Loss of Audio

Hi, my audio was lost about 2 years ago and I have tried a few times to restore it, also getting assistance from another forum, to no avail.

I run windows 98se, some of my specs are: Intel Celeron 900MHZ, 128MB SD RAM DIMM, 15GB Hard Drive / 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Drive, 52x CD ROM Drive, 16 Bit Sound with Amplified Speakers. My sound card is SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio, which is on board. Mother Board by First International Computer, Inc, Mod FW37, Version 1.X.

In Device Manager, the sound card is indicated as OK, working properly, no conflict, etc. I even uninstalled it and re-installed it a few times. I have the mother board CD, which is called 1st Mainboard, which I recall using a few times to try to restore the sound, but still all I have is statics.

Once ago I used to have a program called SoundMAX x86 VM General MIDI Server installed (this prog. used to show up in Add/Remove in Control panel, don't see it any more and cant find it). Wonder if this could be part of the problem.

I thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Beach Boy

 

I would try this, first go into the BIOS, and disable the onboard sound. Boot the computer and uninstall the sound card software in Add\Remove if possible. Go to Start\Run, type in Msconfig, and press Enter, Click on the Advanced button in the System Configuration Utility, then put a check for Enable Startup Menu.
Reboot, and select Safe Mode, go into the Device Manager and remove all sound card entries.
Disable the Startup Menu in Msconfig.
Now Shut Down, go back into the BIOS and re-enable the sound, and allow windows to boot normally.
If this fails, it could be the onboard sound has failed. You can disable it, and then install a sound card.

 

Thanks Mark, but here is a little (I hope) problem. After going into the BIOS and looking into all the items listed, I just don't see anything labelled "onboard sound ". Please help!

 

You need to look under 'Intregrated Peripherals, then under 'Onboard PCI Devices'. Your BIOS may have different terms for this, it may just say Peripherals

 

Hi Mark, I finally did what you requested with the BIOS and ADD/Remove, etc, and it seems I am in a bit of a problem.

In Safe mode there were about 15 or more items under Sound and I deleted all of them. (maybe I should not have done this, but as it is now, the same 4 item are in Safe mode as in the normal mode -- maybe they were not all needed).

I still have no sound, and I don't seem to be able to re-install the SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio program, even though its in My Documents folder as well as in Find.

In Device Manager, there are three errors showing up which were not there before:

1) Other Devices (This was not there before), and it has a yellow question Mark (?).

2) When Other Devices is expanded, there is "PCI Multimedia Audio Device" (I think this is also new). This has a yellow question mark AND an exclamation point.

3) The third new situation in Device Manager is found when Network adapter is expanded. One of the items under Network adapter is Existing Ndis2 Driver, and this has a yellow exclamation point.

Also, every time I reboot or start up, the following messages show up before Desktop is reached:

Invalid value for binding specified.
Error loading device driver NDISHLP.SYS.
Error 7323: One or more Network transport drivers failed to load. [NB. Good news, a few hours after drafting and sending this note, these rebooting errors went away, I don't know why -- so am not concerned about them anymore, only the others].

I have been trying for hours to correct some of these situations using the Windows CD and the motherboard CD, but the ones noted above have not been resolved.

Whatever assistance you or any of the other members can offer would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Beach Boy

 

It is typical for more items to show up in the Device Manager in Safe Mode. These 'invisible items' can prevent hardware from being setup properly and should be removed.
PCI Multimedia Audio Device is your onboard sound, it appears like this along with the ? and ! because the drivers for it are not installed.

Try this, for the PCI Multimedia Audio Device, first insert your motherboard CD that contains the drivers for your sound, and stop the installation program.
Then go into Device Manager, double click PCI Multimedia Audio Device, click on Drivers tab, then click on the Update button. Then in the new window click on Next, the next window that appears will have "search for a better driver..." selected, just click Next. In the next window put a check for CD-Rom and then click Next, and wait for it to search the CD for the driver. You may be presented with list, choose the one for 98, it may say 9x or 9x\ME on it.

