Windows XP Audio Problem

Hello,

Great new forum! I guess I'll have to break in the computer help section.

I've got a customer that has a weird sound problem on their computer. It's a Windows XP Dell Dimension. It has a Sound MAX built in sound system that all of a sudden died a couple of months ago, though I just found out Saturday. I came over with a replacement Sound Card (A used Creative Live 5.1 from a different dell), and he had a replacement a friend had given him, a Creative PCI 128.

Long story short, the integrated sound would throw error codes when it started, so I disabled it in the the bios. However, I tried both sound cards, and the installation appeared successful, but the Windows Sound in the Control Panel does not detect any sound cards for playback device or recording device. The sound cards are correctly deteced under Midi, though. When I look at the Device Manager, the sound cards are listed, and when I view the properties, it shows them as being a proper playback, mixer, and recording device.

It's as if Windows is configured to not see or list the audio devices even if they are available. I tried the latest drivers for the cards with no avail. Doesn't seem like a driver issue, but instead a Windows issue. I want to copy the mixer files from a known good XP computer to this one, which is what I will try next, but I wanted to see if anyone else had some thoughts.

Thanks!

Cars,
You might also try an XP repair if you have the disk.

Bill

Glad you made it, Cars. I got your profile updated.
 
As for the sound cards, is Windows still detecting the onboard sound after it was disabled in the BIOS? If so, try deleting it from device manager. Windows is probably conflicted having both.