David: I just gave Driverguide a quick search for the AC97 drivers. Curiously, are the AC97s a VIA chip? Seems to be anyway, as I seem to be pulling up nothing but VIA drivers (I gather that this is a VIA CHIP, not something written exclusively for a VIA board - don't want to screw things up more then they already are), although there is one codec that specifies itself as being suitable for an Intel 810/E. Take care, -Kurt

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VIA drivers aren't going to work. It looks like that board comes with either the creative 1373 chip or the ADI 1885 AC97 audio codec. You indicate you have the latter. SoundMax is one of the systems that can use that hardware. There's some info here: http://www.soundmax.com/products/fa... There are VIA AC97 audio codec chips. But you don't have one of those. Drivers meant to work with the ADI 1885 should be enough to get the audio going. SoundMax I guess is just a little bit fancier setup. I found this download page for another Intel board: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil... It's got a basic ADI driver download and one specifically for the 1885 chip. Either one might work with yours. Also, you need to make sure you uninstall any previous drivers before installing new ones.

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Hello Dave, Thank you for those links. Just tried both with the typical resut. For the record, both were essentially SoundMAX installations - the basic version included the 1.0 (?) drivers, the other is v3.0. One thing I did notice is that the SoundMAX MIDI controls will open - in the previous installations, the SoundMAX Control Panel would blink open for a second, then vanish. Further attempts to open the SoundMAX controls would only result in a quick blink of the hourglass, and no further action (except for the one time it did install correctly, in which case, the controls did open). Considering that I've completely nuked every single driver install before installing the following driver, could there be a possibility that this problem relates to a system file that is not installed by the SoundMAX installation setup, and is not affected by a re-installation of Windows? The only other thing I can think of is if the SoundMAX installation program is not installing all the files sufficiently, although this would not explain why I had the sound working once. Let me know what you fellows think. Take care, -Kurt

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I suppose there could be a hardware problem with the sound. You may want to make sure all the audio stuff is enabled in cmos/bios setup. It might also be a resource conflict. The explanation given by 98 in device manager doesn't necessarily tell you everything you need to know. Also have you upgraded DirectX? Was your windows reinstall an over-the-top or a fresh installation on a newly formatted drive? If it was a fresh installation you may want to try it again. Install windows, then the chipset drivers, then upgrade DirectX. Install the Windows Installer: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/... Don't worry about any of the other updates, at least not yet. Try the soundMax again. You can try temporarily removing unneeded cards like NIC or modem until you get the sound set up, in case there's a resource conflict.

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Hello Dave, I'll check the BIOS, although I believe the sound-related settings were all enabled the last time I looked. Won't hurt to poke my nose in it again though. I upgraded to DirectX 9.0 on this machine - 9.0b if I recall right, but I do not recall definitely (don't know why I didn't bother to remember this detail) - have to check. My install was an over-the-top. The unit has an installation of MS Office '97 on it, and I'd like to keep it there - if possible - for I do not have a replacement CD for it. There are no add-on cards installed in the unit. Other then the usual, the only other built-in hardware on it is an Ethernet port, VGA port, and a serial game port. I'll give the BIOS check a try, along with the Windows Installer - certainly sounds like a good utility to check the installation of the SoundMAX drivers and software. Take care, -Kurt

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Howdy Dave, BIOS checked out fine - sound is enabled, and all other related settings are fine as well. Following that, I tried installing the Windows Installer utility, only for it to refuse to install - the error upon opening the .exe ran something to the extent that the package had already been installed. I checked this out on a few sites, and found which files caused THAT problem. It took care of the initial error I received, but I can't find any evidence of the Installer actually having been installed on the system - no shortcuts, nothing in the Control Panel, and same for the Add/Remove Programs list. Curiously, would the Windows Installer give us enough information about the sound card installation that it is worth the effort to try and get it to install properly? I personally have never used the utility before, hence why I ask. Take care, -Kurt

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It's possible the installer was installed (gotta use a thesaurus) by another piece of software that needed it, or one of the updates. It's just not something that comes on the 98 cd so it needs to be installed from another source. So if you're getting the message it's already installed then it probably is. As far as I know the windows installer comes up automatically when installing new software. I don't think it's any sort of diagnostic software. But then I haven't really looked that closely at it either. Assuming the audio hardware is OK I think it's a resource problem--soundmax can't find places to load the files it needs--and of course that's just a guess. Sometimes you can manually change settings for other hardware in device manager but that can cause more problems. Check in bios setup again. If there's an option for PnP OS, enable it. Or if it's already enabled, disable it. Enabling PnP OS gives windows more leeway in setting up the hardware. You could also try temporarily disabling the on-board NIC and then see if you can set up soundmax. If all else fails, and not having a replacement office 97 cd is the only thing keeping you from reformatting, I can send you one.

