[Videocalibration]

Yaaay. Computer problems are awesome.

So here's the deal. My old hard drive mysteriously decided to break. After a couple weeks of crying myself to sleep, I finally got a new drive and a copy of Windows XP Professional. I'd been running Vista before.

So I install XP, cool, go through the horrible process of locating drivers and such and after getting my video card all set up and everything I begin to realize that none of the three hundred and twenty-five thousand audio drivers I tried to install were working. Specifically, I get the whole No Audio Device thing in Control Panel > Sound and Audio Devices. When I check out the device manager, all I see are a bunch of codecs. Nothing about having an actual audio device.

I figured this might be a chipset thing, because googling around these last couple of days kind of pointed me in that direction. Both the Intel and Gateway websites aren't being very helpful. It seems like all the downloads I find are for Windows Vista and I can't even find the chipset drivers for XP.

Huge hassle, guys. Any help would be appreciated. Just because I have no idea if it'd actually be helpful or not, here's a Belarc system profile:

Operating System
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)

Processor
1.80 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Drives
620.13 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
306.22 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H652D [CD-ROM drive]

Generic USB CF Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
Generic USB MS Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 5
Generic USB SD Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
Generic USB SM Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
ST3300831A [Hard drive] (300.07 GB) -- drive 0
WDC WD3200JS-22PDB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 1, SMART Status: Healthy

Controllers
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller - 27C0
Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]

Bus Adapters
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC

Main Circuit Board
Board: Intel Corporation
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. CF94510J.15A.0062.2007.0711.1126 07/11/2007

Multimedia
None Detected

Other Devices
Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
HID-compliant consumer control device
HID-compliant device (3x)
USB Human Interface Device (3x)
HID Keyboard Device
HID-compliant mouse (2x)
USB Composite Device
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Root Hub (5x)

Computer is a Gateway GT5408.

[JPCompHelp]

Have you tried installing your chipset drivers?
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...=2115&lang=eng

[Videocalibration]

When I put in Windows XP Professional as my OS on that intel page, I'm not even sure which of those drivers would be helpful. I installed the INF Utility which appears to have done anything at all, and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator download goes through the beginning of the installation process and then says This Computer Does Not Meet the Minimum Requirements For Installing the Software and quits on me.

[JPCompHelp]

It seems as though there has been some hardware-level failure. Could you boot any live distro such as Puppy Linux (http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads) and tells us if you can hear any sound on start? (there should be audible barking)

[Videocalibration]

So I turned off my computer to poke around inside it a little bit, and after turning it back on it detected new hardware, my audio device. IDT High Definition Codec is what it was installing. It seemed to be going fine, then sort of froze on staco.dll (not sure if that's important) and sat there for a bit before finally saying:

There was a problem installing this hardware:
IDT High Definition Audio Codec

This Device Cannot Start. (Code 10)

[JPCompHelp]

Try downloading the driver from here:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/118844

[Videocalibration]

Says it's not the correct driver for the system. Apart from the truly real possibility that the ghost of Windows Vista is trying to make me cry, I suppose it could be a hardware thing. Maybe it just died.

[JPCompHelp]

Try running the live distro I mentioned earlier. So far I think there's some hardware problem with your sound card.

[Videocalibration]

Booted Puppylinux, clicked the box that said "click here for getting started information" or whatever and it barked right at me.

[JPCompHelp]

OK, that means your sound card is working. Try uninstalling the driver again and restarting. If you can't install the driver after that, you're probably going to have to reinstall your OS.

[Videocalibration]

I'm pretty sure I got it uninstalled because when I rebooted it started detecting the device again, but just like it did before, it went through the installation process and then told me the device cannot start.

I'm a bit wary to do a fresh XP install, though, because the audio never worked. I'm thinking the only thing that will come out of reinstalling windows is, on top of my audio not working, I'll also have to go fetch my video card and modem drivers and backup the junk I've put on the drive in the last couple of days. Unless that's all wrong and you can tell me so, which would be great.

[westconn1]

i just had similar with high definition audio drive for onboard sound, after about a dozen attempts to install, found instrutions, on motherboard web site, followed instrutions all done
a vey quick search on google shows this is a common problem for realtek drivers at least

[Videocalibration]

Yeah, I've been googling my fingers off. The trouble with finding the right stuff for my motherboard is that Intel doesn't list it on their site, and Gateway only offers Vista drivers. And every other thing that might possibly work, well, I feel like I've tried that.

EDIT: I have a D945GCFG1 motherboard, by the way.

[westconn1]

what is the gateway computer model? desktop or notebook?

[Videocalibration]

Desktop. Gateway GT5408