Lost Sound in Win98SE.

[alpha80]

I've lost all sound and when I clicked on Volume Control at Accessories>Entertainment>, nothing appeared.    I have also lost the Sound icon from my tray.    I opened the DirectX Diagnostic Tool and when I ran the Sound 1,2 and 3 tests they all reported:--" Failure --- (Direct Sound Create) HR Result =0x88780078 (No Driver)      I then downloaded Asrocks C-Media 2042(AC97) Audio Device and the installation apparently went smoothly but I still had no sound and when I ran the Diagnostic sound tests again,they still reported (No Driver)!!      Where do I go from here,please.?  Cheers, Alpha.    (Win98SE/AOL9.0/Broadband Silver)      :-?

[GX1_Man]

Delete all sound drivers in Control Panel/System and reboot. What happens now?

Is this driver for Win98SE? Newer boards are dropping support for anything less than 2000.

[2k_dummy]

Before you delete any drivers, go into device manager and update driver.

[alpha80]

Thanks GX1-Man and 2k-Dummy for your responses.     Taking the second first, I have no "Update Driver" in my Win98SE Device Manager.     Under Sound,Video and Game Controllers, an entry confirms the installation of the AC97 Driver and there is also an entry-"Unknown Device"- which has a yellow 0 beside it.       It may not be relevant, but a PCI Universal Serial Bus entry has a yellow ? and an O beside it.     To answer GX1-Man, I was advised to get the AC97 by someone who builds computers and, although I'm not positive about it, I think it is the same as the driver I had originally.
Could you please explain your suggestion to delete all sound drivers, which sounds rather a  drastic "solution" to me ?   (But what do I know.!!)                   Cheers,      Alpha.

[GX1_Man]

Assuming you had the correct sound driver (and you may have, IF it used to work) but Windows cannot use it, deleting the drivers and then rebooting will usually allow Windows to sort it out and reload the correct one. If the correct one was never there, then all bets are off.

What is your motherboard make and model, as it sounds like you have onboard sound, rather than an add-in card? If you don't know, download Everest to confirm:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

[alpha80]

What is your motherboard make and model, as it sounds like you have onboard sound, rather than an add-in card?

Belarc says it's ASRock K7541GX and Everest says it's American Megatrends ASRock K7541GX 1.0     Everest provides a lot of information under Audio and Sound.    Do you need any of that,please.?              

Assuming you had the correct sound driver (and you may have, IF it used to work) but Windows cannot use it, deleting the drivers and then rebooting will usually allow Windows to sort it out and reload the correct one. If the correct one was never there, then all bets are off.

                                                                                                 

I did have the C-Media 3D Audio icon in my tray when my sound was OK and it is back there now,since I did the driver reinstall.     I am quite clueless about all things Audio and it occurs to me to ask if there are any configuration aspects which need attention before it will work.?                                                 Cheers,    Alpha.            
 

[alpha80]

Just picking any old AC97 driver is not guaranteed to work even if it appears to be correctly installed.

Thanks.   Please see my reply to GX1_Man      Cheers,  Alpha.

[alpha80]

It's a K7S41GX and all the relevant drivers can be found [highlight]here[/highlight]. The audio package supports Win98.

Thanks for the link, Backdated.   I've installed the appropriate UDA038 driver and I think we're making some progress.!!        The "No Driver" messages at the DirectX Diagnostic Tool's, Sounds 1,2 and 3 tabs and the Music tab have now disappeared and been replaced by the following messages respectively.     I'm hoping that the words I've underlined will give a clue to what I should do next.!!       I found quite a lot about this issue on the net (eg.---
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=HRESULT+%3D+0x8878000a+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) --- but it is all too high-tech for me.!!                  Regards,Alpha80.       :-?                                

DirectSound test results: Failure at step 3 (DirectSoundCreate): HRESULT = 0x8878000a (The request failed because DirectSound resources, such as the priority level, were already in use by another caller.)

 
DirectMusic test results: Failure at step 6 (Activating the IDirectMusicPort): HRESULT = 0x8878000a (The request failed because DirectSound resources, such as the priority level, were already in use by another caller.)

                                            ---------

[alpha80]

1)    Halt any processes that may be using any soundcard resources whatsoever. 2)    Open Device Manager, select the card, right click and uninstall it.
3)      Run the Add New Hardware wizard and point it at your new drivers.

  Thanks.    Sorry--I'm all questions this time!!      1) I'm not clear just what processes you mean.   Could you clarify please.?      2)  How will I recognise the "card" item in the list, as the word isn't mentioned.?     3) Where will I find this wizard please.?                            

Can I mention GX1's posting dated March 23,in which he said

What is your motherboard make and model, as it sounds like you have onboard sound, rather than an add-in card? If you don't know, download Everest to confirm:

     I downloaded Everest and provided the information about the motherboard but I still don't know if I'm "onboard" or "card" !!   (PS. A reminder that I have Win98SE).
                                      Cheers,    Alpha.
 

[alpha80]

Bringing up the Task Manager (CTL-ALT-DEL) will show a list of running processes. Do any look audio related?

Only RealPlayer, which I have disabled.        Regarding my Question 3 above, could you please explain how I "point" the Wizard at the new drivers, as this is a new term to me (like many others!!)  Alpha.      :-?

[alpha80]

[quote ]After uninstalling the existing drivers, run the Add New Hardware wizard and click Next and then Next again. The wizard will now search for devices.
It will find your audio device and open a new "window". Click Next and in the screen that follows, select "Display a list of all the drivers in a specific location......." and click Next.
In the screen that opens, click "Have Disk" and navigate to the folder where the drivers are stored.[/quote]


 Thanks for all your guidance.      I've got hung-up on the last fence. !!     When I get the "---list of all the drivers---" I presume I have to highlight the appropriate item before clicking on Next>Have Disk and I'm not 100% sure which it is.   Is it "Sound,Video and Game Controllers" because I'm looking for the word "Drivers",!! ?    Also,what do I put into Find Files to locate the new Drivers please.?     I've had a browse but haven't found them so far.        Regards,   Alpha.

[alpha80]

Hi.    I've been trying to contact Backdated for four weeks by Posting,Private Message and Email without response.     Can someone tell me if there is a problem please.?         Regards,     Alpha.       :-?

[GX1_Man]

Backdated is gone, but lets see if we can resolve the issue. Yes, choose sound video and game controler, right click and choose properties, then choose update driver. When it asks the location of the driver choose the folder where the correct sound driver is located. It will do the rest and then you should rebooot and experience sound!  

[alpha80]

Lets see if we can resolve the issue. Yes, choose sound video and game controler, right click and choose properties, then choose update driver. When it asks the location of the driver choose the folder where the correct sound driver is located. It will do the rest and then you should rebooot and experience sound!  

Thanks for picking up this thread GX1_Man.    Problem.!!    When I've highlighted Sound,Video and Game Controllers, right clicking has no result.    Properties/Update Driver doesn't appear.      If I click Next I get Add New Hardware Wizard, which has two sub-headings, Manufacturer and Model.    Is this variation related to my Win98SE,I wonder.?                        Regards,  Alpha. 

[GX1_Man]

On the right side there should be "Have Disk" Just point it to where the file has been downloaded and extracted.