At my wits end.....again

This actually has a bit of everything involved not just drivers but I think this is where it fits best. My machine DELL 4600. So a few nights ago my wifi adapter kept dropping connection (NETGEAR N600 dual band adapter) so I looked online for new drivers I uninstalled it, restarted, and installed the new driver. The USB port wouldn't pick it up I tried all my ports so I tried going back to my old driver from my disc and it sat there for over an hour with DETECTING ADAPTER..... I got on my laptop and nothing seemed to fix it so I figured I'd dump the computer and start over since I've problems with it recently other than this. I did everything correctly, got my discs out to reinstall drivers I looked up the order in which to do so but when it got to my video card the list it gives me on the disc for my system was not checked and it should have been. So I got on the DELL website put in my service tag and tried those nothing worked. My monitor is still showing up so some video card is working somewhere. I wasn't going to worry about it but than the next time I put in my diagnostics disc it gave me an I/O error of some kind basically that it couldn't run the disc (a disc I had used a few minutes before) so I got back online downloaded the NIC drivers and such under my service tag transferred them over to my desktop and it still says there is an Ethernet controller missing, PCI device and another PCI advice and an audio controller (my sound blaster card went out so I didn't bother installing that software) I can't get my wifi adapter to work without updating windows and I can't update windows because there is an Ethernet controller missing my computer won't even detect being hooked up to a modem. :cry I've looked online for an answer to my problem I can't find anything and I know the thing is old but I can't afford a new desktop or even a used newer one. Any help at all would be awesome you guys have always been so good at helping out. I'm about ready to scream because I feel like I'm in a loop that I can't get out of. Thank you so much.

 

Please do the following. Their should be a yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager under Network adapter. Right click and select properties. Find the Vendor and Device ID and post it here.

 

There is no category for network adapter, the ethernet controller is under other devices. All it tells me is that the drivers for the device aren't installed (CODE 28)

 

Can you right click Ethernet Controller and give the Vendor and Device ID's?

Edit: what OS are you using?

 

Somehow the ethernet controller decided to install randomly. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition SP1 until I get the updates going. I still have Question marks next to the mutlimedia audio controller (if my sound blaster card is dead would it still be picking it up?) PCI Input device and PCI Modem (which I have the disc for but wouldn't work last night I'll have to re try it) This thing is driving me crazy.

 

So, you mean that you now Ethernet connectivity? Right click on any of the devices with Yellow Exclamation marks and give the Vendor and Device ID as in my previous post.

 

Sorry I lost internet for a few days there

SB Live card: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0006&SUBSYS_10031102&REV_00\4&1C660DD6&0&10F0

PCI input device: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_7004&SUBSYS_10031102&REV_00\4&1C660DD6&0&11F0

 

Have you installed SP3?

Try this for the sound card.

http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R69382.EXE

PCI input device: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_7004&SUBSYS_10031102&REV_00\4&1C660DD6&0&11F0 is the game port. I have not found a driver for this. The above driver may detect this. A driver is pending at PCIdatabase.com for this device but has not been uploaded yet.

 

Yes I just got SP3 installed last night I think it was or early this morning I'm not sure which.

 

I ran the patch and the diagnostic for the SB Live here's what I got:

Hardware detection test: PASS
Wave driver test: FAIL
MIDI driver test: FAIL
Mixer driver test: FAIL
Directsound3D test: FAIL
Mixer setting check: FAIL

I used the disc that came with my computer I don't understand why it doesn't work.

 

I am not sure why either. If you run dxdiag.exe does it give any errors?

according to the vendor and device ID you have sounblaster live 5.1

Here is the creative site for drivers.

http://support.creative.com/downloads/welcome.aspx?nLanguageLocale=1033&nDriverType=1#type_1

After uninstalling the drivers and using Drivesweeper to remove any parts of the creative driver I would try the following.

