PCI sound card issue!?

Question

I have an Audidgy EAX advanced soundcard i want to use but when i plug it into the PCI and the card isnt detected. I think the PCI slots are ok as i have inserted other stuff into them and there are detections in those slots!

Is there any way of telling if the sound chip im using is damaged? like a program to diagnose or something?

thanks guys?!

Answer 1

hi mate

when we install a new peice of hardware windows will assign what is known as a i.r.q or interrupt request,however while most of the time windows will assign individual irq,s and in some cases assign shared irq,s there may also be a instance were two peices of hardware sharing a irq become a problem

this is commonly known as a IRQ conflict and is a once common hardware error, received when two devices were trying to use the same interrupt request (or IRQ) to signal an interrupt to the Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC).

The PIC expects interrupt requests from only one device per line, thus more than one device sending IRQ signals along the same line will generally cause an IRQ conflict that can freeze a computer.

to check you soundcards irq right click my computer(computer in vista) and select properties,then click device manager and in windows vista agree to the uac

then go to the sound and multimedia entry and expand this to find the audidgy EAX then right click the entry and select properties

then go to the resources tab and scroll down the entrys until you see "irq",then next to this you will see the irq number

then heres were it gets interesting,you then have to discover if or whats conflicting with the soundcards irq

this job could be made easier by downloading diagnostic software such as "sisoft sandra lite" from http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=,this will help you discover which other device is conflucting with your soundcard

however sometimes the best solution is to simply move the pci soundcard to another pci slot,this most of the time will actually sort the problem,and sometimes it may require any other cards being moved aswell

i personally use the top pci slot first,then if theres any issues move it to the bottom pci slot,theres no actuall science in this method but its worked for me time and time again

sisoft sandra can also diagnose any problems with the card

and finally soundcards should be recognized even before the drivers are installed however its allways best to download the latest from the creative website as these will have patches and fixes for different motherboards

you can download your audidgy drivers from http://support.creative.com/Products/product_list.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster#

good luck mate !

Answer 2

In the control Panel , under the Sound and Audio Devices, make sure that the sound hardware, whichever that is, PCI or on board, is detected and driver is installed. If it shows none, you will have to go to the Motherboard Manufacturer's website, or the PCI sound device manufacturer's website for the newest driver available. Try searching in the discussions there too, that is, if this is a known issue, you might find help there too. Trying on a different set of speakers might help too if its not the driver's fault.

Answer 3

Hello,



Installing a new sound card will not always show up as detected. Also check to make sure the card is properly seated, check for the gold plated pins near the bottom, and if it is square against the back plate. Download the latest drivers and install. Last, try it in another computer. Just because your os did not detect it, doesn't mean it's not connected. Sometimes you need the drivers to be installed.

Answer 4

If your computer is unable to read the soundcard then there's no diagnosis software that can scan it and let you know if its bad or not cause... the computer can't read it.



If you have another desktop in the house, install the card in there. That's the only way you can tell if the sound card is defective.



Also, if you have a disc to install drivers... Then maybe you should do that too.

Answer 5

Run the driver CD first and install the driver etc, then put the sound card in and see if that makes a difference.

If that still doesn't work, download the demo of Driver Magician to see if it picks it up. I had an issue yesterday where XP wouldn't see a graphics card but DM did.

Answer 6

probably your sound card is damaged.

to be sure try it on another computer.

or go to device manager to see whether iit is detected or not.

good luck.