Sound Card/PCI Device Driver Problems

Here is My Problem:

About 2 months ago I bought a headset that I was going to use with Roger Wilco. When I plugged the headset in my computer froze then crashed. I didn't think that plugging in that headset would crash my comp. because it doesn't send out any signal.

Well my computer crashed, and after a lot of work on trying to figure out what it was I got my computer up and running again but now I have no sound.

The only way I am able to boot up my computer is to disable the PCI Device, which is not working propery because it says that the drivers for the device are not installed. My sound card is working fine but I cannot re-install the PCI device drivers.

What the hell am i supposed to do. I just want sound back on my computer..

Please Hel Me.

Akira

Need a lot more information

Is the sound onboard or a proper pci card?

What windows version?

Is this a branded computer (eg compaq, tiny, hp) ?


Where does this pci device appear, device manager or are you disabling something in bios?

aiite...

Sound is a proper PCI card

im using Windows XP

Computer is a Gateway PentiumIV

and the PCI device appears in the Hardware Device Manager...that is how I disable it

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OK, the last time I looked Gateway had about 20 different P4 models out and there are about 200 pci sound cards.

Could you please narrow it down a bit for me?

11 possible sound drivers here or do the update at the bottom.

Before you start scrambling for drivers and pulling your hair out, have you tried System Restore?

hahahaha

yes....i am not a moron

i even installed a new version of Windows....but to no avail

and the Soundcard is a Creative Labs Soundblaster Live!

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Sorry... had to ask. You'd be amazed how many people have banged their head against the wall for days before giving that a try.

So just out of curiosity, how do you know your sound card is still good if you can't install the drivers for it? Have you tried it in another system?

Did you do a repair or a clean install of XP? Have you tried moving the card to a different PCI slot?

clean install

i upgraded from XP home to XP professional

I havent tried switching slots yet

and i know my soundcard works because i ran multiple tests on it and it says it is working properly..

-1-

o yea...

and is switchin PCI slots as easy as i think it is?

run it by me how you would go about doing that..

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It's easy to do (assuming of course you have an empty slot). However I'm starting to get the feeling that may not do too much for you (although it's certainly worth a shot).

It sounds like you really didn't do a clean install, but rather did an upgrade. Is that correct? If so, reformatting your HD and then re-installing a fresh copy of WinXP might be the way to go.

The thing that bothers me however, is that WinXP does have native drivers for the SB Live!. The fact that the OS isn't recognizing the card and attempting to install the drivers for it might suggest that there's a problem with the card itself. I've seen many multimedia cards go belly-up this way. Windows will detect it as a mutimedia device, but will no longer recognize the exact type of card it is, which prevents the proper drivers from installing.

I don't know if possible for you to try, but before taking drastic action (such as a re-format), I would either try the suspect card in a different PC, or try a known good sound card in your PC. Of course if you don't have access to either this won't be an option.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Akira
o yea...

and is switchin PCI slots as easy as i think it is?

run it by me how you would go about doing that..

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Uninstall any drivers pertaining to the sound card (preferably in safe mode) Uninstall any other unknown or unidentified or duplicated hardware while you are at it in there. Shut down.

Open cover, remove pci card (don't for get the screw holding the bracket in and remove the plugs from the jacks first and the wire from the cd rom).

Now at this point you can either move the card to a new slot immediately, or boot to windows so that windows is booted without the sound card and should update the registry accordingly, then shut down and replace the sound card in the chosen pci slot.

When fitting pci cards, make sure that you have the edge connectors correctly aligned over the slot and the bracket aligned properly before apply even but firm pressure to push the card home. When you have seated the card, the bracket should be lined up with the screw hole and the bracket should be touching the case. Also look at the edge connectors in the pci slot, you should only be able to see the very tops of them at best.

When you are certain you have the card correctly seated, reconnect the jacks and the cdrom wire and put the cover back on and boot to windows.

yea I did completely re-format my computer

Deleted the HD and partitions.

I just did that lst night and it still didn't recognize anything.

When I go to the PCI device in my device manager it has that little yellow exclamation mark next to it signifying that there is an error with the PCI Device(driver?)

