Sound card

I've been following other threads about sound issues but my sound card is all grayed out in the device manager. I can't figure out how to install the driver. I also have been getting a diskette 0 error when I turn my computer on. I hit f1 and everything works fine but perhaps the 2 problems are related?

I just finished a malware removal with another geek and he said to refer this to hardware.

 

A bit more info on your computer needed and what operating system are you using. This sounds (excuse the pun) like a driver issue. Have you a sound card installed or are you using onboard. ??

 

I don't know how to post my computer info in here. Its a Dell and I'm running Windows XP. It looks like I deleted or uninstalled the sound card. I went through all the info I have but can't find a way to reinstall it. I know its in there because I used to play the radio on my computer.

I cleared the diskette 0 error thanks to another post I found, you guys are great.

 

its a Vostro 200

 

It is important to tell us what model Dell you have! That will let the group know what type of graphics it has, some Dells have on board and all require the setup disc for their proprietary drivers.

 

I have SP3

 

I did what Halo suggested but that didn't work. I don't think Windows has my sound card installed anymore.

 

If you go to where Halo's link (chipset) takes you choose the AUDIO second on list in the middle. Click audio ^ then a list appears, then choose ALC888 HD Audio, download then install and reboot and that should fix it.

 

I've done that before and it doesn't work. The computer still doesn't recognize the sound card being on the computer

 

Nope, still no luck.......... this is a lot harder than I thought. I did install all the items in the last post but the computer still is grayed out on all speaker/sound options

 

:waveWas your sound card always grayed out or is this something that recently happen?

If it's grayed out there is no way you can tell it to uninstall and see if windows xp can find the driver ... it could be the card itself is bad? How long have you had the sound card? Do you have onboard sound in your motherboard? Did you disable it in the bios? Just wondering ... :confused

 

Just to make things a little clearer could you confirm the following. Quote from previous post [ The computer still doesn't recognize the sound card being on the computer] are you saying here that you have a sound ''CARD'' installed or do you mean ''ONBOARD'' sound, ie. that no PCI sound card is installed ????

 

I think it did. Like I said, I had a virus and a friend told me he could find and remove the virus. But all he did was uninstall anything he didn't know. When I got the computer, I put some speakers on the computer and I had sound. The rest of the computer is Dell factory specs. I don't know which if any sound card it had. How can I tell?

 

At the rear of your computer, at the bottom going up you will see some Horizontal long silver slots (for want of a better word) maybe 2 or 3 these are where your PCI cards go and connect to the Mobo. Is the speaker connections in one of these ?? or further up but below you mouse/keyboard connection, if they are here then it is Onboard sound, if it is in the PCI slots then you have a Sound Card.

 

Then its onboard sound, none of the additional slots are used

 

Going back to what Halo guided you have you downloaded and installed from this page ....

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=211836

 

I tried that again. I still says I have no sound card installed. I can't even open the volume control because it says something about no active mixers avaliable. Everything is still grayed out.

 

Hmm this one sounds tricky from what I have read so far...

Try downloading Everest off this sites downloads area.

Run this application it will ID the Hardware devices you have, verify the audio against what your device manager has listed and the motherboard or manufacture's manual states.

Your friend may have disabled or uninstalled an application or software required by your sound card.

Your Audio card maybe disabled or may have failed, although generally audio card failures are quite rare imo..

If the sound card is built into the motherboard check the bios to see if it is disabled.

Does your audio sit in an expansion slot - a slot still at the rear of the p.c but situated to one side from the other onboard components. If this is the case you may have to get the drivers for this alternate sound card - other than those that are on already on a recovery cd or the online manual that your make of P.C might suggest.

Everest will tell you what it has detected your hardware as, next download your windows driver for said audio component and install. Everest is not an overly complicated app to use. May have to restart after downloading the correct drivers and installing them.

Trust Everest - manuals can be misprinted or just plain wrong on occassion. Everest has never put me wrong in over 20+ instances where the manuals just werent available or even not correct!! these were a variety of rebuilds newer and older type machines even some with windows 98:-o - the correct info just couldnt be found online...or in the manual! thanks to the guys for putting Everest on this site I would have been lost without it...

It maybe the device is disabled or a required service is no longer running
.
Could also try going to the run menu and typing in dxdiag, providing your p.c has some directx software installed this may also aid in trouble shooting this one.

Let the guys here know what Everest and dxdiag informs you and take it from there...

G luck:wave

 

Everest says I don't have a sound card installed. Either through Windows or PNP

 

Okay, in this case we need to dig deeper.

What you need to do now is to power the computer off, power it back on, and at the first loading screen there should be some writing across the bottom of the screen telling you: "Press <key> to enter the BIOS", obviously with <key> meaning the actual key you have to press.

You need to repeatedly press this key until either the writing at the bottom of the screen changes to say "entering setup" or until the PC bleeps every time you press the key.

This will open a screen with lots of options on it. One of these options, either across the top or in the list down the centre, will say something along the lines of "Advanced chipset features" Highlight this option using the keyboard arrow keys, the mouse will not work, and press enter. Then look in the list for something relating to onboard audio. Make sure this is enabled (if not use the arrow keys to navigate to it, press enter, use the keyboard arrows to select enabled and press enter. Then press F10 to exit the BIOS and save any changes you have made.

Then log in to windows and see if you can install the drivers again if the card was disabled.

 

Under advanced chip set I only had 4 choices and none of them sounded like a sound issue. They were Init Display First, Video Memory Size, DVMT Mode, DVMT/Fixed Memory size. The only thing I found that sounded related to sound was under Intergrated Perhiphals and the onboard audio controller is enabled. Needless to say, I still don't have any sound........... this is so frustrating. Thanks for all your help!!

 

Okay, that is what you should have been looking for, sorry for the poor directions.

Try this: Disable the onboard audio where you just found it, then save and boot into windows. Then uninstall any drivers for audio (I know you probably don't have any at this stage) that you can find, reboot and enable it again.

 

That didn't work either, but I don't know what audio drivers to uninstall besides Realtek. I was in device manager and I have 3 entries for Audio Codecs and 1 for Legacy Audio Drivers. Seems like a lot to me. I did the reboot with no more luck.