Sound! Is there hope??

Greetings Everyone,

I have a Gateway pc, running xp pro. Bought the pc around 2000 (yes, it's a vintage pup) and it had Win 95; when upgraded to xp, no sound. When purchased, was running an onboard soundcard (on the motherboard), thought probably the sound from that wasn't going to work with new os software, xp. Had heard that you could install a sound card and the sound would work (everything else runs fine). Bought a Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE soundcard, installed, tried everything I know (but that wasn't much) and still no sound. It seems like it would be something simple like a switch being turned "off" for the sound to no longer use the onboard card/chip(s) or "on" for stand alone soundcard to override anything else. But...

Any of you wizards out there know how to do this/recommendations?

Rockyjo

PS. Yes, I have more specs, is there hope?

 

Did you check in the BIOS for a setting to turn off onboard audio? What is the model number of the gateway? Is there a yellow exclamation mark next you your audio device in Device Manager?

 

Look in the BIOS and be sure the installed sound card is enabled.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback.

In device manager, under Sound, video and game controllers, card is listed (Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373) (WDM) and looks good to go (no notations).
Under Other devices category, yellow questionmark beside the category, and ATM Network Controller and Multimedia Audio Controller each have yellow questionmarks and yellow exclamation points.

Background info: It's a Gateway "Performance 500" (was office grade in its day, tower), Model on the back says "TBR2 500 PIII" as in pentium 3.
Motherboard: Description from Gateway: MBD PII /BX TB2 w/AUD R4 (reference to the audigy onboard sound), and SAC PIII 500 MHZ.
Description from Belarc: Intel WS440BX AA719570-209.
Bios: Intel 4W4SB0X0.15A.0013.P08 from 4/99.

I don't recall where to check the bios settings you guys mentioned. Will be back...

RJ

 

My fault on the audio controller message; I have installed and uninstalled the card and creative software several times trying to get sound, to no avail, and hadn't reinstalled the software from the disk; now it is. So, no message in Device Manager about audio controller. (Still have one for ATM Network Controller, have to think about that.) But back to card and audio software installed, no messages in device mgr about audio, and no sound.

I don't know how to get into BIOS to check settings; I know how to get into the safe mode area, but no title of the list given looked like where you check bios; would appreciate your advice...

RJ

 

When the computer boots tap either the F1 or F2 keys to see if you can get into BIOS. You might want to try the DEL key also.

When you look at Device Manager, is there more than one sound device listed?

 

Device mgr, in audio, only lists this card.

OK, I got BIOS Setup Utility; Peripheral Config, it says:
Audio: Enabled.
It does not say which audio is enabled, the onboard or card...?
And there is nothing else that appears to have to do with audio. I guess I will disable it and see what happens...

RJ

 

Creative is "playing" the cd; no sound yet.

RJ

 

I am pretty sure the Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373) (WDM) is the onboard audio. You disabled the onboard audio in BIOS, correct? If you did, is there any sound card listed in Device Manager now?

I would also search for dxdiag (direct X) and run that. Do the test and see if any errors are listed. Also go into services and make sure the Windows Audio Service is started.

Is your XP OS updated to SP3?

It may be that your speakers are not working. Have you tried them on another computer? I would also make sure that your speaker jacks are in the correct location on the back of the card.

Is this your card?

http://support.creative.com/Product...RSET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_4847,VARSET=CategoryID:1

 

I just disabled "audio" in bios, it didn't describe further. Well, you are right: Device Manager now shows "SB Audigy" (not Creative Audio PCI, etc as before).

I am running xp sp2 right now; don't know if the pup can handle the load of sp3. I just use it for email and reading news, and maybe running cd's...

This is my sound card: Sound Blaster Audigy SE
http://support.creative.com/downloads/welcome.aspx?nDriverType=1#type_1

Speakers worked fine until software upgrade, so don't have reason to doubt them. Yes, I will check all connections again to be sure they're in the right place.

Back on the other items...

Thank you,

RJ

 

Speaker set (2 speakers and 1 woofer), is Boston Digital, BA735.

Plug in card on cpu goes from Digital I/O to back of subwoofer, Digital In, so I think that looks right...

RJ

 

Checked: Windows Audio Service was set at started.

Not sure where I'm supposed to start dxdiag -- I'm getting lots of dxdiag.exe's in Search from Start. They're in c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows\servicpackfiles\i386, etc. Must be another place to start it?

RJ

 

I am not sure about how to connect up the digital speakers. You might want to look at the User Guide on page 1-7. I did see that Analog Mode is standard and talks about switching between digital and analog modes.

Did you run dxdiag? Is there a yellow exclamation mark next to your sound card SB Audigy?

Edit: SP3 should not be a problem and you are not receiving critical security updates. With this computer, it may take some time to install though.

Sorry, I missed the dxdiag question. You can find it in C:\Windows\system32

 

Sorry, I was looking at the wrong user guide. Not for the SE version.

 

tgell,

Ran the diag test and it is attached. Never heard any sound during the tests.

Driver seemed to have failed the test...?

I'm beginning to wonder about the naming; maybe also it's the wrong driver for the card? I keep seeing SB Live! 24-bit, and in other areas the card is referred to as Audigy--unless Creative uses both names for the same card.

Thank you,
RJ

 

Oops, here's the file:

 

Hey tgell, you are Extraordinaire!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The old pup is back into tunes!!!

There were 2 things--1) your fix in the bios, and indication that the named audio card on the pc before the bios change was actually the onboard one, so we got the cpu addresing the right one, and 2) these stupid notations on the back of the card have an ultramicroscopic, scratched in marking in metal that has a pic of a microphone on one side of the input jack hole and "digital i/o" etched in on the other side next to the other jack; between those two notations above the hole in the middle is the even more microscopic word "or"--meaning the digital i/o notation applied to the first jack hole, not the second, which of course is where I had the jack, seeing the digital i/o designation. Grrr!!

Anyway, you are awesome! Thanks for taking the time on even an old pc.

It hasn't put out sound for years, I couldn't figure this out. Love how the instructions say, in tiny print, "Disable any onboard audio device in your computer." From that the customer is supposed to know to change the bios; nothing in the online manual with the card either, of course.

You should hear how it sounds now! No one would believe that an outfit this old could sound this good!

You and another guy on this site made my week!

One last question, could you suggest a low(er)-resource av for this low-ram (by today's standards) pc? I'd love to hear...

Thank you!!

Rockyjo

 

Glad you got sound. Great job in the diagnosis of your problem by double checking the jacks. I would recommend possibly Avast for your AV. I have not had problems with it and I have it on an old Pentium with 378MB or ram. You will notice a slow down vs no AV though. I would still recommend an upgrade to SP3 as many security holes have been patched.

 

I just saw your other posts. I do not think you have enough disk space left on the drive to run Avast.

 

I checked all settings, and everything multiple times .

I have to make more disk space anyway. How much do you think Avast needs by itself + any incremental for adding sp3?

Is there any realistic likelihood that upgrading to sp3 could knock out the sound? (Since it's happened once; I'm jittery. Cuz is needs different driver or ? Not so anxious to start over again )

RJ

 

For avast 7 you would need a min of 256MB or ram and 210MB or free space.

https://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1139

Requirements for SP3.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cc164204.aspx

I do not think the sound would be affected by installing SP3. Do you have the option to reinstall XP if something goes wrong?