Need Trident 4D Wave DX driver (I think)

[SunSpace]

I've decided I need to start over (new thread). Thanks to Sly, Platypus and ross.v for educating me thus far!

To recap my Device Manager says under Other Devices that I have a PCI Multimedia Audio Device and it has the yellow question mark in front of it. I ran Everest report and it said that my audio adapter (sound card) is a Trident 4D Wave DX Sound Accelerator. Isn't this enough data to find a driver to download or do I still need to get some numbers off the sound card? If this IS enough data, does anybody know where I can get a free download???

I've checked out several "driver guide" sites with their "FREE DOWNLOAD HERE" and they just point you to the manufacturer's home page and Trident doesn't support their old sound cards. (I'm guessing these type of "guide" sites are bogus, come-on sites to get you to view their pop-up and banner ads.)

Any help on this will be "berry, berry" appreciated.

[TechZ]

Not being involved in the other thread, what OS is this?
Have you tried the drivers from here:
http://www.soundcard-drivers.com/companies/1072.htm

I've had problems with older hardware and no drivers, usually that site has them in one of the files or the other.

[ADS_Tech]

Had trouble with this myself before, but may have the driver you need as I did get it working. PM me with the O/S and i'll send it you.

[SunSpace]

Sounds promising Ad Tech. My OS is Windows 98 SE. But here's an update on what I have done and you can tell me if you think I still ought to install your driver.

I took TechZ's advice and downloaded a driver that is supposed to be for my Trident 4D Wave DX sound card and the download and installation were uneventful except one file (GM60MB.SLB) was not downloaded for the driver and so during the installation I skipped over it and completed the installation hoping that the driver would work without it. The dialog box in the Device Manager area says "This device is working properly." now anyway. So maybe it's OK as is but I'm not sure. At least now when I boot up I get the standard boot up sound when it has completed (and other such sounds) BUT I still get no sound (not a peep) from the CD ROM when I try to play some music.

Also I just remembered that when I had the case off the computer there was two or three wires wrapped together (red, black and ?) connected to the sound card BUT they aren't connected to anything at the other end. The two connectors on each end are small, black and rectangular in shape and have 4 holes each and are about 1/8th inch thick (high) by about 1/2 inch wide. (This is embarrassing not knowing the technical names for these things. I can hear all you techies laughing.) So, maybe this is the problem. It wasn't me that disconnected the wires. I bought it used and that's the way I found it. So should they be connected to something and if so where???

So, Ad Tech if you still think I should install the driver you have, send it my way please and thanks for the offer. If I go that route I suppose I should first uninstall the one I have in there now before I install yours, right?

But let's first see if anybody out there has any recommendations for me at this point??? Thanks in advance for any help any of you can give me!

[Platypus]

As you suspect, SunSpace, that cable is for the analog sound connection to the CD. It will plug into a matching socket on most CD drives, on the back panel on the opposite side to the power plug. Some CDs have a different smaller socket though.

But it may not be necessary to use it - first, if you haven't already checked, look in Control Panel on the CD Music tab of Multimedia, see if the option "Enable digital CD Audio for this CD-ROM device" is enabled. If not, enable it & see if you then get sound. (Either way, double check all the mixer settings to make sure CD sound is not muted etc.)

If the digital CD Audio works OK, there is no need to have that lead connected.

[ADS_Tech]

As you suspect, SunSpace, that cable is for the analog sound connection to the CD. It will plug into a matching socket on most CD drives, on the back panel on the opposite side to the power plug. Some CDs have a different smaller socket though.

But it may not be necessary to use it - first, if you haven't already checked, look in Control Panel on the CD Music tab of Multimedia, see if the option "Enable digital CD Audio for this CD-ROM device" is enabled. If not, enable it & see if you then get sound. (Either way, double check all the mixer settings to make sure CD sound is not muted etc.)

If the digital CD Audio works OK, there is no need to have that lead connected.

What he said!...........

Doesnt sound like you need that driver now after all. :)

[SunSpace]

Wow! All this good data. Thanks guys! I can see daylight at the end of the tunnel. I'll have time to work on this project later today.

I did take the time awhile ago to take Platypus' advice to see if I need to "Enable digital CD Audio for this CD-ROM device" in Multimedia. On the very first click on the Advanced Settings of the dialog box my system locked up. Did Control-Alt + delete and ended the immediate task and the whole system stayed locked and I had to restart. Restarted 3 times and it did the same thing.

