Please Help Me With Sound In XP! \ VOGONS

Please Help Me With Sound In XP!

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First post, by dyinginformant

Posted on 2002-10-12, 19:43

dyinginformant Offline

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This doesn't have to do with old games or old hardware. It is a mystery what happens, but very aggrivating. So I wonder if anyone can help me with this?

I have a Sound Blast Live 5.1 card and Windows XP. There was a mistake I made or something when I was updating the drivers (and I bet this is the cause of my occassional problem). In Windows Update it says I do not have the latest sound drivers when I know I do and I downloaded them. And this is what happens to me semi-regularly:

The sound in Windows disappears. Actually, all sound disappears. I don't know what triggers it, but it's not a typical problem, so the only way I can normally solve it is by randomly running sound and music applications and internet radio sites or streaming media, and hoping that it will "kick" sound back. Usually any sound or music playing means it's completely back.

I have tried every application I can think of (well, not all because I get the point that sound isn't working), and I restarted the computer, etc. For now, how can I get sound back, and for always, how can I fix them problem for good so it never happens again?

Ofcourse you may not know. But you all seem like very smart people who know a thing or two more about PCs than I do. I hope you can try and help me. Thanks a lot for your time and help so far.

-Nadine

Reply 1 of 6, by Snover

Posted on 2002-10-12, 19:51

Snover Offline

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If you think it's a problem from when you were updating your drivers do the following:

Get your original install CD
UNinstall the drivers (should be listed in Add/Remove Programs
remove the card from your Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > Device Manager > Sound, video, and game controllers > double-click "Creative SB Live" > Driver tab > Uninstall > OK)
restart your computer
install the drivers from the disc when Windows prompts you that you have new hardware
download the latest drivers from Creative Labs' website
run the downloaded program (which should automatically update your drivers in a totally back-ass-wards way)

Simple, ne? Actually, no, it's not, but it should fix the problem if it is, indeed, a problem from when you installed the card's drivers.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 2 of 6, by Nicht Sehr Gut

Posted on 2002-10-13, 00:01

Nicht Sehr Gut Offline

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When in doubt, trust the manufacturer's drivers and not those from Microsoft. I once had a UDMA card for my hard drives, installed Microsoft's "updated" driver and it caused horrible thrashing on my drives.

BTW, did you try the "Driver Rollback"? Should've been easy...

Reply 3 of 6, by dyinginformant

Posted on 2002-10-13, 02:49

dyinginformant Offline

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Oh yeah... where do I find that driver rollback again?

Reply 4 of 6, by Nicht Sehr Gut

Posted on 2002-10-13, 20:09

Nicht Sehr Gut Offline

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Start Menu-->Control Panel-->System-->Hardware-->Device Manager button-->Display Adapters-->Geforce-->Driver-->RollBack Driver

When you get a chance, you really need to take little time and get to know your OS. If you need help with general operating system quiestions you might try google to search for info on things like use of the OS.

Reply 5 of 6, by dyinginformant

Posted on 2002-10-14, 02:35

dyinginformant Offline

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Well, I just forgot where I saw that before. Is that only for GeForce? We're talking about Soundblaster here.

Anyway, don't worry about it. The sound is working now. In this case, it was Creative's "Diagnostics" that triggered it to work. When I ran the tests and heard sound, all sound was working again. But this is an ongoing problem, and I will have to reinstall the drivers, or get them from Creative.

So what's the problem with Microsoft Update? Can Microsoft do ANYTHING right?

Reply 6 of 6, by Nicht Sehr Gut

Posted on 2002-10-14, 03:08

Nicht Sehr Gut Offline

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dyinginformant wrote:

Well, I just forgot where I saw that before. Is that only for GeForce? We're talking about Soundblaster here.

Sorry. Lost track jumping back and forth between posts. Basically it works the same for all drivers, except of course, when you reach the Device Manager, you got to whatever device needs the driver change.

BTW, if disaster strikes again, "rollback" the driver right away. If you install yet another driver, rollback (probably) won't work.

So what's the problem with Microsoft Update? Can Microsoft do ANYTHING right?

Like I said, trust the manufacturer first. Most likely XP mis-identified my UDMA card. It was based on a "Promise" chip, but it wasn't "Promise" controller; but XP thought it was. Once I gave it the proper driver, it was fine.

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