Help...

I am trying to find help for someone who says his sound card is SoundBlaster Playback
220, This is what else he tells me:
VIA AC97 Audio Controller
PCtel Serial Wave Device
He is using the Windows 98 OS.
I have gone to the SoundBlaster web site but cannot find a driver for this particular
description.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks, Mary

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====

I wish I could help you more. This fellow sent me a personal email with his problems,
I suspect he is a youngster, he does not communicate well. I think I have exchanged
10 emails with him asking the very same questions you are asking. I have sent him to
Belarc for the download and have instructed him to send me the results. He says he
can hear music through WinAmp, but he cannot hear sounds. He says his sound card is
enabled but it is "inactive due to an unknown problem". He goes on to say he doesn't
know what CD in his collection has the sound card driver.
Oh well... thanks for answering me anyway.
Mary

--
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"chainbreaker" wrote in message
...
laserdog wrote:
I am trying to find help for someone who says his sound card is
SoundBlaster Playback 220, This is what else he tells me:
VIA AC97 Audio Controller
PCtel Serial Wave Device
He is using the Windows 98 OS.
I have gone to the SoundBlaster web site but cannot find a driver for
this particular description.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks, Mary

Sounds like the 220 is just the port address setting for the card. You
haven't really given enough information for anyone to specifically tell what
the card is, I don't think.

Is it in fact a card or is it onboard sound?

If it is a card, what kind of card is it--ISA or PCI? An ISA card will be
in a long black slot; PCI slots are shorter and white. Look and see if
there's a name on the card--should be, unless it's OEM. If no name, then
try to get some chip names/numbers and maybe you can pin down what it is
that way.

Is the card working at all?
--
chainbreaker

laserdog wrote:
I wish I could help you more. This fellow sent me a personal email
with his problems, I suspect he is a youngster, he does not
communicate well. I think I have exchanged 10 emails with him asking
the very same questions you are asking. I have sent him to Belarc for
the download and have instructed him to send me the results. He says
he can hear music through WinAmp, but he cannot hear sounds. He says
his sound card is enabled but it is "inactive due to an unknown
problem". He goes on to say he doesn't know what CD in his collection
has the sound card driver.
Oh well... thanks for answering me anyway.
Mary

Sorry I couldn't help more, but it's very difficult to troubleshoot via
mail, as you know. :-)

Considering the person's lack of knowledge, about the only thing I can
suggest is to physically remove the card (if there *is* a card) then boot up
and shut down without it, then reinstall it, hoping that Windows detects it
and offers to install drivers for it. You can do this without actually
removing the card, but explaining for this person how would be difficult, I
think.

One could try vanilla Soundblaster 16 or 32 drivers if all else fails, I
suppose.

Maybe someone else will have other suggestions, but without knowing more . .
..
--
chainbreaker

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 10:39:59 GMT, "laserdog"
wrote:

I am trying to find help for someone who says his sound card is SoundBlaster Playback
220, This is what else he tells me:
VIA AC97 Audio Controller
PCtel Serial Wave Device
He is using the Windows 98 OS.
I have gone to the SoundBlaster web site but cannot find a driver for this particular
description.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks, Mary

VIA AC97 Audio Controller = onboard sound. You need to go to the
motherboard manufacturers website for drivers.

A lot of onboard sound solutions provide "Soundblaster emulation",
which is for DOS support only. That's probably where he came up with
"Soundblaster".

He did send the Belarc report, according to it, he has Sound Blaster Pro or
compatible. This is exactly what it says:
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec
Sound Blaster Pro or compatible
VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM)

I went to the Creative site but no driver is available for his system. I am so
frustrated with all this. This is what it says about his motherboard:
Board: 8363-686
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 06/08/2001



If I knew where to go for help, I would go believe me. Will he need to update his
BIOS? I cannot even imagine his doing this...

