Sound Problem
 

Hi, Hope someone can help. The sound has gone off on a freinds pc. It has on-board C-media 97. They had an error one day....lots of blue screens etc so they re-installed win98. Couldn't get sound to work....i know a bit more about computers than they do (still not that much though!), so said i'd have a look....messed about for a bit, so I Re-installed 98 also (just to check).;)

Anyway, everything installed but still no sound. I have;
Re--installed, double checked for new drivers.
Unchecked/rechecked mutimedia options and let it re-install.

The problem seems to be that the pc thinks there is no sound chip. When i click on sound options they are all greyed out. The show volume on task bar is checked but still greyed out.

Under the greyed section it says no media selected (or something along those lines), but i obviously can't change it.

Under sounds on task bar, C-media is installed and all playing options a clicked.

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

Re: Sound Problem
 

have you looked at the device manager setting under control panel > system? I see you've reinstalled all drivers. Make sure you have deleted them from in there, and and "?" icons that are listed.

Re: Sound Problem
 

did you download the specific drivers for the mobo? as theres loads of ac97 varients out there,what specs the machine? whats the model number printed on the board

Re: Sound Problem
 

I downloaded them from the Asrock website...the model is the Pro-m2. It was on a chip inside the box. I used the c media drivers from there 2.042 i think.....

I'll retry doing the device manager thing but i have done that already. I don't have and "!" or "?" though...it seems to think that they are installed okay..

Re: Sound Problem
 

Was it a clean re-installation of Win98? What make and model of PC is it? If you don't know that can you ID the motherboard?
If you install drivers and they are what the computer thinks it needs you can still end up with no sound if they are incorrect drivers. I recently let Windows Update install new drivers for my onboard (unused) soundchip and it loaded totally incorrect drivers (C-media AC97 drivers just like your mates).

Re: Sound Problem
 

Yeah it was a clean 98 install. The model was home built but is an asrock board. I'll id the board for more details but i'm sure its an Pro-m2. I'll double check...

Thanks for the help so far.

Re: Sound Problem
 

I think I have original discs for this board,if you continue having probs I could upload drivers maybe,is it via chipset or sis

Re: Sound Problem
 

Its an SiS chipset. The board ID'd as a GE PRO-M2 V3.0x.

Chipset SiS650GX

I've attached a custom everest file...

Its a bit weird.
If i go to Multimedia in everest and click on Windows the page is blank.
If i click on PCI/PnP it comes up with SiS7012.

I'm not sure what this really means but seems odd the windows has no entires!

Re: Sound Problem
 

if it is on board sound then try going to the bios when you switch comp on then i think it's in cmos (cant remember the rest of the title) and enable on board sound, as i have had that problem before aswell so see how that goes if you not already got it sorted by now

Re: Sound Problem
 

If it wasn't enabled in BIOS windows 98 wouldn't know it was there to load the drivers for.
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So you are running these drivers
http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/SiS_Ch...edia(2042).zip
Have you tried flashing the BIOS at all? When you said it was a clean install did you format prior to installing it?

Re: Sound Problem
 

It is set on auto....there are only two options auto and disable....

Yes those are the drivers i've installed. I set the bios to default and then re-set it up. i formatted the HDD and did an typical install....

Everything works but sound.

Re: Sound Problem
 

Have you tried disabling it, boot up to windows, reboot, go back into BIOS and put it back into Auto?

Re: Sound Problem
 

Nope...i'll try that now.

Re: Sound Problem
 

I'm wondering if the soundchip has quit :erm: Seems strange that Windows will detect it, you have installed the newest drivers and yet it refuses to work.

Re: Sound Problem
 

Nope that didn't work....

It seems strange to me to.

The sound didn't just stop working. My friend had a major software crash. Wouldn't boot to desktop...well not quite as soon as it got to desktop an error about internet explorer would come up but never disapear. Apprently it did it in safe mode also so decided to re-install...
Now sound is off..:erm:
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Thats what i thought too. I'm sure its possible but if it had quit i'm sure the pc wouldn't allow sound driver installs.

Re: Sound Problem
 

When you install 98 does it install generic drivers for the soundchip first or does it not support it out of the box?

Re: Sound Problem
 

It doesn't support it as far as i'm aware. There are "?" in device manager before an install.

