I have purchsed a new computer and loaded the software on it and now I have a problem. I have read neumerous posts to try and resolve the problem, and having found no solution I am going to post a message for help. My computer has an ASRock ks741gx motherboard with a c media sound card numbered cm19739A. It has an AMD 1.8 Gig processor, 256 MB of ram and a 40 gig HD. I am running win98se. I have Norton System Works loaded on my computer I tried to load a program for my kids and it would not load because it said there was no sound device. The device manager says that my sound device is working propery and that there are no conflicts. Norton says I have no sound card and the sound icon in the control panel will not let me select "play sound" as it is grey and unavailable for selection. I took the computer back to the shop and they double checked the sound card and said it is fine because they put another HD in which was running XP and it worked fine. I was told it is a software problem, and therefore, my problem. I have reinstalled the drivers, got drivers form the c media site and still no resolution. The ndis2 has a yellow exclamation point beside it and is not working propery. I am comtemplating downloading a new Bios from ASrock. Any ideas? Joe B

Is this the driver file that you have downloaded? Cmedia AC97' Audio Driver, Ver. 2042 If so, go to Device manager and expand the sound entry by double clicking> highlight the Cmedia AC97'> properties> driver> update driver> next> specify a location (uncheck all others)> browse> (point to the full path for this file. If this file was zipped then unzip to a temp file prior to performing this operation. From the unzipped files choose the file for the version of windows being used and with an inf file extension. See if windows sees this file. I would download this file but it is quite large (20MB) so I am shooting in the dark as to what exact type of packaging it is. If when you look at this driver package none of this makes any sense then the file may be an exe file. If it is, then the proceedure would be to remove the sound device from Device manager and then run the exe file before rebooting.

If you have not already updated directX (a free download from microsoft also available on any computer magazine cover disk) do so. Some people have reported that they have found problems with 9.0c, you might consider the b version if available. After you install this, check out dxdiag and see if it finds a problem.

"I am comtemplating downloading a new Bios from ASrock" I'd put that idea on the back burner. Rarely necessary and if you get it wrong you'll need another new mobo. If you are not 100% sure what your sound hardware is about download EVEREST which will give all that info and a lot more. Google search string "Everest System Information". Derek.W

The file I listed is the correct driver file, according to the Board site.

OtheHill Fair enough - main thing was to hang fire on updating BIOS (at least for the time being). Derek.W

You are right. Scares me how casual some folks take things like flashing the BIOS or reformatting.