Windows 7 not detecting sound card?

[Nocandu]

Hi

I helped a friend of mine upgrade his computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 everything went well hardware wise except for his printer and sound card.

His computer is a Dell Dimension E520 about 3 years old.

I finally got the printer to work by manually downloading and installing the drivers for it. Windows did recognize it but wouldn't do the drivers on its own.

I can not get the sound card to work.
When I look in Device Manager it has an error indication and says that no drivers are installed for this device. It does not identify the device name.

I think it would work if I installed the drivers just as the printer did but I don't know what kind of sound card it has.

He can't find his build sheet and I tried everything including Belarc Advisor and nothing detects the ID of the sound card.

Anyone have any ideas?

I tried to install the drivers from his Dell disk, he has several and none of them identified as to which of his Dell computers going back ten years they are for.

I didn't find any that worked.
I'm surprised that W7 didn't detect the sound card and install them automatically. I didn't have any trouble on my old computer when I upgraded it. Everything worked right off.

Any help welcome, I'm going to look up his computer at Dell and if I have to I can tell him to call them, but it seems like there should be a way to tell what it has.

Mike

 

[goombawaho]

Post what the sound card is by going into Device Manager and go where this link shows. Post info.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...=/images?q=pci+ven&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbs=isch:1

 

[goombawaho]

I should have said to post the PCI\VEN........ string by doing a CONTROL C (for copy) and then paste it here.

There MAY NOT be a driver for Windows 7. You can't assume there will be for older PCs/components. I have a $200 sound card that was rendered useless by Vista/Win 7!!!!!!!!

 

[Nocandu]

Hi Goombawaho

I'll see if I can get him to do that!
The computer is at another location and he isn't exactly computer literate.

I didn't have any trouble with Windows 7 on my old Dell computer which was a lot older then his and I intentionality kept his computer at 32 bit when I upgraded it, to avoid driver problems. But you never know.

I'll try and talk him through it on the phone.

Thanks for the help, it may be a day or two before I get back here because I think they are going to be gone for a while.

If this gets too far down It will bump up then.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

[tlcscousin]

Every Dell comes with a specific System Tag enter that in dell support and it will list all drivers available for that particular unit. Look at the sound card driver they have on their site and it should tell you what device they have installed then go to the actual manufacturers site and get updated drivers for the sound.

 

[goombawaho]

Many times though, the Dell site will indicate MULTIPLE drivers for sound, network and/or video for each operating system, so you really can't tell FOR SURE by looking at the System Tag info and going to the drivers page.

It narrows it down, but if there are three video cards for example, it's not much fun downloading all of them and trying each one until you get some love.

Better to use the scientific approach and look up the PC\VEN info.

 

[Nocandu]

Thanks I'll check all this stuff out.

Mike

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

I got his Dell Service tag from him and I was able to track down his build sheet from Dell.

The Audio is identified as shown below.

Card, Multi-media, Audio, SB0467

I'm guessing that this means that he has some kind of Sound Blaster card. No. 467?

I'm going to try and track this down.
If anyone has any idea what this means please post.

Mike

 

[tlcscousin]

looks like an x-FI creative has drivers on their site

 

[Nocandu]

Thanks, I think I have it.
At least I hope so, I'll try it out tomorrow morning.

Mike

 

[goombawaho]

If that fails, follow my first directions and post the information requested to identify the card.

 

[kjv1611]

Hey, Nocandu, since it's an x-fi card, I know for a fact that you can use Creative's auto-update program over the web, and let it install the correct drivers for you. It works better in Windows 7 than I've ever seen.

Start here:

http://www.creative.com/language.asp?sDestUrl=/support/downloads/su.asp

Then after a while, you'll get to the place for auto-update - just have to specify where you're at, and what card you have.... on the cards/items page, I'd select "sound blaster" first, and then the specific X-Fi card after that... sometimes selecting X-Fi from the first selection page (instead of Sound blaster generic card) doesn't list all the possible x-fi cards.. Anyway, I think it's a fairly obvious blue button with a roundish icon on it if I remember correctly..