I will try switching slots and I hope that works as long as I dont screw it up in the process.

What I don't get is that I download the Drivers for my sound card but when I go to install them it either doesnt let me or I still have the same porblem. That is why I dont think it is the sound card but rather the PCI device..

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What error is showing on the pci device?

If this is a creative card it will often create two separate device types. Your mystery pci device is probably part of your sound card setup.

I'm a little confused. Are you saying that the SB Live is showing up in the Device Manager PLUS this mysterious PCI Device?

If I'm gauging your situation correctly, that PCI Device IS your SB Live! card and Windows is no longer recognizing it as such. This is why I think your card may be toast. Like I said earlier, I've seen many multimedia cards fail in this manor, so that would not be unusual.

Of course if your SB Live! is showing up in the Device Manager as well as an additional unknown device than I'm off base and we have a new ballgame.

Quote:

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Originally posted by NooNoo
If this is a creative card it will often create two separate device types. Your mystery pci device is probably part of your sound card setup.

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In other words the game port. Good call, I didn't even think of that for some reason. Now things are starting to make more sense.

All still leaves me to believe his sound card is playing harps right now.

My SB Live! gameport shows up in my device manager..

The PCI device is under my Other Devices tree and just says 'PCI DEVICE'

It doesn't say an error it just has that little exclamation mark. When I click on properties it say it isnt working correctly and that the drivers for this device are not installed.

The PCI device uses the same bus and slot as my SB Live! card.

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So both your SB Live! and your game port show up in the Device Manager as healthy IN ADDITION to this mysterious PCI Device? Now I'm confused again.

So I take it this mystery device was nowhere to be found before your PC blew a gasket?

i dont know...

it might have been but i never looked in my device manager because i wasnt having any problems...

All I know is that i had it fixed once and my dumb *** had to try and get the headset to work again...it crashed my computer again and I had the same problem...only thing is that this time i cant fix it.

My SB Live! Gameport shows up but not the SB Live! soundcard....is the Gameport and Soundcard both supposed to show?

I have re-installed my Creative Labs software numerous times it is just this PCI device that is ****ing with my computer. I dont know what this PCI device does all I know is that it is in the same place as my soundcard and when it is enabled my computer wont start up

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My pci 512 from creative set it self up as two separate entities. One was the sound card, game port, midi and stuff, the other was a kind of controller for the dos emulation and midi channels.

I think the pci device is the controller for the dos emulation etc. I think Mr Wilhelm is likely to be right, it is toast, or at the very least needs removing and reseating having uninstalled the sb live software and drivers and removing the devices from device manager, including your pci device.

aiite

ill try that...i am at school right now so i dont have access to my computer...

i was gonna buy a new soundcard anyway because mine is just tha same old stock one that comes with tha comp....

i hope that works but if it doesnt oh well...its only sound ryte?

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Yes, both the game port and the SB Live! should show up in the Device Manager. So the mystery device that's showing up is almost certainly your SB Live!. I'm glad we finally got that part straightened out! :)

What this more than likely means is that WinXP is detecting your card but not recognizing it as a SB Live!. This is almost certainly why the drivers for it won't install.

I would remove all traces of drivers and software from Safe Mode, pull the card, then re-install it in a different PCI slot. After booting up, WinXP should detect it as a SB Live! and install the native drivers for it. You could then install your 3rd party Creative drivers.

However, if you get the same thing and Windows only installs your game port, it may be time to raise the white flag and start the RMA process.

aiite

yea that is making sense because I had no idea what this PCI device was and why it was there. That makes a lot of sense too.

I am soo happy that there are Hardware guys like you out there. I do software/Web design/Graphic Design so I know a lot about computers but not as much on the hardware level..

Thanks again...I will be back in a couple hours to tell you if this worked or not..

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I'm reasonably certain your card is history. I've seen several of these types of failures before, and it's almost always because the hardware went south. My kids TV tuner card just went the same way. Suddenly after a reboot it no longer showed up as an Hauppage WinTV, but as a mystery Multimedia Device. Naturally the drivers wouldn't install. I RMA'd the card and now all is well.

