of break down at the step that instructs me to make sure
my device is selected as the default in the Sound-->Volume Control Panel
menu. As stated, this menu lists "No Sound Device Available" even though
there are three functional devices connected to the system. Since I am going
through the motherboard bus, the PCI interface and the USB on this, I cannot
believe this is hardware related. Some config switch somewhere is telling
the system that it has no valid sound devices. Repeated installation and
re-installation of device drivers and install scripts does not trip the
switch into believing that it can talk.

It's not a huge issue, but it's a persistently annoying one. After burning
$80 for hardware I probably didn't need, I'd like to get the stupid thing to
make some noise. This is deep voodoo, and I don't know if anyone can advise,
but I would appreciate any help you can give.

Regards,
dirkman

 

[philo]

For almost a year, my WinXP-Pro tower has refused to recognize any audio
devices. The board-resident device stopped working spontaneously. Some
time
later I installed a cheapo Dynex card just to get things going again. No
joy. I note that both the onboard audio device and the Dynex card report
no
problems. I have alternately enabled one or the other with no effect. On
the Sound Control Panel the Volume Audio and Playback menus all state that
there is "No Sound Device", and all configuration buttons on these menus
are
disabled. Checking the resources, I noted that there was an IRQ conflict
between the devices and the LAN card, which is in use. Hoping to end-run
the
problem (if it is a problem), I purchased a USB mini-sound card and
installed it. No change -- a fully functional device cannot be used
because
the system does not recognize it.

To forestall any questions, yes, I have been through the troubleshoot
dialog. Things kind of break down at the step that instructs me to make
sure
my device is selected as the default in the Sound-->Volume Control Panel
menu. As stated, this menu lists "No Sound Device Available" even though
there are three functional devices connected to the system. Since I am
going
through the motherboard bus, the PCI interface and the USB on this, I
cannot
believe this is hardware related. Some config switch somewhere is telling
the system that it has no valid sound devices. Repeated installation and
re-installation of device drivers and install scripts does not trip the
switch into believing that it can talk.

It's not a huge issue, but it's a persistently annoying one. After burning
$80 for hardware I probably didn't need, I'd like to get the stupid thing
to
make some noise. This is deep voodoo, and I don't know if anyone can
advise,
but I would appreciate any help you can give.

Regards,
dirkman

Have a look in the bios to see how PCI cards are assigned resources...
normally they should be set to "auto"
if they are setup manually...try "auto"

If that does not work...try putting you net card in another PCI slot.


BTW: It would not hurt to consult the manual for your mobo (you can get it
online if you don't have one)

I have seen some very odd-ball systems where one slot may share resources
with video

 

[dirkman]

Sounds like it'd be valid in some cases, but with mine I've got a
board-resident sound card and a board-resident Ethernet card. I can see the
ISA card conflicting with the Ethernet IRQ, but the USB Audio? No way.

Realize too, everybody played well with each other for a couple of years --
no problems or conflicts. At some point sound just lost its brain and now
won't play with anybody.