Slightly different audio problem

Hi - I've run into what at first seemed a similar problem to what everyone is having with HD audio. My sound stopped working, and after trying various obvious things, I saw that I had a sm bus controller problem (fixed that with the drivers from intel) and then a HD audio driver problem. Not sure what finally fixed that, although sfc seemed to finally help.

Now my problem - I still have no sound. I've attached a report from everest to help (one hopes). Basically, device manager reports no problems. The card shows up under sound devices, which says it is installed and working properly. The control panel for the card (which allows you to balance speakers, etc.) things it's working, and the equalizer thinks it is getting output. I've tried reseating the card. Checked all the connections. And still, no sound.

For the summary - it's an IBM Thinkcentre M52, with a b-inspirer sound card, which uses an C-media oxygen chip.

Any suggestions?

thanks,
Chris

 

Some audio mixers (managers) allow you to shut down the front or back audio jacks.
Check your to make sure that's not the case.
Some also have a Digital setting, Make sure that isn't checked.

Also, give the speakers a try on another system to make sure they are not at fault.

BTW do you get sound through headphones?

And one last thing, make sure your Direct X is up to date along with your updates.

 

Hi, nope - none of that helped, unfortunately. Well, I only have one computer here, so can't double-check the speakers. But I did have several unrecognized devices in device manager after the sound stopped yesterday, so it seems unlikely to me that they'd go at the same time. No luck with the headphones either.

One additional weird thing - I couldn't remember if I had uninstalled and reinstalled the card driver after running sfc. So I did that again. As soon as I uninstalled it, XP said it found a new audio device, that it then went and installed drivers for. It seemed happy. I also tried to reinstall the card software. That ran through about two-thirds of the set-up, and then asked me to plug the card in. Nonetheless, I still have the audio manager showing up, which thinks everything is working.

 

Were the unknown devices PCI devices? Are they gone now?
I noticed 2 odd things that may be casing problems.
One is the Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver. I don't believe that should be showing, if you have an add-on card. Usually, that shows up when there is a bad audio driver on-board.
The other thing I saw was a USB sound device.
Do you have a USB headset?

Does your Volume Icon show up?
Have you looked in Sound and audio Devices in the Control Panel to make sure your card is the default device?

 

Yes, the unknown devices were PCI, as well as the SM bus controller. I've been reading the various audio threads here, and something from one of them finally took care of the PCI devices.

The USB sound device is a Linksys skype phone, which has never before caused any problems. Nonetheless I just disconnected that, rebooted, etc., and still no joy.

The computer does have onboard sound, but that is disabled in the bios. As far as I can tell, there are no drivers installed for it.

I did look under device manager for the Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver, but don't see it. Is there a way to get rid of them? (Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.)

Thanks, Chris

 

Check in your Control Panel>Sounds and Audio. Make sure your default audio is set to your sound card.
Check that Windows Audio Service is started.
Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services
Scroll down the list of services until you find the Windows Audio service.
Right click on it and choose Properties.
Make sure it is set to Automatic and Start is checked.

If you are still without sound, try the steps below.

If you have the drivers for this on disc, I would uninstall it through Add/Remove Programs, check for it's folders in Program Files, Common Files (in Program Files), App Data (Roaming and Local (these are in your User Folders))
Then run CCleaner Registry tool.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_No_Yahoo_Toolbar_English_d4191.html

Then, do a reinstall you chipset drivers:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-66060
Shut down and reboot.
And then finally, install your audio driver with a shut down and reboot afterwards.

Once you have sound, reinstall your USB headset.

No, if it's not showing in Device Manager, it should be OK.

 

Alas, still no joy. I'm beginning to think perhaps it is a hardware problem?

The Windows Audio Service and all the defaults checked out fine.

I uninstalled the Linksys phone, and haven't bothered reinstalling it, as I haven't used it for a month or two anyway...

Ran the registry tool, and updated the chipset drivers.

What is perhaps noteworthy is that as soon as I uninstall the audio driver, XP immediately detects an audio device. I let the wizard search for a driver and it finds and installs an Oxygen HD media driver. I then get a message that the device is installed and ready to use. It still doesn't work.

If I then go to install the rest of the software (ie, the manager) it installs it part way, but then says the device isn't installed. It quits, there, but on a restart, the manager is present. It claims everything is working, but still no sound.

So perhaps it is hardware related? And if so, any recommendations on a new card? I was quite happy with this one. Basically looking for something that can handle 5.1 or 7.1 and won't cost an arm and a leg...

Thanks again for your efforts.

 

Uninstall the driver from your CD and give this a try. It is off the card's website and is probably newer than the one on the disc.
It is a direct download of the driver in .zip form. Just double click the setup.exe after extracting it.
b-Enspirer_XP.zip


Just took a look in the download, setup.exe is the only file there. :confused

 

Ah, sorry. Should have pointed out that I had been using the driver from the website. And still no luck. I did try not letting the new hardware wizard install a driver, in case that had something to do with it. But that didn't help - after installing the b-inspirer software and telling me to plug in the device part way through, when I rebooted it then found the new audio device as well.

When I reboot, there is a slight click from the speakers, so presumably some sort of power/signal is getting through from the card to them, but that's it.

