Everything on the computer works fine, except sound. I'm pretty experienced with PC's, and this one has me stumped. I have uninstalled the SoundMax drivers from Add/remove, and went to IBM's support site, found the exact PC model, and downloaded the specific drivers for it. No matter how many times I uninstall/reinstall, the result is always the same -- a bang in Device Manager next to the SoundMax entry. WinME auto-finds the driver and installs it if I uninstall and then reboot, but the bang is always there, and playing any kind of sound file gives an error code about improperly installed drivers.
I've also tried removing and re-adding the drivers from Safe Mode. No go.
I've searched SoundMax's website, the manual, IBM's support site, called IBM's tech support (no help, they claim they no longer support that model), and I tried installing the intel 810 chipset drivers, nothing ... I'm still soundless.
Can anyone offer any advice, short of reinstalling windows?
Thanks!
edit to add: I've also done a full Windows Update on the machine, and gotten every possible update.
ziffel
January 25th, 2004, 12:51 AM
Thanks for the link, but those are the drivers that I mentioned in my original post that I had already downloaded and installed.
confus-ed
January 25th, 2004, 04:57 AM
"bang" ??? I is confus-ed :D
We mean a yellow exlamation mark ?
What is it saying is the reason ? & has it ever worked ? Acpi on or off ?
& as far as this 'is it enabled in bios' question, if you delete the errant sound device(s) does windows re-find it /them (Generally you get more than one 'bit'/device showing for a s/c) ... can you tell us what windows thinks it has inside 'sound video & game controllers' within device manager ?
ziffel
January 25th, 2004, 11:22 AM
"bang" ??? I is confus-ed :D
We mean a yellow exlamation mark ?
What is it saying is the reason ? & has it ever worked ? Acpi on or off ?
& as far as this 'is it enabled in bios' question, if you delete the errant sound device(s) does windows re-find it /them (Generally you get more than one 'bit'/device showing for a s/c) ... can you tell us what windows thinks it has inside 'sound video & game controllers' within device manager ?
Daffy, it is enabled in the bios.
Confus-ed, sorry. A bang is a term for an error icon in device manager, either a question mark or an exclamation point. In this case, it's an exclamation point.
The reason listed for the excl. mark is "drivers not properly installed". Yes, it has worked in the past, and ACPI is off.
Yes, if I delete the device in dev mgr, WinME will refind it, add it back, report no errors during the add back, and then show a bang in DevMgr.
Thanks for the replies, but I think i'm going to just quit fighting this thing and just get an add-in PCI sound card from Newegg :)
ziffel
January 25th, 2004, 08:11 PM
Boot to safe mode and remove the sounddrivers then reinstall
It also helps if you read the text in my original post :)
"I've also tried removing and re-adding the drivers from Safe Mode. No go.
I've searched SoundMax's website, the manual, IBM's support site, called IBM's tech support"
In my first post, I also mentioned that I had already been to IBM's website, and gotten the specific drivers for this exact model PC.
So don't get on me about reading ;)
NooNoo
January 25th, 2004, 08:18 PM
Aaah this is the evil win me with sound wdm drivers. Get the 98 vxd drivers, tear the wdms out of safe mode and try with the vxd version.
ziffel
January 25th, 2004, 08:32 PM
Aaah this is the evil win me with sound wdm drivers. Get the 98 vxd drivers, tear the wdms out of safe mode and try with the vxd version.
NooNoo, thanks for your help. Is there a known issue between WinMe and 'wdm' drivers?
And do you know where I can get the 98 vxd set? I'd be willing to give that a try.
confus-ed
January 26th, 2004, 04:34 AM
NooNoo, thanks for your help. Is there a known issue between WinMe and 'wdm' drivers?
And do you know where I can get the 98 vxd set? I'd be willing to give that a try.
