Greetings!

Long Short Story:
I emptied all the items underneath "Sound, video, and game controllers" in the Device Manager and reinstalled the Creative SoundBlaster AudioPCI 64V(WDM) driver from the Resource CD on my brand new Dell Dimension 8100. It's an Ensoniq Audio PCI/Sound Blaster PCI...WinME auto-detects an ES1371, but other sources say it's an ES1373. Now, there is no sound, even though "Creative SoundBlaster AudioPCI 64V (WDM)" is listed underneath "Sound, video, and game controllers", and it reports that it is functioning properly, there is no sound. I reinstalled the Microsoft Kernel Audio Mixer successfully with the WinME setup files, but the system hangs when I try to reinstall the Microsoft Kernel System Audio Renderer from the same.

I tried everything I could software-wise to get the AudioPCI to work. I tried drivers from Creative, Dell Support, Dell Resource CD, and driverguide.com. None worked.

I thought the new PCI Steering setup could handle multiple devices on the same IRQ? Both the builtin NIC and my sound card use IRQ11 as follows:

11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905-TX Compatible)
11 Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V (WDM)

When I first got the PC about 2 weeks ago before I reinstalled the drivers, it looked like this and was working fine:

11 Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller 1
11 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905-TX Compatible)
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V (WDM)
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering

Does the arrangement of the PCI IRQ Holders make a difference? I have disabled the onboard USB controllers to simplify things on IRQ11.

Why don't the AudioPCI 64V drivers for Windows ME work in Windows ME?

I also ran the DOS AudioPCI diagnostics disk and it audibly reported that the digital audio is working. I know the card is good, and the system is good. Getting it all to work together in Windows ME is the challenge here.

After experimenting with the settings in the Devices-->System-->PCI Bus applet and getting strange results, I decided to restore these settings back to normal and wait for more help. I would rather have the network and internet up and running with sound not working than the other way around.

One option I was pondering was to wipe out ME and install my purchased copy of Windows 98 Second Edition and see if the system would communicate better with the hardware there. However, after using WinME for a couple of weeks, I kind of like it. It has built-in Home Networking setup and extra little features in my favorite application: Windows Explorer.

Would someone be gracious and show me how to get the sound to work again on my new WinME PC?

Thanks!

I'm having the exact same problem.
brand new winMe sys. with onboard sound though. I took everything off IRQ 11 except the audio and that didn't help. what kind of motherboard do you have in yours?
maybe by sharing info we can solve this together.

Greetings Roger!

After I posted here I continued to work on my system and discovered the solution in the Phoenix Bios 1.10 A06. The Dell Dimension 8100 motherboard is based on the Intel 850 chipset.

There are two settings in the BIOS, one permits enabling/disabling of the PCI devices and the other permits changing PCI IRQ assignments. It turns out that the Creative Ensoniq Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V (WDM) depends on USB controller 1. Whenever I changed the IRQ for the sound card, the IRQ for USB 1 changed with it to the same IRQ. Well, I had disabled the USB controllers because I don't have any USB devices and I wanted to free up resources and unnecessary drivers. This disabled the sound. Also, in the BIOS interface it is not obvious that the PCI IRQ's are changeable because they are not highlited and appear static so I assumed they were set by the hardware only. My mistake. Now recognizing that the sound card needs USB, I then reenabled USB Controllers.

Since I didn't order my system with a phone-line modem(got a cable modem), I discovered that I could do without the serial drivers and free up IRQ4. When I did this, the BIOS(or WinME) reassigned IRQ's: it moved the video from IRQ3 to IRQ5; moved NIC from IRQ11 to IRQ3; moved sound from IRQ5 to IRQ4. I didn't like this arrangement so I reset video back to IRQ3, the NIC to IRQ4, and sound to IRQ5(traditional Sound Blaster interrupt). There are no devices on IRQ11 now!

Once I did this, I rebooted and there was still no sound. I decided to reinstall the sound drivers from the Dell Resource CD which removes the old, then installs the new drivers. When I did this, the WinME PnP detected the PCI audio device as usual, but then it began to ask me for more files than usual(a good sign!). I had to browse in various places on the hard drive and CD to get all of them installed and when warned about the file version being older than what was on the system, I selected to overwrite them. It took about 30 seconds of 'hour glass' waiting and then prompted for a reboot. After reboot, WinME setup asked for one more file to find and reinstall. Then sound was back! As GOD enabled me, I was able to figure this one out.

In short, the solution was found by 1) realizing that my sound card relies on the USB controller; 2) realizing that I could change PCI IRQ settings in the BIOS; 3) freeing up IRQ4; 4) resinstalling the sound card drivers.

I hope this helps you. It would be great if yours is the same solution. If not, then I hope it gives you some new troubleshooting ideas and points you in the right direction.

Now I need to clean up my hard drive from the various driver source files I downloaded from the Internet and from Dell and copied from the Dell CD's.

Thanks for replying and offering your help!