If "Wave Device for Voice Modem" was there under Sound, and if it was one of the items removed, this could be the Other Devices, requiring you to reinstall your modem. but if the modem is working this may not be it.

 

If Mark's suggestion does not work for you.....
Along with that 1stMainboard cd do you have or did you have a second cd called cdpro or perhaps there is such a subfolder included in the 1stMainboard cd. From what I can gather at your support site and if I uderstood it correctly, you should have such cd or subfolder. In any case if you did have or do have such a subfolder (cd pro) the drivers for your components are suppose to be on them. See:
ftp://ftp.fica.com/cd_pro/motherboard/

---Bits and Pieces clipped from some notes I took---
1stMainboard FW37, a Socket 370 Intel FCPGA (Coppermine) motherboard based around the highly integrated Intel 810e chipset

http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/faq.aspx?model_id=5
Snipped from above^
Q2: I have problem with my computer's audio, which doesn't work at all. I have tried several different drivers, with no success. When I used the essolo program it said "cannot find essolo adapter ". So my questions are: which type of soundcard do I really have, and which driver should I use to get it to work? 2000/9/21
A: Please be aware that FIC's all-in-one boards with the Intel 810 or 810E (Whitney) chipset have an integrated Analog Device, AD1881 audio codec ( AC97 compliant). This driver is zipped with the Intel 810 drivers in FIC's CD-PRO. By following the autorun instructions in CD-PRO it can easily be installed. If you don't have the CD-PRO, you can download its drivers from our FTP server.

Q2: Where can I find the drivers for the AD1881 chip? 2000/4/20
A: All AD1881 chipset drivers are zipped in the "Intel810.zip" file on the 1stMainboard CD-Pro, which is included in the 1stMainboard package. After you unzip you may categorize into different OSs based on subdirectory path. CD-Pro is optimized with a user-friendly interface to help users install all codec drivers for AD1881. If you don't have our CD-Pro please download it from our FTP server:

--To sum up----
Not knowing which version of cd pro you have or should have had makes it difficult for me to suggest which Audio "Intel810.zip" file you should download, expand(unzip) and install. Note your Lan drivers are there also. If it were me and I had no idea which version to use, I'd start with the latest or most current version and work my way down to the oldest. Knowing that I'm not any worst off by trying to use these drivers_setup's. If they fail to work, They can be unistalled and removed in the same safemode method as you have used previously. It is also important to note that these component setups are zipped (*.zip). They must be downloded and unzipped before you use the setup.exe's or point win98 to these folders to find drivers.

--Additional info:--
http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/motherboard.aspx?model_id=5

http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/1stmainboard_detail.aspx?type=legacy&model_id=5

http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/driver_install_guide.aspx
NOTE:Clipped from above link^
If video/audio/lan.. functions are embedded on the motherboard, you also need to install the correct driver. To download the necessary driver ,please check below table or go to the motherboard support page and select the correct FIC mainboard model name: all necessary drivers are listed. Alternatively you can also download the latest CD-Pro folder directly from FIC 's FTP site.
ftp://ftp.fica.com/cd_pro/motherboard/

http://www.google.com/search?q=fic+fw37&num=50&hl=en&lr=lang_en&start=50&sa=N

 

Thanks Ann for all the info. Will have to go over some of that again to ensure I got all the drivers installed. As far as I can see 1st Mainboard and CD Pro ar the same, 'cause my CD is named 1st Mainboard, subtitled CD Pro.

I finally got the sound card, SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio installed from the same 1st Mainboard CD, plus some other programs they indicated were needed. Somehow, try as I may, I just could not install them by the Wizard and pointing it to the CD Rom drive, etc. I just had to use the 1st Mainboard CD and work from there.

In Device Manager, under Network Adapter (as mentioned in my previous post), there was an item called Existing Ndis2 Driver with a yellow exclamation point. I coundn't find a driver for this or cause the error to go away, so I removed it, and that solved the problem.

So now my Device Manager is clean, ie, free from any errors -- but I am right back where I started. I still am not getting any sound!

