Sound Problems W98SE

Here is a very frustrating problem that I am having. My Dell XPS-R400 (320 MB RAM) has an OEM Turtle Beach Montego sound card. It works fine playing CD's. Windows Media player locks up. When I try to run DXDIAG.exe--the system pauses (hourglass) and then nothing happens. When I press CTRL-ALT-DEL, DXDIAG.exe is listed as running--no report ever occurs. A similar problem occurs when I load a number of childrens' software--installation goes fine, but when I click on the icon for the program--it pauses and then nothing!

I have removed and reinstalled the sound card drivers, removed and reinstalled Windows Media Player, and even installed the newest version of DirectX (9). In frustration, I even uninstalled Norton SystemWorks thinking that it was somehow causing a problem. There are no conflicts evident in the Device Manager. I wonder if there is some annoying problem in the Registry which I have no experience in troubleshooting.

My current OS was installed via the W98SE upgrade onto a prior installation of W98.

Any suggestions?

Kent Kester

 

Reads very much like a possible hardware ( IRQ ) conflict between something such as an Internal Modem and the Sound card.

My current OS was installed via the W98SE upgrade onto a prior installation of W98.

Just checking. But did you use the SE $99 UPGRADE CD or the SE $20 UPDATE CD ?

The latter can cause problems.

And why was the upgrade done ? Was it done to fix problems or just to upgrade ?

If the former then forget it. It usually won't. And has a possibility of making things worse. Especailly if the UPDATE CD was used.

BillyBob

 

The upgrade was the $20 upgrade CD--not for any specific problem. Things always seemed to work properly prior to the upgrade. Still, if I'm thinking clearly, things MAY have worked for a time following the upgrade. I wonder if it worth doing a complete reinstallation using the full W98SE CD instead.

Kent Kester

 

I am gald that I asked. And I did ask because I many problems after using the $20 UPDATE version.

Gotta get this straight. The $20 CD is not an UPGRADE. That is an UPDATE which is quite different.

The UPGRADE will go in clean or over top of 98. The $20 UPDATE requires 98 to be actually installed first. And the $20 version has to be ( at least mine did ) be re-installed from within Windows. And if Windows won't run you are out of luck. 98 has to be put back first and putting it back over itself after the UPDATE has been applied I do not think will work.

I never even tried it. I went in clean with the SE UPGRADE

I wonder if it worth doing a complete reinstallation using the full W98SE CD instead

Wait to see what others have to say but I think that is the better idea. But I would suggest a format of the C: drive.

You do not really need the FULL version CD. If you have the 98 CD then it can be used to do a full install of SE using the 98 CD as proof of ownership of a previous version for the UPGRADE SE CD.

As far as the OS goes there is no difference between the full and UPGRADE versions. And I believe the FULL version CD is bootable ( I THINK ). The upgrade is not. Just need a Win98 Startup Disk to gain access to the CDROM.

I would also suggest that you NOT boot from the HD. Boot from the 98 SUD and let SE do it all from there on.

BillyBob

 

Billy Bob would be correct is saying that the full version is bootable from the CD. I would recommend a complete reinstall of Windows just to make things all better

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

Kent Kester

 

Also, sounds like you may have the card in the first pci slot. That one is tied into you video card, so suggest using the 2nd one from the cpu as a minimum.

 

I'm not clear on why there should be a need to move the sound card as it is in the original configuration (which did work at one time) as obtained from Dell. Further, it plays audio CD's without difficulty, although not via Windows Media Player.

Kent Kester