Audio problems

Dell Dimension E510 - WinXP MCE SP2 clean install - Creative SB0350 Audigy2 ZS
OK- for starters the Dell site has the wrong sound drivers. I tried installing them using both the the setup.exe file and by going through the device manager; the setup file errored saying no compatible audio device could be found, and using the hardware wizard said the location didn't contain any information for my device. OK. So I got the right driver from Creative (after opening the case and looking at the card) and it installed no problem. I had already installed the chipset, network, video, and modem drivers; in that exact order. I always install sound last. So I rebooted after installing the sound and everything says the sound is working, except there's no sound. So I played around with some things, installed a newer chipset driver (from Intel- the one at Dell was old) and I rebooted. This time I get a dialog box that's named 'RegRead' (or maybe it was 'ReadReg') and it said it was finalizing my audio card install. Great! Still no audio. When I click on a sound, there's a small delay like it's playing the sound, but there's no sound. When I plug headphones into the front audio jack, the word "Mute" appears on the screen in big green letters for about 1 or 2 seconds and the red bar-and-circle appears momentarily over the top of the speaker down by the clock, and then it goes away. To top it all off, there's a PCI Device in the device manager and it's identified as 'Intel High Definition Audio'. I have attached screenshots to clarify.
H E L P ! ! !

BTW- there is NO onboard audio in this PC. Just the sound card....

 

UPDATE- I just ran the audio hardware test; ya know where you read a paragraph into the microphone and you get the meters that go up and down as you speak.... well, they went up and down, and everything appeared kosher, except still no sound!

 

Are you saying that it is showing up twice in Device Manager?
Once in error state and once OK?
What happens when you delete the errored (is that a word? :confused ) version. Does XP replace it?

 

This is a new one on me, dlb.
I'm sure you have checked these.
Went into BIOS and enabled the card.
Made sure in your sound settings that digital is not checked. (in the SB mixer panel)
Made sure the SB card is the default device.

I am not sure about the Intel HD PCI device. Sounds like the original on-board audio was HD and that is a left over. The UAA usually shows as an unknown PCI if not installed properly.
Myself, I would uninstall the PCI device, reboot, and see what happens.

And last was this the driver you installed?
http://us.creative.com/support/down...&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=1&x=23&y=14

 

NO- In the screen shot you'll see there's an unknown device (PCI Device) and it's identified as Intel High Definition Audio as shown in the 2nd screenshot. I haven't tried to uninstall it and reboot just yet... I'll do it now....

 

I uninstalled, rebooted, and it came back with the New Hardware Wizard prompting for a driver. I tried pointing it to a few files and no dice.
Musksnipe- actually, the driver I'm using is 2.09.0011 and the one you linked to is 2.09.0016. I'll try it. v 0011 is a bit older but I've used this exact same driver (it's in my stash of drivers) MANY MANY times on MANY other SB0350 cards so I know it works. But it doesn't hurt to try something else. I'll try it now.

UPDATE- I tried the driver Musksnipe linked to, and got the same result. Everything says I should have sound, but I have no sound. Well, I'm going home now (this is at work) and I'll tackle this tomorrow. In the meantime, if anyone has any info between now and then, I'll be checking in here later tonite....
THANKS!

 

I know this sounds bizarre but humor me; remove the sound card - delete the uknown PCI device and reboot.
This way you can be absolutely certain that the device is the sound card.

 

There's no on board audio with this motherboard, so there's no BIOS settings for it. Besides, the card shows up in the device manager. The Creative mixer didn't have the option for digital to be enabled or disabled; it wasn't even listed anywhere. And, yes, the SB card is set as the default audio playback and recording device.

That's kind of what I was thinking, but there is no on board audio. Some Dimension E510's have on board audio, and some don't. That's one thing (of many) that I really hate about Dell (and most other big PC makers)... they release a model and will have numerous different hardware configurations for the same model number. Stupid. Anyway- I was thinking maybe it was a UAA thing but can't seem to find any info on it.

I did.... see the results in one of my posts above

Well, I'm not at work any more, so I can't try it now, but I'll do it first thing in the AM and we'll see what happens...

 

Try this, dlb.
First disable, then reboot to unload the driver, then uninstall the PCI.
(I'm thinking it will still come back, but worth a shot.)

Did this PC use Realtek sound on-board? There may be a Realtek audio folder with the HD drivers, that you could delete through Add/Remove Programs.
My experience is that once you disable on-board sound in BIOS, the drivers and chip become invisible to Device Manager, so this is odd.

Edit: looks like you posted while I wrote this. LOL

Look in the Intel folder, if there is one and see if you can find the HD driver there, move it and see what happens on reboot.

Edit again: Looking back at your first post, you said you DL'd drivers from Dell first and they were the wrong drivers. Your second screen shot shows that PCI and the Intel HD are linked. The driver is probably somewhere in the Dell folder. It looks like the first driver left traces (even if it didn't install fully) and that is conflicting with the right one.

 

This was a clean install and I didn't use a Dell OEM disc; I used a retail CD with the Dell product key. Therefore there's no system folders; there is an Intel folder but it only contains a log file of the chipset software installation.
Anyway....
The problem has been solved. I started digging around in the BIOS and I did find a setting to assign an IRQ to onboard audio (even though there is no on board audio). This was enabled -how the user had sound before is beyond me- and as soon as I disabled it, B A M ! ! ! the Creative card is suddenly rockin' like Dokken!!! So, thanks Musksnipe for suggesting I look in the BIOS. If you hadn't mentioned it, I probably wouldn't gotten around to it until I had gone completely nuts. Thanks!

[dlb]
:major

 

I love it when a near miss solves a problem.