LOUD Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 I have a serious problem with my sound card at home. Some how the driver got corrupted and i have no sound on my computer. Within Device manager i see the yellow mark beside Multimedia Audio Controller. I have all the motherboard discs and have tried to install the Driver again. But when i do my machine crashes and restarts. This process loops until i go into safemode and disable the driver. My motherboard is MSI 915P Combo2. (Intel 915p Express Chipset based) The driver i am installing is Realtek AC 97. I downloaded the driver even from realtek site. Still no luck. I have tried different types of drivers C-media, etc but no luck. I know a easy solution is to buy a separate sound card but i would like to try and get the onboard sound card working for the time being. Windows XP SP2 is my operating System
Ryan Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Out of interest, did this just happen recently? My home PC recently got a pile of Windows Updates from over the course of a few weeks/months (naughty i know), and it threw my sound card off. Over the last few boots it's needed fresh re-install of the drivers. Very weird. Seemed ok last night, gf was on and playing moozics. SB Live! on XP Pro SP2
LOUD Posted March 20, 2008 Author Posted March 20, 2008 funny you mention Microsoft Update. I was thinking along the same line. I hadn't installed any new software in a while.
Domino Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Have you tried booting into safe mode and reinstalling the driver?
PeterW Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Have you got a spare HDD you can hook up and do a clean Windows install to confirm the hardware is ok?
LOUD Posted March 20, 2008 Author Posted March 20, 2008 i did that too. Took 80gig harddrive home from work. Reinstalled windows and Still no joy. Is there anywhere i can check the driver for the motherboard. Reason why i ask is beacuse there are a number of different types of drivers for audio on the disc. What would cause the machine to crash and loop when installing a driver.
farmerste Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 we have some intel d915 motherboatds here, and they are prone to the sound going off for no reason, the only thing i can thing of is some power saving settings, either software based, or built into the sound chip itself. it seems to be worse when the sound out is going to an amp, or other sound device like a smartboard 2000i flashing the bios seems to work, but i'm sure it is still something to do with built in power saving on the chip
bizzel Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 You could try disabling the "Allow windows to turn off this device to save power" option from device manager if it's enabled.
PeterW Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 There are two versions of that board one has the ADI 1888 codec and the other is Realtek ALC655, are you able to look at the board and confirm it is the Realtek one you have?
LOUD Posted March 20, 2008 Author Posted March 20, 2008 will look at that when i get home. I couldn't see any labels the last time i checked.
LOUD Posted March 20, 2008 Author Posted March 20, 2008 i do think i have tried to install those drivers with no success.
Ryan Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Well i'll be God damned. After mentioning my earlier sound problem, it's just happened here on my work PC! All looks fine in Device Mgr, but trying to play stuff doesn't work. Winamp complains of "Bad DirectSound driver". Bizarre! Oh, and apologies if this constitutes a hijack.
PeterW Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Sounds like windows update, had this with the Realtek HD Audio on a work machine recently. You could try rolling back the driver.
Ryan Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Nothing to roll back to. Ended up just uninstalling the driver from Driver tab in Device Mgr then letting it re-find the driver. Did the trick. Annoying though. Back to Loud's problem
saundersmatt Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 Does anybody else see the irony in the OP's username? Matt
MyDejaVu Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 the problem for windows to restart and looping is because the wrong driver was installed, as you mention, C-Media causes problems when you try to install it where realtek chipset, and it will refuse to uninstall or be removed, so I am betting your MB has the realtek chipset, so I wouold suggest you uninstall your drivers and then go to the Registry to delete manually any entry referred to C-Media and then try again, sometimes when windows try to detect hardware it choses the wrong driver "automatically" so be alert. but also as suggested, you will need to check your motherboard and find what Sound Chip you have (Realtek, ADI) etc Regards
LOUD Posted April 1, 2008 Author Posted April 1, 2008 Found a great link on how to fix the problem. It was the wrong driver. It's not Realteck it is AD1888. Soundmax Install setup (exe) is a piece of crap. It fails and reports that it can't find driver and tell you to restart machine and run setup again However there is another way to install this. Click on Multmedia Controller and update driver. Choose "Don't search i will choose the driver to install" Select Sound controller then select 'Have Disk' Choose location of sound driver Finished. It's the only way this will work. I have had a headache with this for the past 2 weeks. It seems to be a well known problem. Hope this is off use to someone in the future. "Source" audio drivers not found?! - TechSpot Troubleshooting grendyll post is the answer
LOUD Posted April 1, 2008 Author Posted April 1, 2008 i do have restore points but for some reason when i went back to any point there was no change. But its up and running now so i am a happy user again.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now