Restoring sound to my new Win98SE OS

I have an older IBM tower (machine type 6594, model A3U). The HDD had been wiped when I got it in March 2005. I put Linux on it and had sound. Earlier this year I wiped the Linux and put Win98 1st Edition on it. This Win98 installation caused the sound to be absent. I asked for help here and got good help. Unfortunately I have the problem - of no sound - again but now, since I upgraded my OS recently, with my "new" Win98SE OS. I don't know how to restore sound even though I've tried all sorts of things (and of course I can't recall what the solution was in the past).

When I had Win98 1st Edition as my OS and finally got sound working, I know the audio was identified in Device Manager as "Realtek AC'97 Audio ".

The sound electronics were integrated by Intel into the motherboard. I know that when I had Linux and when I had Win98 1st Edition, I had Realtek AC'97 audio running the sound system. [The integrated audio by Intel is identified by Everest system-analysis software as "Intel 82801AA, AC'97 Audio Adapter ".]

At the IBM website the other day I found some files to update the sound system in my particular IBM. I installed these but for some reason, the audio device is called now "SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio" which doesn't work even though Device Manager says that it's fine and working properly under the "sound, video, game controllers" entry. I know that the IBM files must have changed something, or I installed something that was wrong-- I don't know. I'd be happy to get the Realtek AC'97 audio again, to have it making sound for me.

How is this fixed?


Thanks

 

Hello Stan,
I suggest that you remove the current drivers ( ADI SoundMax) in Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, go to Add/Remove Programs, find the ADI/SoundMax listing and remove/uninstall it.
Go to Device Manager and remove/uninstall anything listed under Sound, Video and Game Controllers except anything labelled as codecs.

Reboot to normal Windows. When the Hardware Wizard runs, click Cancel.

When you get to the desktop, run the Driver's Installation Utility v. 2.90.009 here:
http://developer.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/archived_inf.htm
(Click on the Windows listing on the left).

When you reboot the Hardware Wizard will probably ask for the Win 98SE disk.
If it asks for drivers for the AC97, click Cancel. You can download the Intel 82801AA AC97 drivers from here:
http://list.driverguide.com/list.php/list/company778/page9/index.html
You will need to register.

Everything at IBM/Lenovo says that your audio is ADI/SoundMax. Maybe the motherboard has been changed. If you have not tried it yet, there is an "Autodetect this system" link at the Lenovo support site:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=HOME-LENOVO

Matt

 

Downloading now

Hello Matt,

Thanks for all your detective work, for all the URLs I'll need. Since I only have a dial-up connection, I'm downloading as I write this.

I did the above but found that after rebooting, there is no Hardware Wizard in my system. This may be due to the fact that a man made a Win98SE upgrade CD for me. I don't know how he made it but it seemed to work fine for me. [And some time before ever using his disc, I had used the freeware 98Lite to get rid of IE from my former Win98 1st Edition OS. I know that certain Windows features were also lost when I ran 98Lite. Perhaps the Hardware Wizard was lost-- I don't know. [What file runs the Hardware Wizard?]

Anyway, when I'd reboot, I'd always see a box saying 'Windows has detected new hardware and is now installing the software for it'. I wasn't able to stop that- there's no way to cancel it. Therefore, the SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio was always present in Device Manager|sound even though I removed it from Device Manager. So I decided to disable the profile in Device Manager. [Windows "?" help told me that disabling it would prevent the drivers from loading. Was that OK to do? Will keeping this as disabled prevent correct installation according to your instructions and by use of the downloads to fix this problem?]

I hope all goes well later. I'll report later here on what happened.


Stan

 

Now I have sound

The file from Intel - the software installation utility - has some flaw: it would not install. And the other file - the one from http://list.driverguide.com - would not work. Luckily, a guy in another Win98 forum helped me. He told me about a file to download, one which is quite large, includes a rather ugly player and also holds the drivers for my sound electronics. In case others have this same problem, here's the file to download: ftp://ftp.aopen.com.tw/pub/driver/mb...lc201/2.84.exe


Stan

 

My jaw is most of the way to the ground

Your Hardware Wizard is OK. When the "Found new hardware" box was going past, that was the Hardware Wizard using Plug and Play to identify and install what Windows thought/knew were the correct drivers. So Windows thinks you have ADI Soundmax audio hardware. Why the drivers won't work is another question, although my suggestion would be that the "Soundmax " part is an audio control panel and this is blocking your sound. I have never used Soundmax, but in another thread I recommended the person uninstall Soundmax in Add/Remove Programs, the audio started working.

Stan, if you find you are in the same boat some time in the future, try uninstalling the Soundmax listing in Add/Remove Programs.

Thanks for letting us know how you did it. From what I can see, you are running a completely different set of drivers...although...what's in a name?
Well done.

Matt