fecker4

I posted here with a video driver issue and got no help, hopefully this will be different.

I have some sort of AC97 built in sound card. I have tried to install manufacturer drivers and up to date Realtek drivers. The manufacturer drivers install and something shows up in add remove programs. The realtek installer says it installs, but I don't find a realtek folder anywhere and nothing is added to add remove programs.

In both cases, device manager continues to show "multimedia audio controller" with a question mark and exclamation point in the "general devices" bullet. If I uninstall it and try again, it will ocassionaly show up with only an exclamation point and in the correct bullet of "audio, game controllers..." Occasionally, Microsoft DLS kernel synthesizer shows up with an exclamation and question mark next to it.

I'm pretty sure my sound card is Realtek, but there are a lot of incorrect on my manufacturers website... so anything is possible. I have a hunch it's CMEDIA.

Please help me get my sound to work. Let me know what additional information you need.

Thank you.

SPECS
Laptop Model: Sager NP3790 (Clevo M37EW)
Processor: 2.0Ghz Pentium-m
Memory: 1.5Gb RAM
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon Mobility 9700
OS: Windows XP
BIOS: Insyde Software MobilePro BIOS Version 1.01
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c

GigaWatt

the problem might be a conflict with some other device, the audio controller might be trying to use the resources set by another device. try to see which resources the audio controller is trying to use. go to the device manager and right click on the Multimedia Audio Controller (unknown) device, select properties and go to the resources tab, there should be a list of all the IRQ's (Interrupt Request), DMA's (Direct Memory Access), the I/O (Input/Otput) ranges the card uses and (maby, i'm not shure about this card) the Memory Ranges it uses. see if any of the above has a blue chip icon with a red circle scratched across it. if there is, that means that the audio controller has a conflict with some other device that uses the same resouces (DMA, IRQ...). you can see the device with which the audio controller has a confrontation if you click on that blue chip icon scratched red and the conflicting device will show up in the Conflicting Device list, just below the Resource Settings for the card. try changing the conflicting resources either to the audio controller or the conflicting device. see if that works. when you are done changing. restart the pc, and see if the problem has resolved.

your notebook uses a ALC201 AC'97 Audio Controller, here are some links where you can find the drivers for this device, these are not trom the manufacturers website (Sager), so try them, one of them might solve the problem :

Download Realtek ALC201/ALC201A AC'97 Audio CODECs Driver A3.54

http://www.lostmydrivers.com/driver/download/14153/RealTek/Soundcard-Drivers/realtek-alc201-alc201a-ac-97-audio-driver(hp-models)

http://www.nwdrv.com/soundcard/realt...load_prog.html

if nothing works, post again so further advice is given

__________________
It's not schisophrenia... it's just a voice in my head...

fecker4

Thanks for responding!

Under Multimedia Audio Controller Properties > Resources

it says "This device isn't using any resources because it has a problem"

Now I will try the alternate drivers and get back to you.

fecker4

Ok, all the download mirrors were broken on the first link, and the third link was also broken. However, I downloaded the hp drivers and installed them. After a restart, the drivers show up in add remove programs, but the add new hardware wizard does not find the drivers automatically, and I can't find the folder to which the files were extracted to try a manual install.

Any other ideas?

GigaWatt

whell, if you have a winrar archiver installed, then you could try extracting the installation files form the .exe, just right click on the .exe and go to "Extract to..." and choose the folder in which the files will be extracted, i tried this with the hp drivers and it worked (with some .exe files it doesn't, depends on the installer the .exe has).

when done extracting go to the WDM folder which should be in the folder in which you have extracted the files. to install it manualy just use the Alcxwdm.inf file located in the folder.

if the hp driver doesn't do the job, here are some links form DriverGuide.com (printer drivers, cdrom drivers, modem drivers, sound drivers, mouse drivers, monitor drivers, etc.) - DriverGuide.com for drivers that use the same ALC201 AC'97 Audio Controller. the downloads from the site are free of charge, but you have to register. after registartion, just clcik on the links below, and they will guide you to the download page.

Avance Logic, Inc. ALC 201 Driver Summary

FIC Avance AC'97 Audio for SiS(R) Audio... Driver Summary

QDI (Speed Easy) Avance AC'97 Audio for VIA686/8231 Audio... Driver Summary

Avance Logic, Inc. Avance SB Emulation Driver Summary

i think the last link will probably be the best starting point, since in the description it had many supporting models of Realtek. if the auto installation doesn't do the job, try a manual install, do what i described earlier with the hp driver. it sould work for these drivers too.

just don't forget, uninstall the old ones (if you have installed them automaticaly), then install the new ones . try, see what happends, and post back

__________________
It's not schisophrenia... it's just a voice in my head...

fecker4

Thank you for your response. However, I don't think I'm really happy with this plan of action. I just reinstalled windows, I don't want to be installing a bunch of random drivers that were not made for my system and are not even up to date. All of these installers leave their messy mark all over my registry and store temp files in obscure places.

