Rant: [bleep]ING PIECE OF [cabbage] WONT RECOGNISE THERE'S A [bleep]ING SOUND CARD INSTALLED IN THE STUPID THING!!!@@@

 

 

Actual Problem:

 

Okay, so for some unknown reason my PC does not want to realise that there IS a sound card installed, it's installed INTO the motherboard and whenever I start the PC up, it only works 1/10 times. quite frankly, it's beginning to piss me off.

 

I would use a headset in replacement because for some reason THAT works 100% except that they died earlier today. Im running windows XP SP3 if that helps, because I hate using a PC in dead silence, especially with 15GB of music on my Portable HDD.

1) Have you installed the drivers?

2) Does the card actually support windows xp, some newer ones don't?

3) Have you got the right socket type, eg not jammed a pci 2.0 into a pci 1 slot or w/e

Dark_Aura, I suggest that you check the warranty on your motherboard. If you're still under warranty, you could at least get the motherboard replaced with an equal or better one. For you to be having an insane problem with an integrated sound system, it would tend to suggest that something is physically already about gone. Worse, it could end up taking something else with it, and that would be rather horrific. :(

 

On the other hand, if I've made an oops and the sound system is on a card plugged into a slot, then check the warranty on the sound card itself. Again, if still within warranty, you might be able to get it replaced with equal or better. :huh:

 

Of course, all the above assumes you're having a similar problem to one that I've had in the past where a sound card simply decided to die on me. (However, in my case, the parts were outside warranty... Go figure.) If this isn't the case, disregard my whole post (except the comment at Paw_Claw below) and laugh it off like a bad joke. Personally, I hope I'm NOT right, as an issue like this is NOT user-serviceable. :|

 

 

 

@Paw_Claw --- For it to even recognize the sound system, there would have to be drivers already installed. That checks #1 off, and leads me to think it's the hardware. ;)

 

 

~D. V. "I really hope you don't have bad hardware." Devnull

Warranty.... well its a 2002 build so definitely not.

 

Its built into the motherboard itself so it shouldn't be dangling out a PCI/PCI-e slot (+Drivers are updated)

 

I guess its possible the motherboard is just slowly dying. no surprise, this is a replacement PC for my other one which was also a 2002 build and died from a motherboard.

Warranty.... well its a 2002 build so definitely not.

 

Its built into the motherboard itself so it shouldn't be dangling out a PCI/PCI-e slot (+Drivers are updated)

 

I guess its possible the motherboard is just slowly dying. no surprise, this is a replacement PC for my other one which was also a 2002 build and died from a motherboard.

Arrrrrrgh, I hate being right about doomsday-equivalent issues like this... :wall:

 

Alright, best I can suggest to prolong the life of your computer is to disable the on-board sound system in the BIOS, then add a sound card into a free slot. (and install drivers for that sound card, lol...) Hopefully, that would give your computer the ability to reproduce sounds once again for you, assuming it doesn't hit a major issue with the highly-aged motherboard. Of course, don't do this unless you're sure you can actually risk a sound card, as I can't warranty that such an offside attempt like this would actually work, let alone work well. :unsure:

 

Personally, if I were you, I would just play it safe and build a new PC or buy a good pre-built. After which, you would want to trick out the system's features, and also transfer all your data over to the new system. Whichever way you decide to go, I wish you well on the outcome. ;)

 

~D. V. "Even I don't think my crazy idea is a good idea." Devnull

Or he could just buy a new motherboard, that wouldn't be much more expensive and it would fix the problem in the long run.

Or he could just buy a new motherboard, that wouldn't be much more expensive and it would fix the problem in the long run.

Unless the PC in question happens to have one of those custom motherboards with custom cases, like what computer-building companies such as Dell and a few others do. I don't know if that's the case, but I figured I would suggest based on worst-case for a situation like this because of how the posts came off sounding to me. :-?

 

Personally, I would like to think I'm wrong, and any ol' motherboard that can be bought should be possible to put in place of the old one that's already there. ;)

 

~D. V. "Damnit, I had better NOT be right on this one!" Devnull

While he couldn't buy "any old motherboard" he should be able to find some of the right dimensions to fit his case - or he could buy a new motherboard AND case, although if he were to do that he might as well buy the whole new computer.