Question

Sound card configuration issues on XP: device won't show up in BIOS or control panel

Sound quality, configuration, Windows XP

I've been trying to help a college buddy fix his PC. Here's the issue:

Using Windows XP, he was having a video problem which caused him to change settings, after which couldn't see the screen.

So without recourse, he restarted WinXp from its last known good config.

That last known good config was before he had installed a sound card, because it was all happening at roughly the same time.

So now, the machine sees the sound card in all device manager areas, but the volume control control panel shows there is "no audio device"

The hardware is there. The software is there. The drivers are updated. I've tried two different soundcards: a SB X-Fi and a Turtle Beach Montego.

Still no audio device.

When he keys in "Del" on setup to enter BIOS, there's no audio device to toggle either.

Can anyone help?

***buddy***
try deleting all references to sound devices in DEVICE Manager. then shutdown. take out the sound card. boot into bios to see if there is an onboard sound card. if so make sure that it is disabled. then reboot into windows and see if it tries to load any drivers for the onboard. if not then shutdown and reinstall the soundcard. if after logging it it does not try to auto install drivers then install them from the CD. let us know what you find.
***/buddy***

Hello,

I found the question above while I was waiting for someone to help me with almost the exact same issue- see question from this morning "Blast from the past"

Not offering an answer here but just letting you know I have tried everything that I know of to get Windows XP to see my Sound Blaster PCI card as the default sound/audio device. Won't go into all of it again (see my question) but Windows "sees" the sound card and Device Manager reports it is enabled and funtioning properly. No conflicts- no other devices. "Sounds and Audio" in Control Panel shows the device as the default recording and MIDI device. But, the tab to select the default sound device is grayed out and will not let me select a default sound device. I also do not want to take very drastic measures for what I'm hoping someone else can help me with.

I will let you know I did a lot of looking and found very few (like none) references to this specific issue. It is ironic that someone here had posted the very same issue a couple of weeks ago.

Again, apologizing that this is not an answer, (no thread in the discussion RSS), I'm hoping that a corroboration of the same issue might prompt "buddy" or someone else for help.

Area 51