Sound card problems

Hey guys,

First post woo

Right well I was having a lot of problems with my sound card in that I could hear sounds like things playing in iTunes, WMP, Realplayer etc and various games BUT I could never hear sound that was on the internet like YouTube videos or sounds on websites..

So being me, I decided that the best thing to do was to make things worse by screwing around with it by trying to fix it and as it now stands, I think I've just made things worse.

Now, every time I start my computer and I get the desktop loaded up the hardware wizard prompts me to install the software with the "search for it automatically (recommended)" stuff etc. It can automatically find the drivers or whatever is needed but half way through the installation my computer just crashes...

Grrrrr

I have a Dell Dimension 4600 and I think this is the soundcard:

Intel 82801EB ICH5 - AC97 Audio Controller PCI

Please let me know if there are any programs I should download to get a log to help you more,

Thanks a lot...

PM

 

Your problem probably wasn't caused by your sound card in the first place...
Which hardware is the wizard trying to install? Your sound card or something else?

 

It says it's trying to install the AC'97 something or other so I assume it's the card?

PM

 

Welcome to Major Geeks, Pete Murray!

In order to help you further, I will probably need a little more info on exactly what area you were in (I.e: Device Manager, Control Panel etc...) when attempting to fix the problem. I'm guessing during that period when you actually made a change it prompted you to reboot.

Can you still hear sound when your PC prompts you for the installation? In any case this is most likely a Driver conflict. For starters, navigate to Control Panel then click System click the Hardware tab then Device Manager. Once there find the tab that says 'Sound, video and game controllers' your sound card will probably have a exclamation mark by it in yellow. If it's not in that tab it will probably be sticking out where you can't see it anyway.

Ok well, right click the sound card and click properties click the driver tab and from there click uninstall, continue with that reboot if you must, if you do reboot cancel the driver installation. We will install the Audio Drivers Manually, download them Here Install them and reboot.

 

I tried what you said, had already downloaded that A396 package and after installation it prompts rebooting which I do. But then I'm met with this after restarting:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/2636/foundnewhardwarevg7.jpg

???????

PM

 

Ok well the main question is can you hear sound even though your prompted an install?

 

You need the Realtek AC'97 drivers.

 

Those are the ones I had him download and install.

 

No I can't will try again with the link you just gave me for those AC'97 drivers

PM

 

Sorry, didn't see Realtek (or something like that) in the link, so i figured it were some other drivers.

 

Well you'll never guess what happened...half way through the installation of those drivers - it crashed ! confused

So I'll google it in a sec, but this was the error message on the BSOD:

Stop 0x0000007E

portcls.sys

Address B667346D base at B6673000

Datestamp 411007F13


????

PM

 

Right well I did some work on it, and now my device manager looks like this:

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2323/devicemanagerfg2.png

And I don't get told to install any AC97 hardware correctly at the startup which is pretty cool. However, I hear no sound now LOL !

What is interesting I think is that earlier iTunes gave me a warning message prior to launching, telling me that audio devices weren't installed properly etc. but now it launches fine and plays tunes but obviously...I can't hear them !

Any ideas?

Thanks again,

PM

 

Probably already done it, but, just check your speaker cables/jacks again
just to try to rule them out

Also check
Control panel
Sounds and audio devices:
1. Device volume & muting
2. Advanced volumes & muting
3. Speaker volumes

 

Hmm, I don't see why it was asking for AC'97 drivers, you have SoundMAX Integrated Audio...weird. Download this AC3 Audio Filter Codec and see if that helps, when I had an issue where I couldn't hear video's and 3rd party media players this fixed it.

 

That's a Dolby Digital / DTS codec used to decode multichannel audio in movies. It's good to have on your system (you'll probably need it sometime), but it probably has nothing to do with the iTunes problem.
Is this new issue iTunes only, or does it affect other media players too?

The 0x7E error was caused by the driver installer. Those drivers simply aren't compatible with your sound card and windows really disliked it . On the other hand, it seems to have woken up windows and solved the problem.

 

Hmm well I installed that codec and tried the steps you mentioned shanemail but this is what I got:

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3761/nosounddeviceqi3.png

So it doesn't recognise any device yet all of them are said to be working properly ?

WTF :cry

PM

 

Okay, try downloading the correct drivers from here
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=1&vercnt=4&formatcnt=1&libid=3&fileid=122481

looks like you are using windows XP, if not navigate your way from
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?

if you are using XP take a look at some of the other software here
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...l=en&s=gen&SystemID=DIM_P4_4600&os=WW1&osl=EN

If it doesnt work, just go out and buy a cheap pci sound card

 

Seriously weird...
Try shanemail's solutions first and if they all fail, try deleting your sound card from the device manager. Hopefully this will make windows forget all incorrect drivers and settings. When you've uninstalled the sound card from the device manager, reboot and install Dell's drivers.