Iain Young

I've run into a spot of bother with a pc re-install and was wondering if anyone can help.

My aunts pc dies the other day (the os was kackered and wouldn't boot), and after hours of trying, we decided that a reinstall was the answer. The machine is an old pc-world type HP job,and came with system restore disks so I went ahead and formatted the drive for the re-install.

At this point I discovered however, that they provided the incorrect restore cd for the machine and none of the drivers etc are correct. So, I've installed up a fresh copy of win98se, found the video / modem drivers etc and that all seems to be working fine. Where I am having a problem however is finding a driver for the sound. The chip is one of those on-motherboard jobs, with no identification marks (on the chip or motherboard) as to the maker etc, and every driver I've tried has failed to work.

Unfortunately the machine itself has no identifying marks such as a model number or anything. All I know is that it is a PIII 450 machine, (the bios revelas no details either). I've emailed hp for help but had no reply.

So, has anyone any ideas as to how I can get some drivers for this sound chip? Perhaps some sort of hardware sniffer program which will identify the maker etc?

Thanks,
Iain

super_si

ive got a simlar problem.

Is there a Universal drive for Sound/graphics card?

Si

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

The mobo should have something on it somewhere...

Try taking what marks there are & running through Google until a satisfactory answer appears - tedious I know, but you should get something from that.

Ken E

or chuck a cheapo soundcard in it and disable the onboard sound via the bios

Tony_W

Iain,

Check this website out

Click Here

http://www.support.vectra.hp.com/vectrasupport/level1/home.html

You'll see a drop down menu for all Pentium III PC's

I think your onboard sound is a crystal chip using the AMC97 codec...the drivers should be on this support site..

If they don't work keep selecting different HP PIII PC's on the drop down list. there's about 6 of them so it must be one of them. try the Vectra VLi8.

Hope this works

Tony

[Edited by Tony_W - 9/26/2002 1:25:30 PM]

[Edited by Tony_W - 9/26/2002 1:26:19 PM]

dogmaul

oh what fun pc world are always doing this the wrong restore cd with machines, happens most with packard bells. best thing is go demand the correct discs off them and dont leave till they do :P i used to work for pc world as a technical person but left as soon as i possibly could

Iain Young

Thanks everyone....

Puff, the only identifying mark I could see on the mobo was "made in china", but I guess that doesn't count Might be something underneath, but I don't really fancy stripping the guts out of the thing to find out.

Ken, that was the next thing on the list to do

Tony - thanks, I'll give it a go....

PC world are the pits for PCs. I cringe everytime anyone I know buys one from them because I know I'll be getting a phone call sooner or later to come and sort it out. When you read the small print of the garauntee, it says that it does not cover software, only hardware, so trying to get the correct cd for an old out of date model from them might prove to be more hassle than it's worth.

Cheers,
Iain

dogmaul

it depends they tend to have the cd's in store and normally will make you a copy.

the mark will not be on the board it will be on a chip it will normally be either crystal, yamaha, creative or ess normally if your looking at it from the front it will be on the left hand side of the motherboard if its laid flat on the desk