 

As a follow-up: having tried everything suggested so far, I thought I'd try pulling and reseating the card yet again, since perhaps some magic combination would now work. It didn't - but I had to reinstall the drivers, etc. when I put the card into a different slot. Should that have happened? I don't remember ever having to do that when I've switched cards between slots before. So I thought I'd throw this in, in case it means something...

 

I'm not really sure on that. I don't deal with cards that much, but haven't heard that before. A driver should stay installed until you uninstall it. (normally)

Let's try something. Take and put your disc in and explore it. Look for files that end in .inf We're looking for somehing that that'll start with CM (or cm) and end in.inf.
If you find that or even a couple like that post back and I'll take a look and figure out which is the driver .inf and we'll lead Device Manager to it.

 

Posted flowers. Wrong thread! :heli
Move along nothing to see here. LOL

 

Well, dang it. I relocated from NJ to the UK last summer, and the one disk I can't find in my box-o-disks is the sound card one. It must be around somewhere...

But I've downloaded the various versions of the card's drivers, etc. from the website, and searched those on your criteria. In the actual drivers for those, all that show up are CMCIP0 through CMCIP4.

In trying to be thorough, I also have just the C-Media drivers. They have CMAZAL.inf and CMHDF.inf. But not the CMCIP0 through 4 drivers.

While waiting for a reply (again, many thanks) I'll go dig around for the original CD. It must be around somewhere....

 

Right click either multimedia device in Device Manager. Choose Update driver,
Choose "No, not this time" on the first window of the Hardware Wizard, click Next.
Choose "Install from a list or specific location", click Next.
Choose "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install", click Next.
Click "Have disc".
Then browse to the proper driver. Select the Right click either multimedia device in Device Manager. Choose Update driver,
Choose "No, not this time" on the first window of the Hardware Wizard, click Next.
Choose "Install from a list or specific location", click Next.
Choose "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install", click Next.
Click "Have disc".
Then browse to the proper driver. Select the CMHDF.inf file.
See if that works.

 

Nope, that didn't work either. But here's what's odd (at least to me). When I get to this stage:

It showed me options for drivers for joysticks, not a sound card. I continued on:

When installing the CMHDF.inf file, it told me
"The specified location does not contain information about your hardware".

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I also re-ran this, selecting the CMCIP0.inf file from the b-inspirer download. That said it worked, but still no sound. I then back and tried the CMHDF.inf file. This time, it showed up as a sound card, but when I tried to run the file, I got the same "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware". message.

 

An update to this:

I remembered that the unit I work in has an old PC in the library, so I brought the sound card in, and had poor the poor administrator type and re-type some very long admin password so I could test the card. It doesn't work.

It installed fine - and didn't give me that weird "please plug in the b-enspirer sound card" message when i tried to install the manager software. But, otherwise, same result. Basically, the manager shows sound - you can adjust volume levels, tweak the balance and those sort of things will show up in the equalizer display. But no sound. So I'm going to presume it's the card, and just order an new (different) one.

But I'm a bit puzzled why a card dying would lead to the unknown PCI devices... Hopefully it didn't do anything to the motherboard as well.

 

Don't have a solid answer for that.
Realtek HD shows up as an unknown PCI, when not properly installed, so possibly that is the same reason here.
That is a weird card for sure.

 

You say in an earlier post that you didn't have other speakers to try. Have you tried earphones?
It looks like you and musksnipe have covered all the software possibilities.
If it were me I would make absolutely sure it was a hardware issue beforre investing in a new sound card. This could be simply a matter of the speakers having gone south.
It would be best, I think, if you would try headphones that plug directly into the sound card as opposed to using a USB.
Also you mentioned that you do have onboard sound that you have disabled.
Have you tried reenabling it and seeing if you can get your sound through that?

 

Thanks for the comments. yes - I did try headphones, plugged directly into the sound card. No sound. And yes, if I re-enable the on-board sound, the speakers work. That's what I have now, so at least I can have some music, but it's a poor substitute for what I got used to.

I think I can dig up an old PCI card to try installing at the suggestion of a more hardware oriented colleague, to make sure that works, and the motherboard isn't responsible for killing the sound card.

And Musksnipe - thanks. Those are the threads I found at first and eventually got the PCI working again. So I guess something could have happened, though it does seem weird, since it had worked fine for about a year, without any PCI problems, etc.

At the end of the day, replacing the sound card would be annoying, but a lot better than replacing the motherboard. Or both...

More news once I try the other card, assuming I can find it.

 

OK
I think it is still an odd situation.
Trying another PCI sound card is a good idea.
At least that way you can be sure the PCI slot itself isn't causing the problem.
BTW you said that you had tried another sound card with no improvement (from your workplace library). Do you know if that card is OK?

 

Hi. Actually, I don't have another sound card, but I did plug in a PCI wireless network card, and that worked flawlessly. And sorry if I wasn't clear - I actually brought my card into the office and tried my card in their computer, which didn't work. (But their onboard sound did before and after.)

So I'm going with it being the card at this point - I suppose in theory my PC could have taken a disliking to just sound cards, but that seems unlikely to me. Probably just a very weird card.

Off to browse sound cards, I guess.

 

I agree.
For some reason your sound card died.

 

At last!

Well, after more delays with delivery of sound card, etc., I finally have a new, working sound card. The computer seems happy, and I'm definitely happy.

So thank everyone - and especially musksnipe - for your help.