need help with sound drivers

I am having some difficulty getting the proper sound drivers for my computer. It's a learning project for me. I built it from spare parts I got from other computers. Everything but the the sound seems to be working.

The mother board is a K7S5A (Elitegroup) with on board sound chip.
C-Media AC97 Audio Device (device manager)
WinXP installed drivers but they don't work.
Tried uninstalling, the re-installing. didn't work
Got different drivers from the MB manufacturer but windows claims the current drivers are better. :confused
I was thinking perhaps I could replace windows drivers with the manufacturer's, file for file, manually.
I think RealTek also supplied Elitegroup, so should I try those drivers?

I would prefer to get the onboard sound working, if anyone would like to help me tackle that. I did however try to install an unknown sound card I had lying around.

Windows claims not to recognize it. Just lists it as a PCI Device.
I discovered it is a Creative Labs CT5906.
Creative Labs doesn't list the drivers for this card.
I contacted them to direct me to the best driver and they replied that I would have to pay for thier assistance. rolleyes
Further research uncovered that it was out of a Gateway computer.
Should I try to use the drivers supplied by Gateway or is there some generic drivers that will work that I just haven't been able to find?

 

Hello, thebatpeople. Are you the famous batman?:-D

I have a K7S5A Pro and am using a PCI sound card in it. Using an add-on card requires disabling the onboard sound by accessing BIOS settings and disabling it. Did you do that?

I visited Creative's website and I, too, could not find your card there. I wish they would simply put a search box on their site. You might search for a driver from another source. Numerous websites with drivers for older components can be found by searching Google or whatever.

You might spare yourself some grief and frustration with this by just buying an inexpensive sound card, such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829126004

 

I am a compilation of bat like peoples.

I did not disable the on board sound because I could not find the correct drivers for the card. I think the card was specifically made for use in Gateway computers. I googled a number I found on the card (6001503) for that information. I think it will need some sort of universal driver for Creative Labs if there is one. I will try disabling the on board sound and see if windows recognizes it then.

Buying a new card isn't much of a learning experience. Plus I don't currently have any extra cash for that. :cry

 

HI! I did some research, and it appears that ECS released several different builds of the K7S5A motherboard. Some had the CMedia 9738 audio chip, while others had the SiS7012 audio chip. You can download the SiS7012 driver from this direct link. The downloaded file will be a .ZIP file and will need to be extracted before installing.

I had a rough time finding any info on the CT5906 sound card. Even the Gateway site didn't provide much, but I did discover that the driver for the CT5880 from Gateway should work for the CT5906. If you can download the exact driver for the CT5906, then use it, otherwise try the CT5880 from this link.

 

Good idea. You might first see whether Windows has a generic driver for it. If that yeilds nothing, you could allow Windows to search the Internet for a driver.

Let us know how it goes. If I can't help further, someone else may have some suggestions.

Edit: I didn't see dlb's post before posting. He put more effort into researching this than me. :-o

 

Did you try going to microsoft windows update? It usually lets you install a generic driver for any creative sound card after scanning your system. I used to have this motherboard with a creative audigy installed and yes you need to disable onboard sound in the bios for any other sound cards to work.

It's also possible that the sound card you installed has a hardware problem, which is why windows doesnt recognize it as anything more than a PCI device, but try the other stuff too!

 

Windows can commonly recognize a sound card (and modems sometimes too) as a plain "PCI Device" instead of the more descriptive "Multimedia Audio Controller". It's normal that it says just "PCI Device" and is nothing to worry about. Personally, I'd try getting the onboard audio working first . If it just won't work, then disable it in the BIOS, power down, unplug the power cord from the back of the PC and install the PCI sound card....
Good Luck!

(I provided driver links in my post above, post #4 )

 

The Sis7012 drivers did the trick. The lesson here was to not trust windows.
It claimed it was C-media. No wonder the drivers it was using didn't work. In the future, I will not be afraid to try alternate drivers than what windows is claiming, because I did see the Sis7012 drivers. I just disregarded them.

Thanks as well for the driver info for the CT5906. I will need it for another computer project. I am piecing together two win98 computers and one needs a sound card. Then for my next trick, I will create the baddest DOS computer ever. :drool (I have an original copy of DOOM)

@Sir Geekalot
For the record, I did let windows try to update the drivers as recommended, but I guess windows didn't know what it was looking at.