Kevin Groat

I've just tried to fit a cheap sound card to my son's PC and it's hanging up. First time the PC started it found the card and it picked up the driver from the CD - not convinced it picked up the right driver mind you. Shortly after this - before doing anything else really, the PC hung up and had to be switched off. Now when it fires up it gets to the desktop but before any icons appear the egg timer appears, the hard disc stops loading and it sticks there. If I remove the card it'll start OK, put it back in and the same problem persists. Here's the question - how do I find the driver(s) it installed - there's none with todays date. Any other help would be appreciated. The PC is and old P166 and the card is a Pine Crystal 4281 if that helps.

Kevin - must remember to stick to things mechanical !!

robski

Kevin,

go to My computer, then Control Panel, then add remove programs, should be in there

I would suspect its clashing with another component. The other option is to boot windows in safe mode, and it will load a driver at a time, that way you can check that it is the soundcard.

robski

Kevin Groat

Robski,

Thanks for reply, I'll have a look at it in the morning - I've opened a bottle of wine now so it's probably best left till the haze clears !!

Kevin.

polarbearit

I assume the card is Plug and Play and has no hardware option to manual configure it.

So yes you can do what is described above by robski, but add/remove programs may not list it (does not on my win98 box) or may not remove the driver properly. What you should do then is fire up device manager (right click on my computer, select properties then 'Device Manger). You sound card could be listed under: Sound Video and Multimedia Controllers. Delete all references. Next Check 'Other Devices' and 'Unknown Devices' and delete anything that could be anything to do with your sound card. You may have to do this in safe mode or with the card removed.

Next if you have an option in your bios to set your pc up for a Plug and Play OS make sure it is set to Plug and Play and not manual config. (unless the card has hardware option to manually configure resources).

Ok next step is boot the PC up with card in and all trace of card removed! This should bring up the plug and detect window showing what has been found. You then need the right driver for the card, and it should boot be ok. Any Further problems mail me.

I guess the card is made by Pine and has a Crystal Audio Chipset,

Try this page for details of how to get the driver!

logiclee

Kevin,

If its still causing you problems I got a genuine Creative Labs Soundblaster PC128 from JLT for £15 delivered.

Lee

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

The crystal chipset audio cards are very dodgy and I would steer clear of them. I have dealt with many of these cards through machines that my company have had over the years. Not a proper sound card in the way you would think of it. Uses software codecs and emulation etc, to process and produce sound. as opposed to proper hardware. Buggy software at best, too.
Get another card, sharpish...
SB PCI64, 128, or the ensoniq variant will work well in the mentioned PC. As for spring claning the crap left from the old card, safe mode, device manager, remove all crystal related codecs etc. shut down, insert a decent, cheap card and fire up!
In theory, you probably have a Motherboard with 5 PCI slots. If your VGA card is in slot 1 and is using an interrupt, then avoid using PCI 5, as the 2 share many resources and older machines and cards are normally pretty selfish about this sort of thing

Hope this helps....


Nick

Kevin Groat

Thanks everyone for the advice, haven't been in here today till now as BT seems a bit funny today not allowing me to log on. I'll give it one more go with the sound card I've got tomorrow and if that fails it goes in the bucket - no great loss it only cost a tenner.

Kevin.

Kevin Groat

Finally got back to the problem in hand and I've got a a bit further but still I'm stumped. I can install it ok now and it works - until I restart the PC then it hangs up. I suspect its a conflict with the video card as the display either freezes or disapears altogether. If so what are my options ?. Footlong above talks of conflicts between PC1 1 and 5. The PC in question has 4 slots with the Stealth video card in slot 2 or 3 depending how they're numbered.The sound card is/was in the other slot 2/3. Would buying a different sound card cure this or is there some other way of sorting this. Windows didn't detect any conflict when the card was installed according to the device manager. Any help appreciated - time to go, Driven's on.

Kevin.