[c24smith]

I am new to this forum and pretty much naive to the fascinating world of computer technology. Up until about a year ago, my dad was the expert I consulted when I needed advice about various computer related problems. Sadly, he passed away last April. I've done very well not to get myself into too much PC trouble until recently when I did some maintenance on my mother's computer. I ran Avast, Ad-Aware 2008, Spybot Search & Destroy, Disk Cleanup, Disk Defrag, and My Registry Cleaner licensed by PC Security Shield. I also went in under the control panel and deleted some of the programs that were no longer being used since my father's passing. The maintenance helped tremendously. The computer performs much faster and appears to be working great.... everything except the sound.

I've exhausted all avenues on the sound card itself. The device manager tells me it's installed correctly, the drivers are up to date, and the device is enabled. Their are no conflicts with any other devices. I've checked the speaker connections and they are connected properly. I've also checked that the speakers are set to 5.1 digital sound, and that the volume control levels are set appropriately and that the mute box is not checked. I've also checked to make sure that the sound card was properly installed and that nothing had come loose internally. I also visited the manufacturer's website and let them auto scan the computer to check for driver updates. Strangely, the website informed me that their were no Creative products installed on the system. I know better. I have both the model and serial number from the sound card itself and the computer recognizes it as such in the device manager.

So my question is this: Does a PCI port require a driver??? I think I may have accidentally uninstalled something important when I was deleting some of my dad's old software. I remember seeing something in the program list with PCI in it, but being as naive as I am, I think I just assumed it was another one of my dad's old programs.

I deeply apologize for writing a book here, but I figure the more information I can give the better. I'm hoping that someone can help me out and possibly guide me in the right direction here. Any input will be greatly appreciated!!!

[RealityRipple]

PCI is handled directly by the motherboard's southbridge. The OS only has to handle whatever's plugged into it. Have you tried removing the drivers in the device manager and reinstalling them? You may also want to try a different PCI slot, if you can.

[Mac Daddy]

Yep the driver for the sound card should be all that is needed .. what exact model of Creative card do you have? What OS are you running?

The reason I ask this is I have seen 3 SB Live cards suffer this "no Creative products installed" error and all 3 cards went dead for no reason. Try another PCI slot as mentioned above .

On the OS question Creative driver support is horrid and if you are running Vista or newer OS chances are you may have driver issues and perhaps might consider checking out the KX drivers here.

Hope this helps will check back on the OS and sound card version

[Judas]

there are chipset drivers that are required... typically windows xp/vista/me will be able to recognize and use the pci slots without a hitch so long as the chipset uses the standards set in place.

So while YES you need a driver, it's should be NO it's already installed and running. Just about everything runs through the pci/pci-ex buses and lanes even if the slots aren't in use.

for example the ide or sata controllers interact directly with those buses.

[c24smith]

I am using a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital Audio Sound Card. The model number is SB0220. The operating system is XP, and I already have KX support for the sound card. Apparently my dad had already taken care of that.

Is it possible that something I did messed with the pnp configuration in BIOS?? I hope not, because I sure as heck don't trust myself to mess with any of that.

I will follow the suggestions given thus far and hope for the best. I will re-post to let you guys know if I had any luck.

[RealityRipple]

It could be an IRQ assignment problem? Or did you already say there were no conflicts?

[c24smith]

I tried all of the above mentions and finally have sound, but only in Windows Media Player. I'm so baffled!!! Not to mention frustrated. Any input???

[RealityRipple]

Only in WMP? That sounds oddly familiar... Check all levels on your volume control, just in case WMP overrides wave-out mute or something...

[Mac Daddy]

Sounds familiar to me too on WMP only what the heck was it now . hmmmm

[Matth]

Anything else got selected as the output?

Open up Control panel, Sounds and Audio devices, check that the device shown at the top of the volume tab is what you want the primary audio to be, that the device volume is not zero or muted, and check the speaker settings as well. Look at the Audio tab as well, also covers the selected device.

[dj_stick]

sounds like if WMP is playing sound, but nothing else is, follow Matth's advice above - WMP gives you the ability to choose which soundcard to use, hidden under "settings - devices - speakers" for some reason.

To me it sounds like WMP has selected the correct card, while windows has selected onboard sound (or nothing)