Thanks again, Mary


--
====
"Folk" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 10:39:59 GMT, "laserdog"
wrote:

I am trying to find help for someone who says his sound card is SoundBlaster
Playback
220, This is what else he tells me:
VIA AC97 Audio Controller
PCtel Serial Wave Device
He is using the Windows 98 OS.
I have gone to the SoundBlaster web site but cannot find a driver for this
particular
description.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks, Mary

VIA AC97 Audio Controller = onboard sound. You need to go to the
motherboard manufacturers website for drivers.

A lot of onboard sound solutions provide "Soundblaster emulation",
which is for DOS support only. That's probably where he came up with
"Soundblaster".

laserdog wrote:
He did send the Belarc report, according to it, he has Sound Blaster
Pro or compatible. This is exactly what it says:
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec
Sound Blaster Pro or compatible
VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM)

I went to the Creative site but no driver is available for his
system. I am so frustrated with all this. This is what it says about
his motherboard: Board: 8363-686
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 06/08/2001



If I knew where to go for help, I would go believe me. Will he need
to update his BIOS? I cannot even imagine his doing this...

Thanks again, Mary


Maybe this is what you need.

http://www.techspot.com/drivers/inde...formation/1928

--
chainbreaker

I have copied and pasted your message to my correspondent. If I hear back I will let
you know. I really appreciate all the help I have received here.

Mary

--
====
"sdneo" wrote in message
.com...
Mary,

This guy's PC doesn't have a Sound Blaster Pro, so drivers found on Creative
Lab's site aren't going to work. The sound hardware is imbedded on this
PC's motherboard - which appears to be based on VIA chipsets. The reason
"Sound Blaster Pro" is showing up as a detected device is because the
imbedded VIA sound hardware provides "Sound Blaster Pro" emulation - a
feature that can probably be disabled in the PC's BIOS setup (have the user
press 'Del' or 'Esc" as instructed on the display when powering on the PC to
enter the BIOS setup).

The "Sound Blaster Pro" emulation feature of the VIA AC97 Audio Controller
is causing Windows 98 to detect and install drivers for two sound cards.
His PC really only has one sound card - the "VIA AC97 Audio Controller". He
needs to disable the "Sound Blaster Pro" emulation in the power-on BIOS
setup program, save these changes, reboot and remove the "Sound Blaster Pro"
device from the Windows Device Manager (found in Control Panel, System). It
may also be necessary to remove the VIA AC97 Audio Controller Device (also
in the Device Manager), reboot and allow Windows to re-detect and install
the driver for this device.

You shouldn't have to download any drivers since the VIA AC97 Audio
Controller driver appears to be included in the Windows 98 O/S.

If none of these steps correct the problem, you should go to the PC or PC's
motherboard manufacturer's website and download the audio drivers from that
site. VIA has a support forum, and here is a thread that describes similar
problems with the AC97 Audio:

http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...7&threadid=416

You will find links to VIA audio drivers on this form as well. It would be
helpful to know the manufacturer of his motherboard. I'm guessing that it's
a Chaintech, based on the information you provided.

Hope all of this information helps.



"laserdog" wrote in message
...
He did send the Belarc report, according to it, he has Sound Blaster Pro
or
compatible. This is exactly what it says:
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec
Sound Blaster Pro or compatible
VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM)

I went to the Creative site but no driver is available for his system. I
am so
frustrated with all this. This is what it says about his motherboard:
Board: 8363-686
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 06/08/2001



If I knew where to go for help, I would go believe me. Will he need to
update his
BIOS? I cannot even imagine his doing this...

Thanks again, Mary


--
====
"Folk" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 10:39:59 GMT, "laserdog"
wrote:

I am trying to find help for someone who says his sound card is
SoundBlaster
Playback
220, This is what else he tells me:
VIA AC97 Audio Controller
PCtel Serial Wave Device
He is using the Windows 98 OS.
I have gone to the SoundBlaster web site but cannot find a driver for
this
particular
description.
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks, Mary

VIA AC97 Audio Controller = onboard sound. You need to go to the
motherboard manufacturers website for drivers.

A lot of onboard sound solutions provide "Soundblaster emulation",
which is for DOS support only. That's probably where he came up with
"Soundblaster".