Sound Not Working. Helplife Summon

[VirusType2]

I'm at the library trying to get the sound to work on my laptop

My latest ingenious idea was to download DirectX. since installing what is supposed to be the correct audio driver does nothing.

when I try to play a song, for example, system beeps and says there is no sound card installed.

I was assuming the sound is built into the motherboard. I've never opened this thing up.


I've tried about 10 times to instal sound drivers and nothing changes anything.


I'm hoping that direct x might fix it - either way, it's something necessary. This is a new install of XP.


I look at the device manager and it has yellow question marks for

? - Other Devices
?----- Mass Storage Controller
?----- PCI Device

it says they aren't installed.

I've changed no hardware. Just changed the operating system to XP.

getting the wireless to work was hard, but it's fine now.


so, as far as I can tell, the only thing that doesn't work is the sound and video.

any ideas? Mass storage controller - what is that for you think? for harddrives or USB devices or what?

and PCI device? you think that might be the sound card?

trying directX now. just finished downloading.

BRB - please help

 

[Asus]

Have you downloaded the chipset driver?

 

[VirusType2]

yeah i did install the chipset drivers but nothing happened. it didn't even notify me of anything.


I'm just finding out something

***BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE AUDIO DRIVERS, DOWNLOAD THE UNIFIED AUDIO ARCHITECTURE PATCH FOR XP. GOOGLE IT***

-j.b.

searching that on google informs me that the PCI device not being recognised as a PCI sound device is because of some problem that MIcrosoft SP2 caused.

so I"m downoading the unified audio architecture patch, and am [perhaps too] confident that this will allow me to install the sound drivers again with sucess.



EDIT:

I installed the latest Direct X

I installed the unified architecture patch and now the PCI device is no longer listed there as a problem.- good thing

however the newly installed Unified audio architecture patch now has a question mark beside it and it says there is something wrong with it.

so then I tried the last 2 things that anyone in the entire world has tried and that is some stuff I downloaded from INtel

I installed chipset drivers and that seemed good. it installed all kinds of stuff like ethernet.

then I installed the intel graphics drivers and


then the audio drivers (for the 14th time)

[still No sound.]


Screw this ****ing shit. I've spent like 20 hours trying to get this ****er working right. One thing or another.

I'm going to go eat a fried animal on a bun.

Help if you can, thanks

-virus


EDIT: i plugged my old USB external soundcard with headphones and it works fine. I listened to an MP3, and then I played a WMV video/audio clip. didn't even need to put in the installation disc to get that far.


however, it's a dangly mess of boxes and wires that isn't all that nice for portability, not to mention needing a separate speaker/amplifier system if used w/o headphones.


****ing bullsnizit. getting the built in sound device to work seems like it should be the easiest thing in the world these days. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Asus]

I installed the unified architecture patch and now the PCI device is no longer listed there as a problem.- good thing

however the newly installed Unified audio architecture patch now has a question mark beside it and it says there is something wrong with it.

I would figure this out. I would agree with you thinking that once the arch. patch is working that you could install your onboard audio drivers.

The reason the USB audio works is probably because it doesn't have to go through the PCI bus.

 

[VirusType2]

well, it's been a while, but I still have no sound


I also got plagued with insert install CD /new hardware found pop ups every time I boot windows.

I could not get rid of it. Tried all kinds of stuff



So I re-installed windows XP Pro again.

Installed chipset drivers and VGA drivers. so far so good

Installing SP3 now.

Going to install wireless drivers next


Not sure what to do about the sound!

However, i noticed something. On this laptop, there is a function button 'Fn' that you hold while pressing other keys. it works like a second ctrl key. So I can hold Fn and press a certain button to enable/disable the touchpad, change screen brightness, etc. there are quite a few keys like this. they all work on a fresh OS install with no drivers, with the exception of - the sound functions. Mute/volume +/-, etc.

what do you think this means? I guess windows has built in drivers for the rest of the stuff. But I get no on screen display saying that I'm doing anything. Even before I install the wireless drivers, and it doesn't work, I at least get an on-screen notice when I physically switch it on or off. not so with the sound controls.


I need to get the sound working. One of the main purposes of this laptop is sound production, Pro DJ mixes, and ipod sync.



Anyone know a good forum for getting help with laptops or have any experience with this?

It's an Acer 3680. It came with vista basic, now has xp pro.

This laptop has been giving me hairpulling sessions for about 4 months!


EDIT: I've downloaded the sound drivers about 7 times from various places. They are all the same version and everything. The say the drivers are specifically for this computer, yet they don't work.


I've been thinking about taking the laptop apart and finding out what kind of sound is physically installed. maybe get a model number/manufacturer from it and then try and find drivers for it.

 

[Barney Fife]

OK take a deep breath and relax Virus, we'll work with ya and help you solve this.

I have tried to locate your laptop model at Acer support side to see if I can find any sort of system layout and ironically, your model does not list HERE. I figured: Acer Aspire 3680 ... They don't list such a model. I may be going blind but you can check it out.

First and for most, you must find the specific MB layout of your Laptop at Acer support site. Find components' manufacturer/s. Find out if this particular laptop model is compatible with XP. Find the name and model of your sound-card and see if the manufacturer has drivers for XP.

You must find the specific make and model of your sound card and look for it's driver for XP. Call Acer Tech support, send them an email and explain the symptoms. Maybe that Laptop isn't compatible with XP, but I hope I'm wrong.

Good Luck.

 

[VirusType2]

FIXED IT

xD




all drivers installed and working.

xD

I had all the drivers on a CD ROM I burned (hadn't tried this before)

I had drivers in a folder

I right clicked 'scan for hardware changes'
then I clicked install automatically

and it works, it made the little pop up balloon sound effect. *pop* "your new hardware is ready to use"

I tried all of these things before but I think having it on a CD ROM - it looked there. Having them on your desktop doesn't work - even if you point to the right folder that doesn't work, and clicking the installer didn't work either.

whatever I did last XP install borked it for eternity. I'm not sure if clicking the installer did it, because I remember reading some people say don't use the installer when installing certain drivers for this thing, after the fact

It kept saying Error while uninstalling. It couldn't be removed without reinstalling the OS or something. I think i even tried safe mode. I thought it was the wrong driver if it was causing errors, so I kept looking for a different driver

Anyway, I don't want to think about it anymore.

Now I just have to set XP the way it should be done, and install some useful software

 

[ktimekiller]

grats on your fix