"Silent" XP computer

[johnni]

What I mean is my newly acquired 'old' PC running XP Pro plays no sounds at all, not even Windows startup/closedown jingles or any of the sound noises hidden away in Windows. More importantly it can't play any music such as the Windows sample music files or a CD audio or some audio files I copied from my main (ME) PC. The sound appears to be 'on-board' (the connector plugs directly into to the motherboard) and the small speaker for Windows is present but silent.
The speakers I connected to the green output mini-jack work OK on another PC and are definitely switched on at the power supply.
I have checked via the task bar icon volume setting that all volume levels are at a reasonable height and there are no checks in the mute boxes. WMP 9.0 is installed and also Real Player.

Where else can I look for a solution to this problem, please.

johnni

 

[etaf]

re-install the audio drivers
the following would help

Make model of PC - maybe able to download from manufacturers site
OR/AND
Make model of motherboard - maybe able to download from manufacturers site
OR/AND
run belarc and see what the audio is www.belarc.com

 

[johnni]

It is a Compaq desktop, model not known and about 4/5 years old, with an ASUS motherboard. The sound system is SoundMAX.
I attach a brief Belarc report.
Can you suggest where to look for a driver(s)?

johnni

 

[etaf]

OK the mother board is this
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=203&l1=3&l2=12&l3=46
and the drivers are here
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P4SP-MX

select audio
and scroll down for winXP

download and install see how that goes

The model should be on the back and then we can get drivers off the Compaq / HP site if those dont work

 

[johnni]

I am sorry but for now everything is stopped; see here http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/483462-old-password-required.html#post3789742

johnni

 

[johnni]

Thanks again for your help. I now have that missing password and have undone my System Restore.
I downloaded from the Asus website the audio file for Win XP which is a file named WDM_3665.zip.
After I transferred the zip file to the XP machine I unzipped it with XP and that produced a main folder and two sub folders. I assume these two folders should be installed somewhere in Windows but I am not sure where, and which file do I click on to make the installation, or is it done via device manager?"

"WDM_3665.zip 2,144kb"

Main folder SMAXWDM

Sub folder SE

a3d.dll
ADI_RMV.EXE
AEAUDIO.sys
inst16.exe
migrate.dll
smsens.sys
smwdm.sys
smwdmCHS.inf
smwdmSIS.inf
smx.cat
WDMSTUB.sys

Sub folder W2K_XP

a3d.dll
AEAUDIO.SYS
install.exe
migrate.dll
Remove.exe
smsens.sys
smwdm.sys
smwdmCH5.inf
smwdmSIS.inf
smx.cat
WDMSTUB.sys

Thanks for any further help.

johnni

 

[etaf]

should be able to update driver from device manager and point to the winXP folder

 

[johnni]

I installed the downloaded driver folders/files in a folder within Windows System and pointed device manager to it; however it said that no better drivers than those already in use could be found. Still no sounds at all and I checked my speaker system on another PC and they worked OK.

So I guess I will have to live without any sounds on that PC!
But thanks for your help.

johnni

 

[etaf]

in device manager - uninstall the sound and then reinstall and when windows detects new hardware point to the drivers you justdownloaded and see what happens

otherwise I'll find someone who knows about IRQ and things
so if we can get a IRQ listing? Start, run, msinfo32 and hit ok, go to hardware, IRQs, edit, select all, edit, copy and come back and paste.

 

[johnni]

Thanks for your continuing interest.

I uninstalled SoundMax and then restarted. I got the notification that SoundMax had been found and installed. In device manager I found that it was already pointing to the driver folders (in Windows, System32, Drivers, Asus Audio (2 folders)) and said everything was working OK.
But still no sound from those speakers AND I checked that in the volume panel there were no mute checks and volume sliders were high.

So I tried msinfo32 and got the IRQ information as follows:

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 16 SiS 651 OK
IRQ 18 SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio OK
IRQ 19 SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter OK
IRQ 20 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 20 SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 21 SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 23 SiS PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller OK

Whilst there I also got this:

Components - System Information - Sound Device

Name SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
Manufacturer Analog Devices, Inc.
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_7012&SUBSYS_810D1043&REV_A0\3&61AAA01&0&17
I/O Port 0x0000FD00-0x0000FDFF
I/O Port 0x0000FF00-0x0000FF7F
IRQ Channel IRQ 18
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\smwdm.sys (5.12.01.3665, 564.75 KB (578,304 bytes), 04/10/04 14:15).

But I am puzzled by that last line showing the ONE driver smwdm.sys inside the general drivers folder (which contains a long list of drivers) and NOT the Asus Audio folders (2) which contain several more files as I listed earlier. Do you think the Asus Audio two sub folders should be decanted into the general Drivers folder (although some will be duplicate names and won't copy)?

johnni

PS I forgot to mention that when I click on a sound file Windows Media Player 9.0 opens and the music progress bar moves normally, but no sound is coming out, neither are there any Windows descriptive sounds.
Just in case this relates to a Windows update problem the machine in its former life was on a network, but now it is here it has no modem installed and no network involved. I use THIS machine for the internet so I wasn't planning to obtain a modem for the Compaq........

 

[~Candy~]

Open the volume control icon, options, properties, and be sure that the sound outpoint is pointed to the sound card.

 

[johnni]

Candy - Got email notification that you posted two replies, but only one of them appears here (as above). The other one reads:

"When you say that you 'downloaded' the drivers and saved to the system 32 folder, do not do this. You need to download to a folder, call it sound card drivers or whatever, then you need to EXTRACT them using Winzip or the like, into the same folder. When you do update drivers, you'll then point the search to that folder, OR if there is a setup.exe file, in most cases with the SoundMAX drivers, there is, run that instead.

Are we sure the speakers are working? Can they be tested on another system?"

Just for clarification:
1. The drivers I downloaded from Asus were in a zipp folder. When unzipped it produced another folder which in turn contained two sub folders containing all the files listed in my post No. 6 above, and many of these were already in the Windows, system32, drivers folder; so I transferred the two folders to a new folder within Drivers called Asus audio. There was no setup file and of course the downloaded folder is already unzipped.
2. Yes I have tested the speakers several times on another PC running XP Pro with onboard sound (not Asus or Soundmax) and they work fine.
3. Opening the volume icon, options, properties shows soundmax but remember there is NO sound card, it is on board!

I just tried another approach - In Control Panel I clicked Sounds & Audio Devices, Hardware, Soundmax Integrated Audio, Properties, Driver, Driver details, and saw that it was using these files all contained in Win\Sys32\Drivers folder:
a3d.dll, aeaudio.sys, drnnk.sys, ks.sys, portcls.sys, smsens.sys, smwdm.sys, stream.sys, ksproxy.sys, ksuser.dll, wdmaud.drv

It all remains a mystery.

johnni

 

[~Candy~]

Yeah, I deleted the first one after I read the thread completely. I received an email from etaf, and just skimmed quickly after looking at the IRQ list.


Can you check the volume control icon as I mentioned above?

 

[johnni]

Yes I did that as mentioned in my para.3 above. It points to Soundmax Integrated Audio; there is no sound card fitted.

johnni

 

[~Candy~]

Are the speakers powered? Do you have other speakers you can test on this computer? I'm assuming that you've NEVER had sound working on this system, correct?