Audio problems.. need advice...

[Shari2008]

I bought my son a used pc. The sound was choppy so he ried to update
drivers... didn't work... now there is no sound. It seems the original
drivers were removed. Now on start up the computer is trying to find
Multimedia audio controller.

I thought I found the correct driver.. But when I tried to install it
I got an error message that read requires update to the OS audio components

I'm running... Windows 2000 pro

Processor.. Intel Pentium III 866mhz 133 bus
Ram.. 260 MB

Mother board is.. Intel Corp. D815EEA2
Bios is.. Intel Corp. EA81520A.86A.0015.P10.0104041115

Mother board has on board sound...
Realtek AC97 Advance audio... but it doesn't show up in device
manager at all.


I found this... I believe this is what I have... only my processor
is 866 MHZ


MANUFACTURER PART# D815EEA2

ABERDEEN PART# MB6932
PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® III processors with 133-MHz and 100-MHz system bus in the FC-PGA package
Intel® Celeron™ processors with 66-MHz system bus in the PPGA or FC-PGA package
CHIPSET Intel® 82815 Graphics and MemoryController Hub (GMCH) with AHA (Accelerated Hub Architecture) bus
Intel® 82801BA I/O Controller Hub (ICH2) with AHA bus
Intel® 82802AB Firmware Hub (FWH)
CACHE MEMORY N/A (Built into Pentium III/ Celeron processor)
SYSTEM MEMORY 3 x 168-Pin DIMM Sockets
Support 32MB to 512MB SDRAM
Supports 32/64/128/256 DIMMs
(PC100 Memory or PC133 Necessary)
ON BOARD I/O 1 x Floppy Port (Up to 2.88MB, 3 Mode)
2 x Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
1 x Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
IrDA TX/RX Supported
4 x USB Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse Ports
LanDesk Client Manager
ON BOARD IDE 2 x PCI Bus Master IDE Ports (Up to 4 IDE Devices)
Supports PIO Mode 3, 4: 17MB/Sec.(Max.)
DMA Mode 2: 22MB/Sec.(Max.) UltraDMA/100 Support
ON BOARD AUDIO Audio CODEC Features
AC '97 2.1 compliant
Audio/Game connectors
(Line-in, Line-out, MIC-in, and Game Port connectors)
ON BOARD VIDEO Intel 815 chipset integrated AGP 2X 3D graphics acceleration.
Support GPA (Graphics Performance Accelerator (GPA) Card
BIOS Intel/AMI* BIOS
EXPANSION SLOTS 1 x AGP Slot 4x
5 x PCI Bus Slots
1 x CNR Slot
(Shared with PCI slot)
BOARD SIZE ATX (2.01 Format)
8.2" x 11.5"
WARRANTY 3 year manufacturer




Can someone help me figure this out?... Any advice would be greatly appreicated...
I feel bad I just got him this computer and now no sound.

Thank you

[Asylum]

My advice would be to buy a cheap sound card or reformat your OS.

[Mussels]

there is two realtek drivers. AC97 and 'realtek HD' - make sure you got the AC97.

Also make sure you downloaded the right one for your operating system - if you got the driver for say, windows vista or windows XP, there is no guarantee it would work in windows 2000. Make sure you get the driver from www.realtek.com.tw

Just so that you know, i have a Pentium 3 733MHz machine that runs windows XP service pack 3 just fine on 256MB ram, so you should consider upgrading if you can get XP cheap/free somehow.

[Shari2008]

Soo there are no drivers I can install to fix the problem? I was gonna try installing his soundcard from his old computer but it's got windows 95 drivers on the software. I'm not sure if there is anyway around that.

I'm not sure how to go about installing Windows xp.. I have a disk that came with my laptop, but I'm not sure if I can use that or how to go about it. I can't reformat the his OS because I don't have a disk for it.

Thanks for responding... I really appreicate it

[Mussels]

of course there are drivers. i gave you a link to the website to get them from.

[Shari2008]

Yes... OK.. At the time I just didn't know what driver I needed from there.

It's fixed... no more sound issue... clear as a bell.

As I said before I thought I had the correct driver. I had tried to install the realtek drivers and the computer would just shut off and give me a stop error upon startup. I would have to go to safe mode to remove it so I could boot to windows. I did this with a few different drivers.

Then my search lead me to a Soundmax driver. I tried that one and there was no error but it was as if nothing was installed at all.. no sound... no mixer. So that didn't work.

I was about to give up...

I went back in to device manager and deleted everything that had anything to do with sound.
Then one more time I tried to install the Soundmax.. it was the only driver I found not to give me an error.. so I thought what the heck. This time it worked !!! I not only have sound, but it's not choppy either... all fixed !!!

What I figure is.. Used computer.... The guy who put this together had several drivers on there for sound.. maybe this is what made the sound choppy to begin with. But of course since the drivers were removed I had the crisis of trying to find the correct one.

I have no clue as to why the Soundmax driver didn't work the first few times I tried, but did the last time.. Oh well... All is well it's fixed !!! I updated his RAM now he's good to go and a happy little man :-)

I figured I would post an update.. just in case anyone is having the same problem. Searching and reading some of these message boards is what helped me..

Thank you.. Asylum and Mussels for your replies

[xfire]

The system can handle Xp. I ran it on a 700Mhz PIII with same amount of ram.
edit I might have those drivers for win 98 some where will post if I find

[xfire]

Try these
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/MOT...C97-R349.shtml
http://www.download.com/1770-2001_4-...type=downloads

[Jeffredo]

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...02000&lang=eng

Googled your motherboard and these are the latest sound drivers listed for it on Intel's site (Win 2000).