LeTombeCelui

Ok so my computer is having a little problem with sound atm. I have gotten 2 new sounds cards and added in everything right and it still doesn't work I'm thinking it might be a problem with the motherboard or something. Anyone know what the problem might be? It's really confusing I have had sound cards die before but nothing that replacing them couldn't fix.

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Metsuki Anba

Ah, I think that you might have fried the motherboard. Same thing happened with my old PC, screwed up the portion of the motherboard that has the soundcard and graphics card. I had to buy a new computer. I think It was static electricity that did the trick. Ended up spending 200 dollars on a new soundcard and AGP card just to find that its permanently screwed

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fuujin

These two soundcards, have you kept plugging them in the same slot (PCI I am assuming)? Try plugging into a different slot. Also do you have the drivers installed? Does your computer reconise that there is some kind of hardware in that slot?

Sinistra

sounds like old age again Feli. I would also suggest changing PCI slots. move your modem up one then plut your sountcard into the one the modem was in. If it works that way. and the modem dosen't then yeah it will be a motherboard problem

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LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

If the card doesn't show up in 'Detect New Hardware', try going into the motherboard 'BIOS' and look for the settings to re-detect PCI IRQ settings, and reboot. If this doesn't help, then it sounds more and more like a motherboard problem of some kind...

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Sinistra

in non tech talk hit I think its F10 to access the motherboard Bios
I think its dependingon who made your PC. it can very from different manufactures

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LeTombeCelui

Ok I have tried everything requested and I'm currently saving for a new comp. The thing is if the sound card and the graphics card are what was fried on the motherboard how come my graphics card and such still work? O_o Bleh inner working of the comp confuses me.

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fuujin

well, how do you KNOW that they were fried. Do you see black flame marks? Chances are that you are not dectecting your soundcard.

Cheza

mmmhhhh.....metsuki anda might be right u might've fried the motherboard....don't worry happens to the best of us....

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Aka Suna: A strippers tale!

Sinistra

Stob peing rude. the board dosen't have to have burn marks on it for it to be fried it could be the nodes or something else on the mother board not working right so cool your jets.

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fuujin

That wasn't ment to be rude, btw this is Ryuji so hopefully you know I am not just some raging flameboy. But lets run down what could be the problems. If you want more specific help, let us know what kind of motherboard are we working with, are we doing AMD or Intel, XP or XP64, that kind of stuff matters.

If your soundcard is a PCI device it could be either a hardware problem or drivers/registery error. Some basic tests can be done to see if it is your motherboard/northbridge error. You can have a problem with your PCI slot, the pcb board between the pci slot and northbridge, or a problem with the northbridge. Step one is to figure out if your sound card actually works. Is it new, does it work in another computer? Once you have a working soundcard plug it into your PCI slot and make sure windows reconizes it and has installed the drivers for this. If you want to see if you computer reconizes it then check in Hardware profiles and see if you can see your soundcard there. If you don't, try a different PCI slot and make sure you do install hardware on it. If you don't, you can't expect it to work. If it still doesn't work see if you have other PCI cards working. Do you have anything else that is running in your PCI slots? Wireless networking, maybe a video card. If you don't have anything running at the moment, try to find something that you can test and see if it runs in that slot. But of course install the hardware and drivers. If nothing works in your PCI slots then you have a general PCI problem. If something else does work then your PCI is working, at least in that slot.

If nothing is working, did you misshandle the motherboard at all, did you slip when installing a card and scrached the motherboard. That will cause errors as well. Also, did you notice a shock at anytime when working with your motherboard. Most importnatly did you work with your motherboard while it was on? I sure hope not.

If there arn't damage physically done to the motherboard pcb then the next step is the Northbridge. If you are able to use that computer, all that info is going though your northbridge. Alot of motherboards Route the AGP with the PCI. So if you are using a AGP or PCI graphics card and that works, I would think at that time that it isn't your Northbridge.

Another possiblity is that if you have multiple sound devices, you have to select what one you want to use. So in windows there is a sound and audio device properties. In a tab there is audio and there you can change what device is your main device and the audio device all your programs use. If you see your soundcard listed in that dropdown menu, then your sound card is installed. Select it and open up music player (if you have one open, then you have to close and reopen) and see if you get sound.

If none of these things work, then you probably messed up your motherboard. With static electricity you could have fried just a few transitors or a whole chip.