Crazy Sound Card Problem, still nothing after FOUR sound cards...

[apollens]

So I'm working on a relatively decent Compaq desktop - P4 2.8GHZ, 1GB ram, 200GB hd, etc that I had just reformatted and installed a fresh copy of XP...the problem they are now having is that the onboard sound card wasn't working (also hadn't been working before the format), so they wanted me to install a pci sound card. I first investigated the onboard one...drivers were all set, volume was turned up, etc...but when I hooked up my (working) speakers, there just wasn't any audio. Ok.

So I proceeded to install a pci sound card...drivers installed flawlessly, made sure the correct sound card was selected in the audio devices...hooked up my speakers to the new sound card...and it worked fine for a few hours...then it absolutely would not output any sound, no matter what I did. Nothing had changed...the drivers were still fine, the settings correct, etc...so I then proceeded to try THREE more pci sound cards, and all three of them (which worked perfectly fine in other systems) installed flawlessly, yet played no sound at all on this machine. I updated the system's bios to the newest version, tried disabling the onboard sound card, even reformatted again...but still nothing. I'm completely stumped. Clearly the problem isn't the actual sound cards. And it's not the drivers. What else could I do?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated...I'm completely stumped.

 

[Hefemeister]

Have you tried the speakers on another computer to ensure that they are still working or tried a known working pair on your computer?

 

[apollens]

Yes, I tried multiple pairs of headphones, all of which worked fine on other systems. Any ideas?

 

[KSoD]

Please be patient. It is the weekend and not everyone is around to answer questions at this time.

First i would say that it could be the PCI Slot. Have they got all the chipset drivers and that installed?
Have you tried other PCI Slots?

 

[apollens]

Yup, chipset drivers are all set, and I did try switching pci slots...nothing =(

 

[Hefemeister]

have you checked playback devices to ensure that the sound card is set as the default?

 

[apollens]

I did...in fact it is stuck as default because there are no other sound devices at all to choose from...so that shouldn't be an issue...

...it just makes no sense! XD

 

[pokernod]

Im no computer genius like some of these guys but I had the same problem with......wow, a Compaq (laptop, actually 2, same problem). And I was standing there when it happened. We had it plugged into a tv (watching a video with S-Video) and instead of turning everything off first (not that you should have to) a friend simply pulled the 2-way audio cable out of the computer end. there was a small tick noise and then the audio wouldnt work anymore......????

I went to the Compaq site an got what I thought to be the correct drivers by typing in the product number. But they were wrong. I found this out from someone else who had also had the same problem (with the Compaq site). He told me to type in "Presario" and the BOTTOM number from that same white sticker on the bottom of the laptop instead of the PN. I did this and sure enough....a completely different driver came up. I unistalled the previous drivers that, as you said, were still just sitting there claiming to work fine, and installed the new driver and it worked perfectly. I wish I could give you a firm example of the PN number(s) difference but neither of the laptops are here right now. But if you dont see it or are confused about it (unlikely) let me know and I will contact the new owner of that laptop and get the numbers for an example.

Probably wont help and it probably has nothing to do with the PCI card but its worth a try to get the on board sound working.

 

[philbar71]

well it almost sounds like the windows audio service is not running. have you tried that?

 

[apollens]

Thanks for the responses guys...pokernod's idea got the onboard sound to work! Thanks!

I'm still very curious how all the pci sound cards managed to not work though...

Thanks for your help