Cannot Get Sound to Work / Trying to Revert to Onboard Sound

mig28maverick · 07-03-2009, 04:03 AM

I just got this computer from my friend who has been using it without sound for over a year. My computer died so I had no choice but to take this one, but I have to have sound. I have no idea what specific event triggered the sound loss, but I know the system has been reformatted with XP reinstalled more than once since it happened.

I believe the onboard sound is what was being used when it originally went out, but now there is a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital card in one of the PCI slots. My first instinct obviously was to download drivers for it, but the installers tell me that they can't locate a SoundBlaster connected to the computer. It's definitely connected, so that's one mystery I have yet to solve (could the PCI slots not be working?)

So after trying several different driver downloads that all should have worked, I've decided to try to switch back to the onboard audio device. The motherboard in the computer is an MSI K8N Neo4/SLI. I've tried completely disconnecting the Soundblaster card but the computer still wants to see it and automatically install drivers for it, and if I disable the device in the audio options it says there's no other audio devices. None of the motherboard drivers I've installed have done anything to help.

Also I should note I don't currently have the capability to reformat or reinstall windows, so if anyone thinks that's where I should start I'll try to look into that.

Thanks!

Gamerfreak111 · 07-03-2009, 09:40 AM

This has happened to my laptop where it couldnt locate drivers and my laptop came with a cd to reinstall windows and that worked fine for me once i got all my info that i needed on flash drives. I couldnt find another way to get my speakers to work so maybe you should start looking into reinstalling it.

**grimx133** · 07-03-2009, 03:54 PM

When you say you disconnected the sound card, did you also remove it? Even if nothing is plugged in, as long as it's in the slot the computer will see it. Take it out of the machine and look into the bios to see if onboard audio is disabled, if so, enable it and try that.
You can also try the pci soundcard in another pci slot. Sometimes devices are picky about the slot they are in.

07-03-2009, 04:03 AM	#1 (permalink)
mig28maverick Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Cannot Get Sound to Work / Trying to Revert to Onboard Sound I just got this computer from my friend who has been using it without sound for over a year. My computer died so I had no choice but to take this one, but I have to have sound. I have no idea what specific event triggered the sound loss, but I know the system has been reformatted with XP reinstalled more than once since it happened. I believe the onboard sound is what was being used when it originally went out, but now there is a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital card in one of the PCI slots. My first instinct obviously was to download drivers for it, but the installers tell me that they can't locate a SoundBlaster connected to the computer. It's definitely connected, so that's one mystery I have yet to solve (could the PCI slots not be working?) So after trying several different driver downloads that all should have worked, I've decided to try to switch back to the onboard audio device. The motherboard in the computer is an MSI K8N Neo4/SLI. I've tried completely disconnecting the Soundblaster card but the computer still wants to see it and automatically install drivers for it, and if I disable the device in the audio options it says there's no other audio devices. None of the motherboard drivers I've installed have done anything to help. Also I should note I don't currently have the capability to reformat or reinstall windows, so if anyone thinks that's where I should start I'll try to look into that. Thanks!

07-03-2009, 09:40 AM	#2 (permalink)
Gamerfreak111 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 4 OS: XP	Re: Cannot Get Sound to Work / Trying to Revert to Onboard Sound This has happened to my laptop where it couldnt locate drivers and my laptop came with a cd to reinstall windows and that worked fine for me once i got all my info that i needed on flash drives. I couldnt find another way to get my speakers to work so maybe you should start looking into reinstalling it.

07-03-2009, 03:54 PM	#3 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,144 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Cannot Get Sound to Work / Trying to Revert to Onboard Sound When you say you disconnected the sound card, did you also remove it? Even if nothing is plugged in, as long as it's in the slot the computer will see it. Take it out of the machine and look into the bios to see if onboard audio is disabled, if so, enable it and try that. You can also try the pci soundcard in another pci slot. Sometimes devices are picky about the slot they are in. __________________