[Neal]

Just installed a new Soundblaster PCI128 card in my system. I first removed the drivers from my old card (Ensoniq Vivo 90 ISA)through the device manager. Everything appeared to be normal during the installation. All icons are present, no conflicts reported, the "device is working properly"..etc. But I have no sound, none. No CD sound, no Win 98 boot sound, no sound from games. The card does share IRQ 5 with "IRQ Holder for PCI Steering" whatever that means. I would appreciate some feedback BTW my system is AMD K6-2 (333),Creative Riva tnt, sidewinder joystick, IBM 10 gig, 12x mitsumi CD

[LarryCore]

IRQ steering should be there.

Do you have a volume control in your task bar (a little speaker)? If so, check it to make sure volume is up. Also make sure you are not plugging your speakers into the jack next to the joystick port - they go in the second one from there.

Have you checked Control Panel, MultiMedia to see if your Output device is set to the SB128?

[Neal]

The speaker plug-in is in the position you recommended. I have a "slider" icon on my taskbar which at the top and the mute box is not checked. The Multimedia settings show the SB128 as the preferred device for both playback and recording. Nowhere on my system is there the slightest hint of a problem. I can hear the "hum" of the speakers so I know they're activated. Could the change from the old Ensoniq ISA card to a PCI card have anything to do with this problem? I also deleted and reinstalled the card with the same result. The manual that came with the card talks about PCI bus mastering devices may interfere with the operation of the audio card as one of their troubleshooting tips.

[Paul Nagel]

I have a much older/cheaper Sound Blaster 16 Card that came with their Mixer that has volume control, and mixer sliders for various sources. If the Mixer Volume is down i get no sound even if the speaker icon volume is all the way up. My Creative Mixer display is accessed from Start|Programs|Accessories|Creative Mixer. I also have a Volume control listed under Multimedia that works with the speaker Icon. If any of these mixer sliders are at the bottom or the mute box is checked for the device being used, no sound is present.Check to see that everything is not muted or off. Hope this helps.

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I am not a number!

[LarryCore]

Paul makes a darn good point.

I have another question - you said you uninstalled the old card from Device Manager - did you uninstall any programs that came with it from Add/Remove Programs?

Also, just to be on the safe side, I would suggest trying all the ports in the back - I ran into a sound card that was wired wrong once.

[Neal]

As Paul and Larry know by now, I figured it out using, of all things, the SB128 manual! A tiny amplifier on the card had to be activated to power my (passive)speakers by changing the jumper settings. Once this was done, the card worked fine. This is my first time using this message board and I am extremely impressed by its format and especially by those people here who forgot more than I know about computers. Thanks again.