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Hello Dave, I'd put a guess that the 98SE Unofficial Service Pack put the Installer on the system, but I have yet to see evidence of it by means of it popping up during installations. PnP BIOS is enabled. One thing: I finally got a look at the DirectX version I have, and was quite surprised to find v8.1 sitting in my system. More so, I came across one reference to this problem having been a culprit of a DirectX 8.1 installation, ultimately cured by DirectX v9.0c. Needless to say, in the meantime, I've been trying to install DirectX 9.0c, which is proving to be its own Pandora's Box. You'd think MS can't keep something SIMPLE for a change, eh? -Kurt

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P.S.: Those DirectX 9.0c problems are mainly that of an illegal operation error during unpacking of the .exe (I downloaded the full package). Incidentally, thank you VERY much for the offer on the CD. I might take you up on it. Take care, -Kurt

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I don't know if 'PnP bios' is the same as 'PnP OS' but if there's not separate option for that then I guess don't worry about it. I think I've got 9.0a on mine and it's what I've been putting on the machines I put together. I think it was a developer's version and I've heard they're sometimes easier to install.

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Hello Dave, "PnP O/S in the BIOS is enabled" is what I meant to say. Guess I was typing faster then I was thinking. I should note that I realized DirectX, although detecting itself as v8.1 according to dxdiag, was utilizing a hodgepodge of files from versions 4.x and 6.x - don't even recall seeing any 8.1 files about there. Taking this into account, I tried one of the DirectX removers out there, then tried installing the v5.0 packaged in FS98 - if nothing else, I hoped that it would give the 9.0c edition something to "bite" on when installing - that, or the possibility that the v5.0 might actually clear up the problem. Neither did anything of the kind. Although I did finally get around the 9.0c illegal operation error, the dxsetup.exe installation executable insists that "DirectX could not find a file necessary for installation." Ah, I love a verbose program - now to run a Google search to figure out what the hell that could mean. After all, the entire package DID download in its entirety. Additionally, I tried unzipping the main .exe via WinZip as opposed to running the built-in unzip program. Is there any location out there that still offers the DirectX 9.0 version you use? Take care, -Kurt

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It might be on Intel's site. Many of their download pages will offer a link to previous versions. I don't think I even know the file name as I've extracted it and burnt it to a cd. A lot of those directX uninstallers don't seem to work. A fellow posted one in this previous thread: http://computing.net/windows95/wwwb... and as I noted there, an over-the-top reinstallation of 98 will revert it back to the version on the 98 cd.

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Hello Dave, While I was not able to locate a copy of DirectX 9.0, I was able to hunt up a copy of genuine DirectX 9.0b at one site that installed without issue. It will probably come as no surprise that it did absolutely nothing to clear up the problem. The straw finally broke the camel's back at this point, so I once and for all gave in...I wiped the partition and started over. In the process of re-installing the drivers, I made sure to install the SoundMAX drivers before the others, excepting the Intel-specific chipset drivers - just to see if any of the drivers to be installed later would cause the same conflict. I am quite pleased to say that no conflicts of any kind happened, and the sound drivers have been operating well for over 10 re-boots as of present. Now to see if it will just hold up until next morning (!) P.S.: When installing, I believe the SoundMAX driver installed it's own version of mmdevldr.vxd. It flashed by on the screen quite quickly, but I am pretty sure that that was the case. Would this by any chance have any relations to the .vxd problem I had earlier? Was DirectX preventing the SoundMAX version from installing? Just wild guesses on my part - but heck, no harm in it, eh? Take care, -Kurt

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I don't know if mmdevldr.vxd would have been the problem. I doubt it was directX as the soundmax installation should have reminded you it needed a newer version. But it was something to check off anyway. Computer audio hardware and software is getting more and more sophisticated and demanding access to specific resources, ports and IRQ's. That's why it's usually best to install the sound stuff first so it can grab what it needs before it's allocated somewhere else. I'm glad it seems to be working OK now. If you need the office97 just send a private message.

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PM sent, Dave. -Kurt

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