My manufacturer provides drivers for my specific laptop. I would like to figure out why those are not functioning. I think that there is a problem in the fundamental way that my computer is attempting to install drivers. Or there is some sort of conflict between new windows updates and the drivers that originally worked. Or conflict between these drivers and some other ones. My computer doesn't recognize the appropriate drivers as a driver for my hardware. Even the most recent realtek driver for my device seems to have problems and I can't figure out where things are installing to, but they're definitely not updating my driver files.

I will try the winrar extraction with .exe's on the most recent Realtek driver install file and see what happens.

PS. There is a typo in your sig.

GigaWatt

first of all, don't always trust what your manufacturer says or does, in most cases the manufacturer is right, but in some few cases, they are wrong, this might be that kind of case... hey, you can't know untill you try .

secondly, the installation of the drivers make registry entries only if you install the driver automaticly, i.e. with an .exe. if the driver is installed manualy, it only makes a few registry entries that indicate in what condition and what kind of hardware the driver is running under. as soon as you update your driver (manualy), i.e. reinstall it with a new driver, the registry enties for the old one are gone, so there is nothing to worry about if you install the driver manualy.

you said that you installed some new windows updates... not a good idea to install them automaticaly, to let windows install them for you that is. choose which updates you want to install and then download them manualy and install them. when windows updates automaticaly, he puts every available update there is out there, so things become verry messy when you try to install some new piece of hardware or software, the system might be verry slow, or not function at all. besides, who needs updates anyway, and for what, as long as something functions perfectly whell with what you've got, why update it

all the drivers i listed in my pervious post are realtek drivers, just from different manufacturers. since your laptops (notebook) manufacturer doesn't state which is the manufacturer of the audio decoder chip, i said, hey, why not try them all, see which one will fit. it's true that the drivers are not up to date, but any kind of driver that has the same chip should function without any problem. on one of my older PC's i still use the drivers intended for Win2000 even though i use XP. don't think that newer drivers will improove the sound form your notebook.

PS; thanks for the correction in the signature, i actually thought that that is how the word was spelled, thanks

__________________
It's not schisophrenia... it's just a voice in my head...

fecker4

OK, so I uninstalled as many windows updates as I could. Which still leaves me with SP3. Then I did a manual install of the most recent Realtek drivers, A405. My computer recognizes the drivers, starts installing them, and then half way through I get the error message "An error occurred during the installation of the device. The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request."

Does this give anyone ideas?

fecker4

I found that solution that worked for me, for now.

1. I uninstalled all windows updates that I was able to (optional)
2. I booted from windows xp install cd
3. Choose install windows, and when it finds your previously installed windows, tell it to do a repair
4. UNPLUG ALL PERIPHERALS. I did not do this and I had to rerun the repair 3 times after blue screens of death.
5. Wait forever while windows repairs its horribly corrupted files
6. Device manager, update driver, choose location, point to location of most up to date drivers
7. You now have sound if you had my exact problem.
8. Set a restore point so that you don't have to do that again.

Apparently some of my files got corrupted, probably by uninstalling and reinstalling drivers so many times. So when windows tried to write over them, it wasn't able to because they were corrupted pieces of shit. Also, I think there are issues with my USB hub and how it interacts with the rest of my system.

GigaWatt

my opinion is that the Windows updates did most of the damage to your system, as i said, don't change anything as long as it works perfectly well. if it doesn't, than try something new, but a Windows update should definetly be the last thing on your mind

what the installation CD repair option on WinXP did (probably...) was just return the old installation files from the original version of the CD. Windows updates in most cases are just some faster algorhythms for some of the services or some kind of an application under Windows. imagine a car that could go 200mph, then attach that car wit a brolen down old car, and let the 200mph car drag the broken down car, will it achieve the 200mph speed...? whell basicly that is what heappens with Windows updates, newer algorhythms are (maby) too fast for the old ones on which some of them depend on, so the old ones can't give the support the new ones need, so the system either doesn't function as fast as before, or doesn't function at all. ofecourse there are exceptions from this rule (as there is from any other rule), but they are so rare that it's not even worth mentioning them.

update only when you have to, when you have no other choise, not just so that your computer can be up to date .

__________________
It's not schisophrenia... it's just a voice in my head...