In MSN Messsenger there is a Wizard whereby the audio can be tested. Every time I try using it, I get a note saying something to the effect that my microphone is not being recognized, and to check if its working or hooked up.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

Beach Boy

 

hi Beach Boy,

Let's take it up a level (reinstall drivers further up the line).
It seems that your motherboard drivers were not installed originally (that could be a problem in itself). Go into Device Manager (best in Safe Mode) and remove things that are listed with the "chipset" manufacturer (not just a standard driver)...example, mine has a VIA CPU to PCI bridge). When you reboot and Windows asks for directions (Have Disk...?), direct it to the Windows\System folder (or uncheck all the "places" to look in).

I have had problems with the (mmm...simple?) FIC drivers in the past.

Have you checked that the speakers are working or are connected to the outlet (usually green)? ...probably not worth asking

Matt

 

Hi Matt, thanks for your input. When you say that "It seems that your motherboard drivers were not installed originally" that leaves me a bit puzzled! This machine was bought new 3 years ago (this month), and the sound worked well for at least a year. So I thought that the drivers HAD to be installed at the outset (?). Maybe I am wrong?

Anyway, I just looked in Device Manager in Safe. Under Sound, Video and Game Controllers there are 8 devices by Microsoft. The other two ( one of which is the soundcard driver) are by Analog and Intel.

A couple days ago I removed the 8 by microsoft (in Safe), and when I re-started in normal mode, a note asked me to put the win98se disk into the cd drive, and all the 8 devices were automatically re-installed from the disk. These 8 devices are NOT shown in Device Manager in the normal mode, only in Safe. In normal mode there are 4 devices under Sound, Video and game controllers which are also listed in Safe mode along with the previously mentioned 8 (which are not in normal mode).

So with this info, would you still like for me to remove any devices?

I know for sure that the speakers and the mike are hooked up, but am not sure that they are working -- they always give off statics, and sometimes squeals when turned up a bit.

Do you know of a simple test for the speakers and the mike?

Beach Boy

 

May find something useful here:
http://forms.analog.com/Form_Pages/soundMax/soundMaxSupportFAQ.html#question1

Do you have any soundmax or soundmon related icon in control panel or a folder in starmenu>apllications list or in the systray?

Curiousity, which version of 1stutilities disk do you have?
What version of soundmax drivers do you have?

 

Thanks Ann. I have checked that site before, that is how I found that my motherboard manufacturer is First International Computer, Inc (FIC). Last week I sent a form to FIC for some info re my loss of sound. They sent me an automatic email with a list of FAQs, and said they'd get back to me in a few days. They also said the FAQs might answer my queries. I haven't heard further from them so I re-sent the queries last night.

There are 2 sound-related icons in control panel, namely, Sounds and Multimedia. I believe these are associated with Windows Media Player. (Don't know about Starmenu and can't find it in Find). Almost everytime I would go to Device Manager to check the state of the sound drivers, it seems that Windows Media Player becomes defective and I have to re-install it.

I have 2 of the 1st Mainboard Disks. One came with the computer and one was mistakenly left in the machine by a tech who did some work on it. 26-01051-00 s/w cd_pro_v4_31 rev01 3v0k1302a -- These are the numbers written on one disk. The other disk has: 26-01065 s/w cd_pro_v4_32 rev00 3v1b2706b. Don't know which if any is the latest, but I have been using this latter one. (Maybe the other is the lastest?).

Not sure what version of soundmax drivers I have (How do I find this?). Device Manager shows that the Provider is Analog Devices, date: 2-8-2001. Hope this helps.

