Realtek AC '97 and vista upgrade on Gateway Laptop

[rgore35047]

I have a Gateway Model MX6424 (laptop) that was upgraded to Vista from XP Pro. Since that time the sound has not worked. I tried to install a new driver for Vista from Realtek, that didn't work either. I also get a message that device cannot start (code 10). I don't know what other information you need, just let me know. My wife says time to buy her a new laptop, help please.

Looking at the audio drivers at Gateway for your model, they all seem to be SoundMax Integrated Sound. (which does use a Realtek chip, but the normal Realtek drivers will not work)

From what I found out, in a quick search, there are not any Vista drivers for that component.
I did find a fix that is supposed to work. These are backup drivers.
Not sure what that is really supposed to mean.

Anyway, download the attached .zip file. (I've scanned it and it appears clean of malware)
Save it to your Desktop or someplace you will be able to find it.
Extract the files.
Open Device Manager, right click your audio device, choose Properties.
Click the Drivers tab, click "Update Driver", choose "Browse my computer for driver software".
Now browse to his file in the driver pack: oem2.inf , then click next.
It should install.
Please let me know if this works, because I am unable to test it and there may be others that need it.

[rgore35047]

Thank you, I will try tonight and let you know.

[rgore35047]

I was not able to reach the file level going thru update driver, Browse my computer. I could select the folder but not the file oem2.inf.

Try selecting the folder and see if the install will complete.

(Sometimes, I am not able to follow all these fixes through because I do not have those drivers)

[rgore35047]

I did try that, no luck. I also deleted old drivers, uninstalled the sound card, and rebooted. It found the sound card again, but the drivers failed.

Try it this way: Open Control Panel>Add Hardware.
Choose "Install the Hardware I manually select", click Next.
Choose Sound Video, And Game Controllers, click Next.
Click Have Diisk. Browse to the folder, double click it.
Two files should show up: oem2.inf and smwdmVI3.inf
Both are SoundMax .inf's. Try the oem one first, then smwdm

[rgore35047]

The two .inf files show up, when I click on either one of them it goes to a screen that says Select the manufacturer and model of your hardware device .........., with nothing in the space to select.

[rgore35047]

There was also something else that was showing up and might help.
When I started this, under device manager - Sound, there were two items that had the exclamation marks, the realtek AC '97 and ADS Instant HDTV PCI. I also uninstalled the driver and device for both of them. On reboot it found the hardware and tried to install a driver (that failed). When I look in device manager now the Realtek AC '97 shows the exclamation mark and the ADS Instant HDTV PCI does not show up. When I try to install a sound device thru hardware, only the ADS Technologies - ADS Instant HDTV PCI shows on the list. I do not see any SoundMax or Realtek listed. When I tried to force the install this last time (with the two files) I was trying on the ADS Instant HDTV PCI.

Does that really confuse the issue now?

Sometimes, driver issues are very confusing. There can be conflicts in many ways.
I am beginning to wonder if the info I found is fully correct for your model PC.

Here is another fix. (we'll try this and if it fails will see what an actual Realtek driver does)

1. Download these drivers and extract them to a folder.
2. Open Device Manager, and update your audio driver with the one in the W2K_XP folder that you just extracted.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Open Control Panel>Audio Settings (not sure what this means because Vista should have Sounds, not Audio Settings in Control Panel)>SoundMAX>Properties. In the 'Other' tab uncheck the first entry and check the second for digital audio. If you have analog speakers, leave both unchecked.
5. If sound quality is not that great, try changing the Format settings in that last tab on the page. Try going up or down until it works out....
6. Vista will tell you that Windows Update has found newer drivers. Ignore it or you'll lose the sound!

These fixes are meant to force Vista to accept drivers created for XP.

I also stumbled on to this driver. It IS Vista ready.
SoundMAX ADI Audio Driver

[rgore35047]

I will try those tonight when I get back home. You are right Vista does show "Sounds, Video and game controllers" , not Audio, in Control Panel.

I did go to ADS Technologies website and looked for a driver on the ADS Instant HDTV PCI, it said those drivers were provided in Vista, so that didn't do much good.

If you want to look at what Gateway has on my MX6424 Notebook the Serial number is T355C61002158. In the Specifications, under Audio it shows: AC '97 2.3 Compliant Audio, Built-In Speakers, but doesn't say anything about the brand.

Thanks for trying to help

AC '97 2.3 Compliant Audio

This usually means one of the codecs, other than Realtek. SoundMax is one of them. As I said before, when I found the specs on the whole series of your model, yours and all the others in that series showed SoundMax.
Our problem is getting Vista to accept an XP version. What I read, said there wasn't any AD1891 drivers for Vista. The Vista one I put up is AD1896 and will possibly work because the 18XX series used one driver in XP.

One option, for you, is a laptop sound card. This is just one of several.
http://www.nextag.com/Creative-Labs-...562027DB80FBD4

[rgore35047]

I tried the files and the SoundMax driver, no luck on either one. Maybe it's me doing something wrong, or not doing something right? I think your last suggestion is probably the thing to do, install a laptop sound card.

Thanks for your time and effort in trying to help me solve this problem, I might need to write you back if I have a problem with that.

Again,Thanks, if you come across something else I will sure give it a try.

[rgore35047]

I have SOUND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded PC Wizard 2008 from your site and ran it. Under the sound icon it showed IXP SB400 AC'97, I ran a search and on another forum a person had a Gateway Laptop (642* sixty four twenty something, not exactly the same as mine) that downloaded a driver from HP that worked. I figured I didn't have anything to loose.

The driver is SP31635 and says it is a Conexant AC-Link Audio Driver. You have to force install. It failed if you went thru setup.

The forum was AMD64, or something like that. I might be able to find it again if you need me to. It was HP's website and I did not notice what Model it was supposed to be for.

Thanks again for your time and help, maybe this will help someone else also.

Great work!
And thanks for the info.
I use PC Wizard myself and it does give great info. Maybe, I will update and start having folks attach PC Wizard reports instead of using Everest.