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I can't get my soundcard to work. Formatted and re?nstalled my comp, but after installing the drivers for my soundcard, it gave some conflict which caused my comp to shut down right after loading the drivers. I tried several other drivers, which didn't work either, got rid of all of them, used another old soundcard I had laying around, took the first one out, ran the hardware detection, which installed a couple of drivers, which don't work either. I then installed a dos-driver which loads when the comp starts up, but still nothing. Anybody know what to do now?

did the sound used to work before or is this a new card? maybe a pci slot or isa or whatever slot you are using, maybe the slot you are using blew out. try switching it perhaps. its worth a shot.

They used to work until I had to re?nstall the drivers (which I forgot to backup). The new card (the older one) is in an ISA slot, while the old one (the better one) was in a PCI slot. The problem can't be there.

i havent had a problem like this. i doubt it, but maybe its your speakers. contact your sound cards manufacturer and ask them.

If it were my speakers, I wouldn't get error messages 'bout the comp being unable to send the music and sounds. It'd play them, but I wouldn't be able to hear them. The manufacturer is no more. It's taken over by Realtek. When I went to the manufacturer's site to download drivers, it redirected me there. Got the drivers from Realtek's site, but they too crash my comp.

Do a Google search on your sound card. I don't believe that noone had the same problem with it before.

i kind of skimmed through you thread, so thats why i thought it was your speakers. i didnt see that part. but yeah just look on google i guess.

Google didn't reveal anything, and it's not my speakers or I'd've gotten that volume control-icon next to my clock and no error messages when starting WinAmp :-\

Well, what's your model then? I might be able to help you...

well ... mainboard (incl. revision and bios version),
soundcard type & manufacturer, and most important: Operating System installed on your computer. You shouldn't have had the need to reinstall each and everything not even on a Windows box. Recent Windows versions are clever enough to add driver modules to the kernel on the fly.

I suppose you check the pci & isa slot settings for if there are any IRQ line is assigned to TWO pci slots or a pci slot and an ISA slot, it is very likely that the whole system craps out. This kind of trouble I have experienced way too often ere I've learned the lore of assigning IRQ lines manually to the pci slots (Plug 'n' play sometimes assigns an IRQ line to two or more slots/devices)

Now follws a hint for rouble shooting: dismount each and every additional hardware (NIC, SCSI controller, modem cards and what so ever), so that you only have the graphics adapter and the sound card in your system. Then start up and look what happens. especially in windows, check out the thing called "device manager" for mishapen drive installations, wrong IO port ranges and sorta. DMA can be an issue too. If you are windows user, check out the safe mode to do the occasional tweaking.

@joey: sure it canna be the speakers gosh. Since which time speakers cause the whole system to crap out wi'out any chance?

HTH c&cw

Oh, and one tip: touch the parts which don't want to work with your bare finger tips.

I sometimes have this: harddisks won't be recognized, the graphics adapter makes illisible output, with one word, everything is crap and the pc is in a *very* bad mood.

Then, I open the case and touch the parts - hard disk - sometimes a action of unplugging and replugging it to the power line is asked for - and abra cadabra it is working as smooth as a soft shammy running over your back.

I think it has to do with discharging static electricity - not only with the act of taking care of the small green slimy monster inside the box.

*gg*

Yeah, check the Device manager, then View - Resources by type and check for any conflicts. Forgot to add that, since I haven't had an issue with them for a few years...

Now they're fine in the device manager, but if I check Multimedia -> Devices, everything says: "Status: the hardware is turned on but inactive due to unknown reason."

Found what was wrong. My card went crap and doesn't work anymore. Brother tried it on a different comp, under Linux, not Win98 and it didn't work there either.