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

Thanks for the help.

I installed the drivers this morning and it seemed to go fine.
It now says it now shows it as an SB XFI and says "This device is working properly".

The only problem is that I still don't have any sound.

I looked to see if "Speakers" was the selected output device, not muted, turned on, etc.

We couldn't spend a lot of time, he had to get to work so next time I go I will take my USB head phones and see if they work.

The speakers were working when we started the upgrade process so I don't know what is going on.

Am I right in assuming that if the correct drivers weren't installed I would not get confirmation that the device was installed and working?

When I get a chance I will try doing as goombawaho suggested and post the info.

I'll also try to update using kjv1611s link.

Thanks again for the help.

Mike

 

[kjv1611]

Well, your USB microphones won't really show any issues with the sound card. They might show issues with volume settings, but only partially. The reason that is if it's using a USB connection, then it's using it's own sound driver rather than that buitl into the PCI/PCI-Express sound card.

You can check under the sound settings for output and recording options to see what the selected device is - not spekaers or headphone, but rather the "default device" for each item. I have had times in the past where I had to manually adjust these settings, b/c for whatever reason, Windows didn't update it after installing a new sound card/driver.

Another thing to check if that doesn't work:
1. Turn off the PC
2. Pull the sound card out of the PC
3. Put the sound card back int the PC
4. Reboot..

Or in other words, reseat the sound card. I've also had to do this on occasion. Seemed strange to me, but it worked wonders at times.

 

[danomac]

My brother's computer with Win7 has always had issues with his sound card, sometimes after unplugging his USB headphones Windows wouldn't notice and set the default sound device back to the onboard audio. After messing around trying to get it to work it's possible Windows is still pointing to a null sound device. This setting was in the Control Panel under Multimedia, you might want to check it out.

 

[Nocandu]

I have done a lot of research and found that a lot of people have issues with this sound card in Dell computers when switching to Windows 7.

I haven't found a real solution any place.
I have a new driver that some people say worked so I'll give that a try.

I'm going to go over there this afternoon and give it one more shot after that if I haven't had any luck I think it's time to find a Sound Card that Windows 7 will recognize.
I really thought that by sticking with 32 bit I wouldn't have this problem.

Anyone want to recommend a moderately priced card (under $50) that Windows 7 won't have any problems with?

Mike

 

[kjv1611]

If they don't need anything special, how about this for $15?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4&cm_re=usb_sound_card-_-29-128-004-_-Product

It's on sale right now at that price, but full price is still under $50.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

I just found the place to download the drivers according to the Dell service tag.

Now I am pretty sure I have the correct drivers for his computer. They are a different number from the ones I was using.

I have Both SB and Sigmatel so I'm going over and try and install these drives in XP compatibility mode and see if that works.

If I can't get the sound card to work I'll try the on-board Audio and see if I can make that work.

I'll look into the device you suggested kjv1611.
I also found a Sound Blaster Audigy for $39.

I'll let you know if it works.

Mike

 

[kjv1611]

On the Audigy, if it's PCMCIA or ExpressCard, make sure it's compatible with whatever ports you have - 2 different kinds of Express Cards, and PCMCIA won't work in an Express Card slot, for instance.

I also saw a pair of logitech laptop spekaers on the site that would give you the sound card AND speakers, I believe. The model is the logitech z205, but it costs near $40.

With the other sound card options, you still have to plug in external speakers or headphones. However, it LOOKS like the logitech speakers do not include a headphones port... so it would only help for open air sound.

As for Audigy cards, I've got a PCMCIA model, and I love it - though I've not used it in some time. I used it to record audio from locations away from home on a few occasions.

 

[tlcscousin]

It sounds like the computer has two sound cards one built on the motherboard one as an add on card. Which one are the speakers plugged into?
Onboard is usually below the USB ports on the back of the computer the add on is in a slot further down on the back of the computer.
If the speakers are plugged into the onboard sound card then they wont work unless the onboard sound is active in the BIOS and the drivers are loaded.