[RESOLVED] Big Time Sound Problems

My sound hasn't worked at all on my pc for quite some time. I have checked everything I know to check, speakers, drivers, IRQ, etc. and windows says everything is ok. I even formated my hard drive and reinstalled win95.Still didn't work. Then I went to packard bells site and downloaded their driver for my SoundIIIAudiodevice w/SWT. I loaded the driver.
Now the sound "works" with my speakers turned all the way up, but for example, when I go to change the volume on my desktop volume control bar, the little "ding" sound it makes when you change volume is buried beneath a "static machine gun" sound. Literaly like a machine gun whos shots make a static sound instead of a "bang".
The first time I encountered the "static machine gun" was when I was playing MechCommander on my system even though my system didn't meet the minimum requirements for the game. During the opening screen shots all the sounds, music and dialog was covered with that terrible sound. However, if I rebooted and ran the game again, the sound would work fine. It was shortly after playing that game that my sound died.
Is it possible that running applications on systems that don't meet the minumum requirements can burn out components of that system?
Can anyone help? I feel like I am so close to restoring my sound without buying a new sound card, that I can almost taste it.
Thanks

you will probably find that it is Direct X that is causing the problems. Goto ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS in the Control Panel and select Direct X. Then Click on restore old sound drivers . This should cure your prob.

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Interesting...the only thing in my add/remove programs menu box is my Bell Atlantic account (I just reinstalled windows). When I entered "Directx" in "find", a folder with a setup program was the only thing found. When I opened that I got a subsystem listing with version numbers etc. The restore old driver buttons are dead.
I can delete directx setup but am afraid that if I do I won't be able to restore old drivers. What do I do? Will the old drivers "automaticaly" be restored upon directx deletion?
Thanks

Make sure your Sound Card is not using IRQ 9. Since this is a shared IRQ it can cause the exact problem you are having. Try IRQ 7 or preferrably IRQ 5 for your sound card setting and reboot your PC. Make sure no other devices are using IRQ 5. Note: Your printer usually uses IRQ 7 but your Sound Card will still work on that setting most of the time.

[JeanneD]

he's right it's probably the irq, also if you uncheck automatic settings and look at the others available you might find one that only uses one dma channel instead of two, try that if irq doesn't help

Thanks so much for the help. It seems I may be getting somewhere now. I still have a couple of questions though. I assume IRQ nine and 5 are shared because on IRQ9 is my soundIIIMPU-401 device, on 5 is my SoundIIeeprom device. Should I still change the device on 9 to another setting? If so, what setting? 7 and 5 are allready taken up.
Maybe I should try switching them?
Thanks