BTW, if you have a true SB Live! in your system don't poo poo it as some stock piece of dung. It may be getting a little long in the tooth, but it's still considered a high end product and is still a very, very good card. You'd have to spend big bucks on an Audigy line card to do better IMO, so if it's still under warranty it's definitely worth RMAing.

AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

all I have to say is that you guys are some smart *** people...

THANK YOU MR WILHELM...IT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID

I switched slots and rebooted and it worked fine...THANK YOU!

Too bad I didn't talk to you before. I lost everything on my computer but at least my sound works now!

Thank you again!

Akira

Actually I would have bet the farm your card was fried, so I'm not that smart! :) I'm glad you got it running though.

I'm guessing it just needed to be re-seated and the little bit of movement in the card caused by plugging in your headset was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. I had a badly seated Ensoniq card show up as a mystery device in a PC I worked on a while back. I should have remembered that.

So if you're feeling particularly bold you could try your headset again (no guarantees on the outcome though)! :)

lol...yea

now im just wondering why the headset would have done that to my soundcard...

Wierd thing is that my friend and I bought ours at the same time and the exact same thing happened to his....

I called the headset company and they told me that their product didnt do it because there was no possible way that it could have...

idk

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Akira
now im just wondering why the headset would have done that to my soundcard...

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Actually I offered up a theory on that in my last post but I guess you didn't catch it.

Basically I think your sound card was poorly seated meaning some of the connections were possibly teetering on the brink of losing conductivity. The act of plugging in your headset my have shifted the card just enough to lose said conductivity on a connector or two.

Of course that doesn't explain why your friend had a similar problem and it is just a guess, but it's extremely plausible as I see it happen all the time.

that would cause my comp to crash?

Oh yeah... pushing on a poorly seated card while your PC is running can easily be a one-way ticket to Blue Screen City. Take my word for it.

It's all just guesswork on my part though, so take it for what it's worth.

Does the headset have its own amplifier? Did you plug the headset it with the computer running?

yea the headset has its own amp

and yes i plugged it in whiole the computer was still running

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A thought, and a suggestion....

Your headset - has it got a volume control?

The reason I ask is that I've seen headsets with a volume control that attenuates ACROSS the input rather than in series with it. In fact with PC headsets this is not uncommon, particularly the cheaper ones. With most PC headphone outputs there is no problem as they are protected against short-circuits. (the socket is usually fed through capacitors as protection.) If the headphone socket on your card does not have short-circuit protection, AND your headset volume control IS across the input, then plugging in could cause a dead short which would force the card to crowbar (shut down very fast) = instant blue screen & probable driver corruption. It could also damage the card.

I don't know whether SB cards are protected.

I suggest you try plugging in a headset from a walkman & see if that works OK - obviously the type without a volume contol.

I just saw you latest post. As the headset is amplified it almost certainly WILL attenuate across the input! Maybe SB cards don't have short circuit protection on the output!

well i know the headset works fine. I tried it in my MD and I could hear like normal.

Also after I fixed my sound card problem I decided to plug my headset back in. It didnt crash my computer or do anything with my sound but now it wont work. Matter of fact my regular headphones dont even work, which is odd. All I get is a barely audible static sound. The speakers work fine but when I plug the headphones in I don't get any sound.

Now I dont know what is up..

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There's a good possibility that you've blown something!

Almost all headphone outputs have protection on them, which is why many headset manufacturers put the volume control across the input. I guess the headphone socket on your card is not. If the headset works fine elsewhere, and your headphones do to but don't on the card then I really do think you've blown something!

with my soundcard there is no unique headphones input

I have to take out my speaker input and use that for my headphones input...so i know that the jack works fine

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That means the speaker out is amplified.... did your speakers used to work with or without power?

The signal to noise ratio (gain) on speaker amplifiers is far, far higher than that on headset amps. It may just be that the output voltage on the card is now too low to trigger the headset amplifier.

The usual voltage range for a PCI sound card speaker output is in the area of 0.2 volts, but SB cards (and most older ISA cards) usually deliver 10 times this! - in the area of 2 volts so non-amplified speakers can be used!!