[RESOLVED] SoundBlaster Live 5.1 - NO SOUND

[Michele602]

Hi!

My problems started a few weeks ago..... First let me give you info on what I have...

System: Win '98
Packard Bell Model 820 - MB 850
SN-P387100300G
CPU - Cyrix MII Speed 300 MHz
Mfg's #-845559113
32 Ram, (recently upgraded to 64 Ram)
CD, CD-RW
Original 4 gig HD and NEW 20 gig HD
Original Audio - OnBoard (ESS1869)
Creative Speakers
Recently installed Soundblaster Live Platinum+ 5.1 (did not install Live Drive)

To begin:

After installing the 20 gig Maxtor HD: I had Super LOW sound coming from only one Output Jack. No problems with HD installation. The HD is working just fine. I literally had to turn up the volume as high as it will go to be able to hear the sound. To try and remedy the situation... I did the following:

1) reinstalled the ESS1869 drivers which I obtained from ESStech.com (no conflicts in Driver Resources)
2) I hit F2 to enter SETUP, highlighted INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS and found the ESS1869 Sound Chip was already enabled.
3) Changed speakers to see if this may be the problem... it wasn't. Speakers were fine. All diagnostic tests and resources said all devices are working fine but it was not... the sound was barely audible. The Headset/Mic worked fine.... Couldn't find any answers to the above problems so I decided to go out and buy a new sound card hoping that may solve the problem since the OnBoard Audio wasn't working..
So I then:

1) Bought and Installed the New SB Live Platinum 5.1 and the additional 32 Ram... did not install the Live Drive.. (no drive bay) Removed CD cable to mother board and attached new one to SB and CD
2) went into setup (F2) and disabled ESS1869 Sound Chip.
3) Ran MSCONFIG went into StartUp and unmarked ESSDC.exe
4) Installed SB Installation CD (without Remote Contol and Playcenter 2.0) Restarted computer.. EAX opening Avi ran and played sound just fine... (Thought I had it fixed there for a moment..(smile))
Windows Logo Opened and played sound fine too... After startup completed -- sound turned to beeeeeps...

All devices show no conflicts and say they are working fine... But... just Beeps when trying to play WAV/MP3 sounds... (CD Audio works fine) Ran SB Diagnostics (Mixer and Speaker too) ... just long beeps with WAV and MP3s... midi somewhat plays but not correctly... Audio CDs play fine... Checked to make sure Digital wasn't checked.. it wasn't..

So I went into Control Panel... System... Sound and reset and applied... restarted and the same thing happened... One time I had it working for about 1 hour then it locked up and I had to do the same thing all over again... I'm at a loss.. I hope one of you can assist me here... I seem to be having problems now with locking up too.. manually turning off computer and scandisk does it's thing.. registry backup too... Whoa is me!!

I even tried intalling the card into a different pci slot... Nada! SB is in port d800 IRQ 10.... if it helps.... I have DirextX8 installed too Hopefully I have given you enough info here... if not.. let me know... And thanks a million before hand.. I seriously appreciate any help you can give me here....

Thanks again!!
Michele

[[email protected]]

Did you disable the Ess card with the jumper as well as in the Bios. Some models need both items to be disabled before freeing the resource. Had a similar problem with the ESS card in the past on installing a new hard drive the sound card did not seem to work properly. Solved it by removing it from the device manager until every other device was enabled that was pluged in and installing the drivers for this card last

[digital951]

[email protected]
is right. I worked on a compaq that has a built in Ess sound card. I replace it fine after I reconfiguerd the bios to disable it.