Vanishing sound cards...

Hi, I found this place last week when I had a problem and I typed it into Google...up this place came. Got the info I needed, thanks!

Glad I bookmarked it now as this morning my PC gave me a new problem...

I have a Red Sub dual boot P4 2.0 system with Win 98SE with 512 mgs RAM. It has 2 soundcards - a Creative Labs' SB Live and a Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96. 1 install is for general use - so it has my 'net connection, games and other apps. The other is music only and has nothing except my audio apps and cd software.

Both cards are visible in each install - I generally stick with the Live in the general and the Terratec in the other (although I use the Live in the "music PC" for soundfonts. This morning I switched on to find no sound whatsoever coming out of the "general use" install. Checking multimedia properties shows its greyed out - can't select EITHER card as default - and I've since had various apps telling me I haven't got a soundcard fitted! System settings show they're there and apparently working normally. Tried reinstalling Live drivers without any change. And whenever I reboot, the PC just carries on as normal - it doesn't suggest its found new hardware its not seen before.

I've never come across this one before - anyone any ideas?? I've emailed the PC company but their helpdesk has been ridiculously slow before - I thought this might be a lot quicker.

Incidentally, the music Win98 install seems ok although I can't hear anything through the Live card at the mo (this may be me not checking something properly in a hurry) - both cards appear to be "available" from multimedia settings in the music install.

I'm wondering whether I should remove the drivers and start over? Thanks in advance.

 

You say you have a dual boot system...what's the second OS?

 

Both Win98SE - the dual boot was solely to keep my music audio stuff well away from web browsers, MS Office, etc!

 

Have just tried removing device from the hardware profile and uninstalling everything Creative Labs. Rebooted, Windows reinstalled the drivers for the "new device" it found - but still the same end result - the multimedia applet can't see them and I still have no sound... The hardware profile says its there and working perfectly...

This has got me completely foxed...!

 

After trying umpteen suggestions from some helpful people over at the PC Answers forum, nothing solved this, so...

When in doubt....restore the partition (or reformat if you have no backup).

Hardware works ok, all sorted...just on case anyone here has a similar problem.