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My Computer (a Compaq Presario 4100ca) no longer has any sound, this happened after a reformat of my harddrive.
I downloaded all the necessary drivers from Compaq's and Intel's websites, everything loaded and worked fine except audio.
Comp has on-board sound, chip manufacturer: ESS Technology, Device:ES1988/9 Allegro-1 Audiodrive. I have the driver for this on my HD and its an .exe but for some reason it wont( or cant) install.
Bin frustated with this problem for the past 2 months now.Compaq customer support could not solve the problem, hoping that someone can offer some ideas.
If the latest driver didn't work (for some strange reason), there are some older versions here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...
Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
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ham30 thnx for replying, ive tried all those drivers and many others as well but none of them would install.
Prolly im not wording the problem correctly, the drivers are .exe's they open and run and prompt for a computer restart.On restart the driver does not load automatically instead windows asks for the win98CD and searches for the driver but cannot find it.Entering the path manually gets this error:
"The MMDEVLDR.VXD device loader(s) for this device could not load the device driver".huh?Is this a common problem with Presarios or something ? first ive encountered this.
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"Have you gone into the bios to check that your onboard sound card is enabled?"
John, yes but the BIOS on my compaq does not have/offer this option.
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Pop the Windows CD in the drive, holding shift key down until it has finished loading.
Next type sfc in the Run box and hit return.
Use the "extract one file" feature to get MMDEVLDR.VXD off the Windows CD and into c:\windows\system. If there is one there already let it replace it.Now try drivers again and see if this helps.
DerekW
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"windows asks for the win98CD and searches for the driver but cannot find it."
Win 98 and 98SE have this dumb glitch that appears in that situation. They seem to retain pointing to the wrong path, and when you see it asking for the location of a driver file, often what it really wants is the Windows CD - you have to point it to the Windows CD, usually to the \Win98 directory, but maybe in this case the \drivers directory.
If it ain't that, it's you have to point it to the same directory you extracted the driver files to, in this case where ever the sound files were extracted to. If you're not sure where that is, copy down the name of the file it wants, cancel the driver install while booting or whatever, and search for that file on your hard drive.
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The excutable will extract the driver files to a temporary place (usualy the c:\Windows\Temp\ folder) like Tubesandwires said. If you have a compression tool like WinRAR you can extract the files to a directory of your own choosing, which would probably help you more than letting the exe run straight off (If you have and all intergration options have been left as astandard right click on the file and choose extract to ,or extract to "folder name". Folder name being the name of the file your extracting). Also a thing you could do if you have the Space is copy the Win98 folder off of the CD and onto your HD and possibly the drivers folder(makes repairs and installations easier).
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Yes, I think 6 & 7 are on the right track - Windows does often give out misleading messages.
No harm trying my #5 but on re-reading, it sounds like MMDEVLDR.VXD is the victim rather than the culprit.
DerekW
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"MMDEVLDR.VXD is the victim rather than the culprit."
MMDEVLDR.VXD is a standard Win 98SE file on my computer, and it is on the Windows 98SE CD, but I doubt that it's missing.
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Yep, virtual device driver and quite normal to W98SE.
It doesn't appear to get updated.It seems to be complaining that something is preventing
it from doing its job. Corruption to any file is always possible but I now feel less inclined to think that mmdevldr.vxd is the real issue.
DerekW
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OK, srry for the long delay. Just to confirm that my windows CD was not damaged,I took the Compaq off line and used my Win98SE CD to reformat-reload it unto my old computer ( an IBM Pentium 1 joby which i was about to throw in the trash )and everything loaded and worked fine including audio.So all's fine with the CD.
I ran Unknown Device Identifier ( a small software program )and this is what it spat out:http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v34/nettron/schematics/?action=view¤t=capture1-1.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1
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Oh well that didnt work, try this :
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/nettron/schematics/capture1-1.jpg[/IMG]
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Appears this forum doesnt allow hot linking or something. Was trying to copy/paste the device identifier log. I finally got the driver(s) to load ( including a driver for joystick port? which i dont really need)they show up in device manager but still no audio. Need a alien driver maybe?:)
All audio controls are either non-existant or greyed out and speaker icon does not appear on my screen ( near the clock)
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Hot linking should work. I think this is what you meant:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...
Now the drivers have loaded try going to Device Manager (right click My Computer/Properties) and remove the sound driver entry under Sound, video & game Controllers then reboot. Windows should re-instate the drivers which might help as the files are now presumably present.
That's a bit hopeful so if it doesn't work download and run Everest from here:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_e...Look under Multimedia/"PCI / PnP Audio" and see if that agrees with the hardware that is in use.
Normally to get the Volume Control you go to Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio (see tick box at bottom). Otherwise check in Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs/Windows Setup/Multimedia and see if Volume Control is installed. If not install it from Windows CD. If you manage to get the tray icon, double click it and make sure volume is set up high enough and that nothing is muted.
DerekW
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You're right it's no longer free but previously that website poked out the last free version. I assume you've found this is no longer the case?
The following is a free version before they changed the name to Everest. It's fine:
AIDA32
DerekW
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Just curiosity, did you try downloading Everest using the link I gave you? It still looks like the free version to me (same version as mine).
The reference to "download latest edition" could be that the website was never updated.
It's just that I would want to stop giving that link if it now goes to the pay version.
DerekW
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I'm not sure where the confusion is stemming from - Everest Home is (and always will be) free - since it's discontinued - and that is what's offered from Derek's 'FileHippo' link
As per the homepage: http://www.lavalys.com/
'Corporate' & 'Pro' are commercial products, sure, and 'Home ' is no longer available from there. It's offered elsewhere since it's so darned useful
'Home' or Aida should work just fine, unless you've got brand new state-of-the-art hardware (you don't though)
Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock
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Thanx again Derek, that link worked perfectly, you da man! and you were right the device driver is NOT repeat NOT compatable. Went searching for another driver, found one, used your suggestions and presto ! Audio is now working for the first time in over 2 months! im so releived! Thanx man, Compaq tech support really needs a guy like you!
For future reference , got the driver here:
http://www.driversplanet.com/sound%...used: ES1989 Allegro/ES1930 v2.00 VXD 7130
The driver pointed to at Compaq's website was not compatable? go figure.
P.S. bookmarked this forum for future reference as well. :)
thnx everyone.
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