I have a freind who has a weird problem!
Maybe you can help?
He was running 98 and for reasons I dont know he formatted his HD and installed a dual boot of 98 and 2K.
He now has a it setup and running OK (after realising he didnt have any CDROM drivers after formatting! ) but his sound is onboard and he cant get it working.
Im not an expert on motherboards let alone onboard sound! But would drivers for onboard sound, allbeit basics be on the BIOS? Or would they generally come with the motherbaord CD? The problem though, is he has a Packard Bell Machine with those awful system restore disks and there are no drivers apparant.
they usually come on the motherboard cd. i don't know much about packard hells but they may have drivers available online. IMO he should just buy a cheap sound card and use that instead, it would sound better than the onboard crap anyway.
what motherboard is he using? Has he installed any new hardware since the last time the sound worked or is it just a format? Did PB provide a restore CD? Note it's better if it's NOT a restore CD, and much easier to fix.
The hardware config is exactly the same and hes using a Florida motherboard, he cant find anything online and PB only supplied restore CDs.
I have suggested getting a cheap card but it has just annoyed me that I cant think of anything to help. Must be a common scenario but im completely stuck!
Problem is that we are separated by 200 miles so I cant sit infront of his PC and play!
how is the restore cd organised? would it be possible for him find the drivers on it? does windows even detect the onboard sound and ask for drivers? is it possible that the drivers are installed and he has his speakers hooked up wrong or his mixer volume down or some other silly thing? (long distance tech support is a pain innit )
Hes currently checking the BIOS settings in Pheriperal setup, forgot about that but the website gives specific settings for it! Hope this solves the problem!
This is the workaround I went through when re-orging and restting my dad's laptop a few weeks ago. Restore the system to factory install with the restore CD. Typically, all the executables and drivers are copied by the restore CD onto the hard drive for the purpose of reinstalling individual drivers along the way. BACK THIS WHOLE FOLDER UP by Zip or CD-RW or to a second hard drive. THEN Reinstall Windows AGAIN along with Win2k in his dual boot config as he normally would. Restore the backup of the driver folders to the hard drive and reinstall drivers from that folder.
The reaosn why you need to do this is most of the Restore CD's I have seen have all the info encrypted into an image or Ghost of the system and cannot be extracted without tons of work. It would be easier and less time consuming to reinstall Win 98 twice and Win 2000 once then try to break into the CD.
i didn't even know it had that feature--sounds very useful. guess you could use winvnc, but that wouldn't get you into his bios. i bought a SB AWE64 for my son a couple of months ago for only $10.
We got a shop local where they have bins and bins of odd cards to sift through, u can get some real bargains. One of my mates picked up a 3COm Network card for £1!!!! Plugged and Played straightaway!
Thats prolly the best idea, onboard is crap as u mentioned! Im a SB Live man myself!
They are great and its not exactly if a few pounds or bucks is gonna criple me!
There isnt one local to me here in London though, only in Plymouth where I go to Uni! Just splashed out on a new 3Com Modem, and let XP detect and Install that itself, I was thinking about trying the setup utiliy on the CD so I can use the advanced features but Im not sure if the 2K drivers will work, Im happy enough now though
I know you have all but decided to get your friend to buy a cheapy card but here is what I would do. Find out what type of on board sound system is being used on the motherboard and have a look on driverguide or windrivers.com, I've done this a few times for people with this type of system.
I tried those sites but no joy. I did actually find the offical site for the exact borad but no support drivers, just a load of spec blurb and BIOS settings guides!
) but his sound is onboard and he cant get it working.
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