Sound Blaster Live! - LiveDrvUni-Pack (English)
Filesize : 23.32 MB

Sound Blaster Live! - Driver Patch
Filesize : 6.17 MB

 

No errors found, I've got on board sound which is sound max or something like that and than the PCI card is my sound blaster and I prefer to use my sound blaster I can't seem to get driver sweeper downloaded from their website. Is there another place I can get it?

 

Sorry about that. You can download Drivesweeper from Majorgeeks.

http://majorgeeks.com/Driver_Sweeper_d6171.html

Make sure onboard audio is disabled in BIOS.

 

All I have in my BIOS is sound, it's not labeled on board or expansion should I switch to off?

 

Now my keyboard and mouse are acting up its stuck on caps lock and my mouse double clicks everything i end up with twenty folders open and apparently i cant use numbers on my keyboard i did a virus scan and nothing came up

 

Was this after you went into the BIOS? I do not know why your keyboard and mouse would be acting like that. I would turn audio off in BIOS and see what happens. Have you tried rebooting the computer?

I do not think this is malware related but you could post over at the Malware Removal Forum and have them look at the logs you would attach to your post. Just look at the Sticky Post at the beginning of the forum.

 

Well after posting that I rebooted and the mouse worked fine but the keyboard wouldn't work at all and it still isn't. I've tried two different ones the keyboard gets power the NUM LOCK light turns on but nothing else works they're PS/2 keyboards I don't think I have a USB keyboard so I'm having it do system restore I did go into the BIOS but I didn't change anything in it. Could it be a mobo issue? Could it just be going bad I got it in spring of 2004 and I've never had any parts replaced because it's never had problems before.

 

Did the system restore help? In Device Manager click on Keyboard and at Standard PS/2 keyboard right click and select Properties. Does it say the the keyboard is working properly? I would suggest you find a USB keyboard and see if that works.

 

Well the system restore didn't help, I re started it 3 times leaving it on for a few minutes each time just to see if it would decide to, I restarted it the 4th time entered BIOS so it worked for that I didn't change anything I just went in and back out now it seems to be working. For now I should say lol maybe I can run driver sweeper now and finally get that done.

 

After a few hours of the computer acting fine I was letting it run some more windows updates so everything was done and going to do drive sweeper but had to get framework first since I didn't have it and all of a sudden my mouse started acting up again left clicking anything like to read an email for instance opened the same page in a new window but right clicking did the normal. My keyboard, if CAPS was off everything was in caps but if CAPS was on it was normal and my numbers wouldn't show up even with shift pressed it just stayed as symbols. So I restarted it, the keyboard wasn't even being seen by the computer anymore so I was lucky enough to find a USB keyboard so I'm hoping to get something done now I'm installing net framework and windows is fully updated.

 

Trying to install Net Framework gives me a setup error but that's all it says. So I thought I'd try to install the Sound Blaster drivers you suggested and it gives me an error that it can't detect any Sound Blaster device on my system. On the plus side so far a USB keyboard is working fine.

 

Did you ever turn off audio in the BIOS and see what happens?

 

MUWHAHAHAHAHA I just thought of something, my CMOS battery went out a month or so ago replacing that would have changed things in the BIOS right? Which is probably why the SB card didn't work before when I changed it either you guys are geniuses! Thank you so much I also found out the USB keyboard I'm using the F1-F12 don't work so anytime I need to enter BIOS I have to use the PS/2 keyboard because nothing else on that keyboard works. It's a sight to see lol I still have PCI device that says it's missing and I have no idea what it's even for.

 

Nice detective work regarding the CMOS battery! Thanks for the feedback.

Edit: I am pretty sure that PCI device missing is the game port.

 

The game port? Like maybe for the keyboard? This is the first time I've had this problem too lol Well as long as the USB keyboard will work I'm just happy to have my sound card back it's got more gusto than my on board sound I've gotten most of my computer fixing skills from working on this poor thing in the last 3 or 4 years lol THANK YOU!!!!!!

 

I should probably have called it the joystick port. It is that yellow connector on the back of your sound card. The card is quite old and these sound cards also had a port to plug in a game joystick. Now, all the joysticks and gamepads connect via USB.