[Enthoozed]

Every time I boot up, I get a 'new hardware found' message and the install wizard box opens for me to install a driver for the 'multimedia audio controller'. I'm assuming it's referring to the sound card. I put in my soundblaster cd so windows could search it for the drivers but it didn't work. Also put my original Dell install/driver cd's in, did the search, and that didn't work either. This all started last week when I walked in and saw my computer trying to boot up. Once I got in, the date was reset back to Nov. 2003 and I had to sync it with time-a.nist.gov. That part has been resolved but the 'new hardware found' keeps happening. I'm getting sound so I don't know what's up with the sound card, unless it's referring to something else.

[Enthoozed]

I turned off my computer, took out the sound card completely, and when I booted back up, it's still finding a 'multimedia controller'. What the heck else could my computer be seeing? Everything else i have hooked up is acting normal- the network card, mouse, keyboard, video card and printer.

[Enthoozed]

I checked the device manager, and it comes up under 'other devices' with an exclamation mark. It says location PCI bus 0, device 31, function 5.

[johnebadbak]

it could be a conflict of an address check the device manager setting for the device

[Enthoozed]

The only thing i can find that is close to an address is the location i listed above. Can i try uninstalling it through the device manager? I don't know what it is, since my sound seems to be working ok.

[DerekC]

The last two times I've seen a multimedia installer appear when the sound was working....

The first time was because there was a TV tuner card installed that was missing drivers.

The second time, the computer had an Onboard sound card and a PCI card. The onboard was originally disabled. But was re-enabled, when the cmos battery died and the settings returned to default (this might have happened in your case, if the clock was reset).

[Enthoozed]

YES!!!!! My settings returned to default. In the device manager it's listed under 'other devices'. Should I go in there and just do a 'disable' or 'uninstall'? Thanks much!

[DerekC]

Well if your computer has both an onboard and a pci card, and it's the onboard that's causing the issue, the best place to disable it would be in the bios. Power the computer on and watch the screen for a message that says "press "X" to enter setup" or "press "X" to enter bios, X usually stands for delete, or F1 or F2.

In the bios look for onboard sound or audio and change it to disabled, then save and exit.

[Enthoozed]

F2 got me into setup, and here's what i found:

system time
system date
drive configuration
hard disk drive sequence
boot sequence
memory info
cpu info
integrated devices
power management
system security
keyboard numlock
report keyboard error
auto power on
(something) boot
os install mode
ide hard drive acoustics
system even log
asset tag

I wend under integrated devices and found 'sound' but it only had an option of 'on' or 'off'.

[DerekC]

Close enough. Change sound to off.

[Enthoozed]

THAT WAS IT! It's fixed, thanks! Your a life saver.

[DerekC]

Glad it's working for you, please mark the thread as solved. The button should be above your orginal post in the upper left corner.