Sound card caused trouble

I ran unto something ENTIRELY NEW ( to me anyway ) today. And I will explain the best I can.

Windows 98SE.

My Wifes' machine would not boot in the full Windows mode without going to the safe mode first. Even then it was questionable.

Then I realized that there was no sound AT ALL. No startup beeps or anything.

So I attempted a reinstall of Audio drivers. Then things got worse.

Then I removed the drivers and the card and all seems to be OK now.

Now I ask. Is it possible that the card just went bad ? It is a Sound Blaster Live 5.1.

Another day I may gamble and try reinstalling the card in another slot but I am a bit hesitant to do that.

Any ideas as to what realy went wrong ? And/or what to do other than a new card.

Also would this also cause problems for shutdown which seems to be also behaving better now.

BillyBob

 

I would uninstall the sound card through device manager. Then shut down and physically remove the sound card. Re start and remove any reference to the sound card... driver packs, media software, anything that installed with the origional installation. reboot and then follow the installation instructions for the card. In other words, totally get rid of it and then start over with it.

You've already done some of this if the card is out of the machine. However, when you pulled the card did you uninstall through device manager first? If not I would put the card back in and let windows find it again and then do all the above. It is also possible that just putting it back in could solve the problem.

And yes, it is possible for any kind of card to just go bad but this sounds like drivers to me.

 

I am on the affected machine right now.

I can even get here whereas I could not before

BillyBob

 

Hi BillyBob (and Jay)

Because the machine would not POST beep, I would be pretty sure that it is a problem with the BIOS identifying or allocating resources for the card. Try putting the card in the PCI slot furthest or second furthest away from the graphics card. It should not cause (any further?) problem with the drivers, in fact, it may help Windows to install a fresh set if it originally had problems communicating with the card.

Jay may be right about the drivers, seems to me like BIOS/resources though.

Matt

 

Good Morning

The machine booted very smoothly this AM without the card. Right now I am doing a Virus scan of the machine. That will be followed by AdAaware and SpyBot.

I have also been thinking about the idea of trying the card in a different slot once I get the checking done. It was right next to the Video.

Now a bit of comics. I found another SB card under my desk last evening. Without even looking I tried to install it. I could not get to do so. So on further investigation I find that it is not a PCI card.

Oh Well. Right now the games etc. that my wife likes will play. Just no Audio.

AVG7 Virus = CLEAN ! S & B report = Clean



BillyBob

 

As of this moment Sweet Success

I moved the card and reinstalled it three slots away from the Video.

I have rebooted twice and forgetting to turn the Volume DOWN. It did not take long to find out that it is working ( as of right now )

During the Install I noticed that DirectX was also update.

Now another question.

Could this Sound Card and associated software have been the cause of the upper left corner of the screen being a bit jumpy at times. I did not see any of it while the card was out. But as soon as I plugged the card back in the flicker was back But it seems to be gone now.

Could this be caused by the card being plugged into a slot too close to the video.

It seems that Mattman was on the right track. It does not take much on these machines to mess things up.

On the stupid side.
I tried to install a different card last evening. I just picked it up and did not really look it until I could not get it to go in a slot. ISA cards WILL NOT fit in a PCI slot.

Anyhow. Things are looking & sounding a lot better.

BillyBob

PS.
I was just messing around ( like a kid with a new toy and the whole darn system seems to be behaving MUCH better.

BB

 

The soundcard may have been using resources that caused a problem with the graphics, so I would say that it is quite possible. Time will tell, so let us know BillyBob.
I solved a similar problem with a soundcard by experimentation, then went on to find information on the net. I think I remember also reading about it at MS Knowledgebase (I know they have information about how resources are allocated). I have also found the same problem with PCI modems, so I always suggest to put soundcards and modems in the slots furthest from the graphics card.

Matt

 

Pete, don't ask for technical details

Matt

 

All I have to say is;

Many ( too many ) times what is supposed to happen does not. And what is not supposed to happen does.

BillyBob

 

Ha, ha!!!

Usually with me the above quote applies to the fact that the machine did what I told it to, not what I wanted it to do...

I have also seen a case where a sound card caused video distortion. In this case there was also sound on the main board that caused a conflict with a seperate card if in two particular slots. Caused a system wild resource conflict.

And, just picking on Matt here... Since taking out the card and putting it back in basically reinstalled the drivers we'll never know... Drivers or bios...

 

That my Friend is a FACT. No joke about it. But mine was not just basicly. It was a full new install. For me not only the new install but I also moved the card to a different slot. So more than likely ( for me anyway ) it may have been a combination. ( there is one of my favorite words again )

Also I do not think that I mentioned before that I found TWO SETS of SB installs in the Device Manager. And the setups were on two different partitions. Which tells me loud and clear that I DID NOT do a proper install of the newest card.

I also ran RegSeeker before the new install and it helped to clean up the leftovers. ( LOTS of them ) And I also made sure the SB folders and thier contents were DELETED and ran defrag before I did the new install. The uninstalls did not remove them.

I then ran RegSeeker again and it found MORE items missing.

After all this then I did the new install. And no wonder the machine is over all behaving MUCH better.

BillyBob

 

In addition to my previous reply.

ALL of the cleanup work etc. was done while the card was still sitting on the table top.

BillyBob

 

I hear what your saying on multiple instances and everything!

This is something that I think either Matt, Pete, Or mayhaps it was Rockster2u taught me... When you uninstall a piece of hardware, uninstall it, shut down, remove the card, reboot to safe mode and while in safe mode uninstall all references to it. I had never realised that just because a driver pack or a piece of software didn't show up on a normal boot that that didn't mean it wasn't still there. Safe mode will show you instances of drivers and such that won't show on a normal boot.

Anyway, glad your system is over it's headache... at least till the next hangover...