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How to identify an unknown (and generic, cheap) sound card on your PC?

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First post, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

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My mother currently uses the ex-PC of my little brother. It is a 600MHz Duron with 512MB of RAM (no big deal since she's just using it for Office and browsing), and an unknown sound card of cheap & generic type.

Problem is, my little brother is the typical kind of guy who purchased the PC with everything pre-installed and never ask for drivers --let alone the model of the hardware he bought.

When he purchased the PC back in 2001 (or was it 2002?), it was pre-installed with Win98 and everything runs fine, including the shitty, cheap sound card. However, when we added more RAM and replaced the O/S with WinXP, the sound card was not recognized anymore. You know, "drivers not installed" problem.

I have asked my little bro what the sound card model it, but he just gave me a blank stare.

Now I'm visiting my mom's house (in Bandung) and she asked me to "activate" the sound card, which I CAN'T because I don't have the slightest idea which driver I should download. I don't even know what the sound card is; does it use AC97 chipset? Or is it some obscure Creative clone barely known to mankind?

Is there any website that can detect our PC and recognize the sound card on the fly (IIRC there is such website for mobos), and give suggestion what driver to download?

I don't have much time because I'll be returning to Jakarta on Sunday. And if I don't solve the problem before leaving my mom, an idiot who thinks that he knows everything about computer (no, not my little bro) will definitely wreak havoc on my mother's PC and ruin everything, and I'll waste my next weekend cleaning up his shit.

Many thanks for the help.

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Reply 1 of 7, by Zup

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Is an ISA or PCI card? If it is PCI, go to http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads.htm an download PCI or PCI32 and the lastest PCIDEVS.TXT. It should tell you what sound card is.

If it is an ISA card, there are plenty of hardware detector programs.

Also, you can try reading the FCC ID in the card, and check it in http://www.fcc.gov/searchtools.html

If all else fails, you may try uploading some photos of the sound card (with detailed photos on chips).

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Reply 2 of 7, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

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Zup wrote:

Is an ISA or PCI card? If it is PCI, go to http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads.htm an download PCI or PCI32 and the lastest PCIDEVS.TXT. It should tell you what sound card is.

Thanks for the link! Downloading it now. I guess my cousin won't mess up with the computer again this time. 😀

EDIT: found it! It's ALS4000 Audio Chipset. Thanks again! 😀

Bus 0 (PCI), Device Number 11, Device Function 0
Vendor 4005h Avance Logic Inc
Device 4000h ALS4000 Audio Chipset

Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.

Reply 3 of 7, by fillosaurus

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😁 Well, I usually open the case, extract the card and look at the chipset.
Then put the card back, close the case, fire up the PeeCee and surf for drivers.

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Reply 4 of 7, by eL_PuSHeR

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But having to do that can be annoying.

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Reply 5 of 7, by h-a-l-9000

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Locking up your PC with these PCI scanning utilities because some stupid Intel USB controller doesn't want to be scanned can also be annoying.

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Reply 6 of 7, by Davros

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you should be able to identify hardware from the fcc code

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Reply 7 of 7, by Zup

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I use PCI tools only when booted in real DOS, so I don't care if it locks the computer. But there's another problem: most motherboards don't show what their sound chips are. I guess that's related to sound bridges and AC97 codecs, so I prefer to open the computer and look directly to the chip.

Also, it seems that some motherboard manufacturers don't know what are they selling. Last time I had to look at a motherboard, the manufacturer (MSI) showed in their web that the motherboard had a Realtek soundchip, but the motherboard had an Analog Device (a.k.a. Soundmax) chip. No wonder why MSI sound drivers didn't work.

And, as I said before, the safer way to identify the hardware is the messages written in the board, the chips and the FCC ID.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

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