Beach Boy

 

Does your cd when explored look like this?
ftp://ftp.fica.com/cd_pro/motherboard/cdproV432/

Does it have an audio folder that looks like this?
ftp://ftp.fica.com/cd_pro/motherboard/cdproV432/AUDIO/

Is there an AD1881.zip in the audio folder?
ftp://ftp.fica.com/cd_pro/motherboard/cdproV432/AUDIO/Intel810/

When AD1881.zip is extracted is there afolder
Ad1881
With subfolders
win95
w98_2k
winnit4

And within that win98_2k subfolder is files and 3 subfolders listed as follows?
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\SE subfolder
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\W2K subfolder
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\setupdir subfolder

C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\data1.hdr
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\DATA.TAG
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\lang.dat
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\layout.bin
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\os.dat
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\Setup.exe
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\SETUP.INI
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\setup.ins
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\setup.iss
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\setup.lid
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\smwdm.inf
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\Smwdm.sys
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\win256_3.bmp
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_INST32I.EX_
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_ISDel.exe
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_sys1.cab
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_sys1.hdr
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_user1.cab
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\_user1.hdr
C:\*\AD1881\Win98_2k\data1.cab

If so have you clicked on the setup.exe and followed through the install.

------------
I'm just trying to figure out which ftp disk on the fic support site is the same as yours. Also in the back of mind is the other alternatives left untried for your soundcard....

 

That wasn't a mistake, it was on purpose. No doubt that was the one he used to get it working, and left it in there for the next guy. The one with "cd_pro_v4_32 rev00" appears to be the latest.
You will typically see several different items listed in the Device Manager in Safe Mode, that do not appear in Normal. Some of these will match what is in Multimedia, under the Device tab.
How to determine a version of a file. Right click on it and select Properties, then click on the Version tab.

 

I think that you should definitely find out whether your speakers are working, we could all be going hand-in-hand up the wrong path (or is it down the wrong path...or maybe up THAT creek without paddles ). The "static" may be a sign of a broken amplifier, bad connection, etc. You may need to run your speakers on another computer OR borrow another set of speakers to try on your PC. At least we could confirm that that is not the problem. (Sorry, after some experiments I could not find a simple test.)

Matt

 

Thanks guys, my speakers are external and I have just unplugged them to take them to the vendor for testing. Hopefully they should be able to just hook them up to a similar machine for checking. Would be fine if I be able to bring them right back with the verdict (or get new ones).

Then I shall let you all know the results. I also plan to answer Ann's last post. Tks again.

Beach Boy

 

Hello,

Got a bit of good news from the tech at the vendor's today, ie, my speakers are working perfectly! I heard them myself. Thanks to Matt, we don't have to be concerned about speakers for now.

To Mark: Yes, the cd you mentioned is the same one I am using. I still could not find the version of Soundmax. In Device Manager, right clicking on soundmax shows only the following 3 tabs: General, Driver, Resources. (there is no Version tab).

To Ann: You asked re how my cd looks when explored. I don't quite understand this, ie, how to explore it [don't know if am saying this right].

On the question of how my audio folder looks, Yes, it looks exactly like the folders in the link you supplied, except that all the folders are in one straight line.

Now for the part that is a bit difficult for me, ie, the AD1881 zip (Am not too skilled at zip). But in opening the audio folder and accessing the zip section, I do see AD1881_512013017_SE. I also believe a new audio folder was produced. I don't see or know how to access all those other files and subfolders you displayed.

Hopefully you can give me a walk through. And apparently you want me to run the highlighted one ending in\Setup.exe? Thanks to all for the help.

Beach Boy

 

I wasn't referring to anything in the Device Manager, I meant to find the file itself and right click on it. If you went into Device Manager, and went under the Device tab, then click on the Driver File Details button, you will see a list of files installed for that device, giving their location.
Then do a Find for the file(s). Note, don't waste your time on the file Vmm32.Vxd when doing this, that is a windows file.

 

Thanks Mark, sorry I didn't follow your instructions. Here are the 2 driver files and versions.

c:\windows\system32\drivers\smwdm.sys
version 5.12.01.3015

c:\windows\system\mmdevldr.vxd
version 4.10.1998

Here is something else I found out: I accessed the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to test for sound (Run>dxdiag). After the first test a note comes up saying, "The file smwdm.sys is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality. You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer ".

I searched around in Microsoft knowledge base but didn't seem to find anything that could help with this. Thanks again.

Beach Boy