Same thing happens when Media Player 9 is open when I try to change the volume or such things. I don't think I was having this problem before I installed MP9 which was yesterday or the day before. It is a huge program. I feel like maybe I should uninstall it.

I don't think this locking problem should have anything to do with not having the wires connected from the sound card to the CD-ROM, right? Of course I'll connect it anyway later today when I have time.

Any suggestions on the locking problem anybody?

[SunSpace]

Yahoooo!!!! OK Houston we have sound!!! Ahhhhhh! So good to here my favorite music again.

I connected the sound card wires to the CD-ROM and downloaded the missing Trident 4D Wave file from the original driver installation and it worked!

Thanks to all of you that helped. You're the greatest!!

I still have some kind of bug with Media Player 9 as I can't change tracks to listen to a different song, etc. The minute I try using the different controls it locks MP 9 and eventually I have to reboot. There's a few more details in my previous post above if anyone wants to take a stab at debuging it. My hunch is to just uninstall MP 9 and use my earlier version. As I think that version was working fine.

What say ye folks? Any ideas?

[Platypus]

Glad you got a good result SunSpace.


I don't think this locking problem should have anything to do with not having the wires connected from the sound card to the CD-ROM, right?

Yes, they shouldn't be related at all.

What version of DirectX is on the system? It's usually best to have the most current version (currently 9.0c), but sometimes older video or an unusual sound card isn't DX9 compatable, causing problems, and 8.1 can be better. The latest versions of programs often need the latest version of DirectX, so dropping back to earlier software versions is an option if you still get the features you want.

[SunSpace]

Thanks for responding, Platypus. Hey I'm inexperienced enough to not know how to determine which version of DirectX I have. Please tell me how to do that.

Thanks again.

[TechZ]

Start-->Run-->dxdiag

it will tell you there.

[SunSpace]

Thanks TechZ for your reply. I tried your suggestion (Start > Run > dxdiag) but it would do nothing. It just sat there and made no processing sounds or anything.

Earlier today I used Explore to find the same file (dxdiag) and tried to open it and it did the same thing - nothing.

I tried to run the Everest program and the same thing.

I believe the very locking problem involving Media Player 9 not functioning right (can't change tracks, etc.) is part of an overall problem of system locking. So I don't think I'm going to be able to determine what version of DirectX I have.

The only other things I did BEFORE the locking problem showed up was to download the following (and in this sequence) the driver for Trident 4D Wave DX from a "driver guide" site and then an unzip program called PowerArchiver (from a different site) and then I downloaded one file (from a different driver guide site) that was missing from the earlier Trident driver installation. I don't have it pin pointed as to exactly when the locking problem first started since I downloaded all of these things within a few hours time span.

Of course there's the possibility that one (or more?) of these downloads gave me some malicious code or virus or something, but I'm more inclined to think I got some incompatibility going on here (as Platypus suggested earlier). Since the MP 9 was such a huge program and I have an earlier version still loaded, I think I want to uninstall it. Then see if that handles it.

If it doesn't, I think I will uninstall the unzip program as I can alway download another if I need it.

Anybody agree or disagree with this plan or sequence of steps? Any other suggestions???

[SunSpace]

So I uninstalled the recent downloads: Everest, PowerArchiver and MP 9 and it did solve the locking problem when I operate my earlier version of Media Player as I can steam the Net and my CD player works fine, but it still locks up when I try to go into Control Panel > Multimedia and try to click on Advanced Properties and I have to reboot every time. Don't really need to check Adv Prop to see if the Digital Audio ... is enabled or not since the analog connection to the CD-ROM is functioning fine (re: sound and changing tracks, etc.) but the fact that it always locks when I try to get in there shows there's some bug somewhere and I'd feel a lot more secure if it didn't lock.

I scanned for viruses and none showed up and then I ran ScanDisk and it showed no errors. So there's an update on what I've tried.

The bug whatever it is doesn't affect running the programs I usually run like Outlook Exp, Outlook, Word and Quicken (finance prog.) so it's not stopping me in that way but the mystery is killing me. You know that feeling?!! Grrr!

So any of you gurus out there got some tricks I can try??? I hope, I hope!

[SunSpace]

CORRECTION: It locked up on me again just now when I tried navigating out of WinDrivers. And I had to reboot to get back on line to WinDrivers to add this short note. So the locking problem is broader reaching then I thought. Hmmm??