98SE & ME use 'wdm' sytle drivers (windows direct media) stuff before that uses vdx (Virtual eXtended Device), WDM is kind of 'middleware' & doesn't directly address hardware, VDXs deal directly with the device ... The WDM model is 'iffy' for all 9x windows installs & only 'works' really 'good' with NTFS systems like w2k or xp, theres a great long technical explanation to do with resource arbitration, which is too tedious even for me to explain :D
As far as IBM seem to be concerned they expect the 98 drivers to be WDM too, very touching too, I'm sure such faith in Uncle Bill ... however I'm none so trusting so the 95 drivers are what we want, which are definately vxd style, they'll be on the IBM site somewhere ....
ziffel
January 26th, 2004, 04:21 PM
98SE & ME use 'wdm' sytle drivers (windows direct media) stuff before that uses vdx (Virtual eXtended Device), WDM is kind of 'middleware' & doesn't directly address hardware, VDXs deal directly with the device ... The WDM model is 'iffy' for all 9x windows installs & only 'works' really 'good' with NTFS systems like w2k or xp, theres a great long technical explanation to do with resource arbitration, which is too tedious even for me to explain :D
As far as IBM seem to be concerned they expect the 98 drivers to be WDM too, very touching too, I'm sure such faith in Uncle Bill ... however I'm none so trusting so the 95 drivers are what we want, which are definately vxd style, they'll be on the IBM site somewhere ....
Thanks Daffy, and Confus-ed for the info. I'll see if I can find the older drivers and give those a try.
mikeydry
April 3rd, 2005, 05:58 PM
I was also trying to repair a failed sounddriver on a computer running XP PRO.
Didn't matter how many times I re-installed it refused to recognise any drivers.
I did have success with this site below and we are up and running.
I am having similar problems with my sound max drivers. I have onboard sound max audio, but after a reformat its stopped working. the drivers from mikey almost worked, i needed those files and my computer asked for others which i downloaded from http://ftp.delta-v.org/drivers/ittdriver/drivers/evod510/audio/SMAXWDM/W2K_XP/ , but for some reason out of the 6 "sound, video, and game controllers" i installed one still doesnt work. i cant seem to get the "multimedia audio controller" to work properly. I think it has to do with a file smsens.sys which i downloaded from the above website....im on win XP by the way.
mikeydry
April 5th, 2005, 05:52 AM
When I loaded the driver windows did ask for "smsens.sys" i did a search of the c drive and found it in several folders. Eventualy it grabbed one of them and away we went..
richyrich
March 7th, 2009, 07:47 AM
Hi all, this is my first post at Windrivers.
I'm trying to get sound working on a friend's PC. here are some specs
Everything on the computer works fine, except sound. I'm pretty experienced with PC's, and this one has me stumped. I have uninstalled the SoundMax drivers from Add/remove, and went to IBM's support site, found the exact PC model, and downloaded the specific drivers for it. No matter how many times I uninstall/reinstall, the result is always the same -- a bang in Device Manager next to the SoundMax entry. WinME auto-finds the driver and installs it if I uninstall and then reboot, but the bang is always there, and playing any kind of sound file gives an error code about improperly installed drivers.
I've also tried removing and re-adding the drivers from Safe Mode. No go.
I've searched SoundMax's website, the manual, IBM's support site, called IBM's tech support (no help, they claim they no longer support that model), and I tried installing the intel 810 chipset drivers, nothing ... I'm still soundless.
Can anyone offer any advice, short of reinstalling windows?
Thanks!
edit to add: I've also done a full Windows Update on the machine, and gotten every possible update."RichyRich"hey Sorry About Your Luck Sound's Like Too Me Your Friend Need's A New Computer
clauded
March 7th, 2009, 07:08 PM
if you look in ebay there is some cheap usb soundcard for laptop and i mean less then $10.00 including shipping you just plug it into a usb oulet and it install itself and bingo you got music i sold quite a few to people with old laptop and don`t want change or spend too much money on the laptop,good luck