Re: Sound Problem
 

obvious question and excuse me if im teaching you to suck eggs,you have made sure all the leads are connected? is cmedia in device manager sound video and game controllers?

Re: Sound Problem
 

Thats okay...its usually the simplist thing that gets forgotton.!! The only leads are to the speakers...its on-board sound..and yes the device manager has c media sound controller and gameport...

Both seem to be fine...no probs being id'd.

Re: Sound Problem
 

Is it Windows 98SE? Otherwise the OS isn't supported
But that's a mute point (excuse the pun) since it was working. Is the OS fully patched?

Re: Sound Problem
 

Are the speakers Buggered? And are the leads in the right holes in the back of the Mobo? Just a thought.:)
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OOOPS! Sorry.:confused:

Re: Sound Problem
 

Are you sure the lead is correctly plugged in,I know from experience the asrock boards differ to most boards where audio out is at top ,I think asrock has it in the middle

Re: Sound Problem
 

That wouldn't explain Windows not seeing the soundchip as a valid output device though would it? Grayed out options normally mean unsupported options in most cases.

Re: Sound Problem
 

yeah just trying to rule it out,its also been said that it shows in device manager as a controller

Re: Sound Problem
 

I'm leaning towards knackered soundchip, especially if a clean install of Windows and then an install of the newest drivers is failling to pick it up properly.

Re: Sound Problem
 

hmmm thats what i'm starting to think...I don't even get a crackle when i plug the speakers into the jack socket...just a little thing i know but you normally get a click,hiss or something...

Tomorrow i'm going to strip it out and give it a blast with compressed air......i had a on board LAN controller with an address of 0.0.0.0 once.....i think it was short circuiting...took it out cleaned it and the proper address came back....funnily enough that was a Asrock K7S8X board.....

Re: Sound Problem
 

I do agree,just trying to be optimistic ;)

Re: Sound Problem
 

Right still couldn't get it to work, so last resort. INSTALL XP (without a license admitedly!)...

Now it works....so what do i do now????

My friend doesn't have a license so technically win 98 should go back on.
I'm finding this very weird... I installed xp. Straight after the wecome screen i installed the drivers (first thing i did!) and just as it was restarting the volume control popped up and now it works...how do i get 98 working.????????

Re: Sound Problem
 

Xp must be correctly identifying the chip and loading modern drivers for it. Have a look in device manager and such like to dientify exactly what driver (make model, etc) is loaded. From that google to see if you can find the Win 98 drivers download from the manufacturer's site or wherever.

Then completely reformat the HD and reload Win 98. kill off all loaded win 98 drivers after startup. As you then reboot and it detects hardware use the new drivers you have downloaded.

The other option is to buy a licenced copy of Win XP. These people are probably as cheap as anywhere (and they've always been prompt delivery too) http://www.netcomonline.co.uk/desc.php?pid=102-986

Re: Sound Problem
 

Also i had already downloaded the correct drivers for 98, thats why this is so confusing......

how do i kill off the win98 drivers.? Remove the devices from device manager?

I have a program that allows backups of drivers.....if i use that with xp then install them on 98 do you think they would work...after all they are exactly the same drivers i've been using but obviously the OS has been doing something wrong.

Re: Sound Problem
 

drivers for win 98 and win xp are often slightly different, so they won't necessarily work.

When you have started windoze for the first time, then yes delete all the icons in device manager. That should allow you to select your own drivers when you restart the PC.

Re: Sound Problem
 

Right i did that and it actually worked.! BUT, i installed a couple of other things and off it went again....Boxes all greyed out when earlier the had c-media as playback option.....this is very weird

I'm thinking dry joint but i formatted before intsalling xp and that should be plenty of time for board expansion.......i mean that must have been 45 mins for the whole process....

Anyway,,tired and confused now.

Re: Sound Problem
 

What other things were installed prior to it "going off" again? Any way of trying a system restore back to when you know it was working?

Re: Sound Problem
 

errm...as far as i'm aware you can't do that with 98...(or can you!?)

I can't really track what i was installing unfortuneatly....there were loads of things....

Re: Sound Problem
 

Sorry thought you had installed XP at some point lol. Wonder if something is clashing with the soundchip drivers?

Re: Sound Problem
 

thats what i'm thinking.........bit stuck now really....

might just put xp on but not sure how to handle activation...