I just put a computer together. The motherboard has onboard sound (Avance ac'97). I put it together, installed Win XP, and loaded the drivers that came with the motherboard (including audio software). There is no sound whatsoever, even trying different computers. I found an updated driver, installed it, but there still is no sound. Win XP doesn't see any conflicts. Is there anything I could do or do I have to buy a sound card? Thanks. system: Shuttle mainboard AV49N 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron Maxtor 80 gig HD Pine 52x CD-ROM (audio part not hooked to motherboard) 64 mb GeForce video card

Frequently on the mobo there is a strap and/or a bios setting to enable/disable the onboard sound. Have you checked these? You may find the sound works, but for music cd's to play you should connect the cd-rom music cable to the appropriate mobo connector. Good luck - Keep us posted.

When I frist recieved my P3 750MHZ O/S WinMe , a few years ago ,it also had AC97 intergrated sound .I would sometimes have sound and most of the time no sound .Since it was a new PC ,I had free tech support. I spent alot of time with tech support on the phone ,troubleshooting this problem .They would have me do this and that a reboot ,sound ,hang up phone all happy .Next time I start PC ,no sound again. It finally came down to boxing it up and sending the PC back or installing a PCI sound card. My neighbor who is a software engineer ,could not get the sound working either. I installed a PCI sound card and never looked back .Not only do I have sound I can depend on ,its much better quality sound ! Good Luck,Nick

Yes, I checked the BIOS to make sure the onboard sound was enabled. There is no jumper settins on the mobo to enable/disable onboard sound, BUT there are connecters for the front audio jacks for the case, which I'm not using. The Shuttle motherboard directions mention you should put a jumper on two of these if your not going to use the front audio jacks (on the case). But when I put a jumper where it shows (and I'm 100% positive it's the right location) the motherboard won't boot up at all (not even the part where the video card identifys itself). I don't know if this is a driver problem or a motherboard problem, so I'm just going to get a soundblaster card. Thanks, Jason