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Sound & Graphic Card Problems
Well Hello....
I have a problem, if anyone can solve it they will become my new God. I have a new PC, with a Sapphire Motherboard, it's either the Axion A3-A275 ( ATI A3-M275 Chipset) or the Axion A3-A293 ( ATI A3-M293 Chipset). Processor is AMD Athlon XP2400, RAM = 1Gig. OS = Windows XP Pro. AC97 Onboard Sound (Device name = ALi Audio Wave) I've been trying to install my Creative Labs SoundBlaster Platinum Live! 5.1 soundcard, with front bay "Live Drive". I have failed miserably. Following suggestions from other forums, friends, the guy who sold us the PC and general "voices" I have tried the following. 1)Disabling onboard sound in the BIOS. 2) Trying different PCI slots. 3) Removing the Network Card in case of IRQ conflicts. 4) Trying my old Soundblaster 16 card to see if the Platinum Sound Card was broken. 5) Cursing like a fishwife and contemplating extreme violence. None of these worked, Windows continually fails to even register the hardware using "Plug & Play" or manually via searching for newly installed Hardware components. If anyone has any other ideas as to things I can try that don't involve kicking the PC to death I would be so very grateful. Problem 2) The Graphics. According to the guy who sold us the PC, this Sapphire Motherboard, with it's integrated ATI card and chipset should be capable of running the most taxing game. It fails to run Sega's "House of the Dead 2", not the most demanding game by a long shot. The RAM is assignable, so on a system with 1 Gig of RAM, so we tried assigning 256 MB to the graphics card. This made the PC "angry", it gave us a pretty blue screen with many error messages, then it crashed. We then tried installing the graphics card from my old PC, an ATI All-In-Wonder card with 32MB Graphics Memory all of it's own. This has dramatically improved the graphics, but we are left wondering what the hell the original graphics chip did. Should we have to install a really old graphics card to get games running? Or should we send the entire PC back to the seller and ask for something that works? Any comments, or suggestions as to rectifying these two problems will be greeted with JOY (yes, capital letters!) and much clapping of hands. Thanking you all. :) |
On board graphics are a horrible solution for gaming. While it may or may not run games it will definatly not run as good as a dedicated card. Curious as to what happened when you tried the sound blaster card. Did it work, or have you tried. If you can't throw it in another computer and see if that computer recognizes it at all. If that doesn't recognize it or your computer does recognize the old sound blaster and not the new I would say that the card is bad. Also you may try installing the card, recognized or not and manually installing the creative lab software and drivers, see if it say it can't find anything or if it works. Then check back please, like to know what you see.
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Sound & Graphic Card Problems (Mark Two)
ok I have two Soundcards. [/align][/align]Soundcard 1 = Creative Labs Soundblaster Platinum Live 5.1 Soundcard 2 = Creative Labs Soundblaster 16. I have two PC's A)New PC AMD Athlon XP 2400 (1.9Ghz) 1Gig RAM Windows XP Pro AC97 (Onboard Sound) ATI Integrated Graphics Currently using ATI All In Wonder Card (B)Old PC AMD Athlon 1.3Ghz 256MB RAM Windows XP Pro (No current Soundcard) (No Current Graphic Card) Both soundcards have worked fine in the old PC. And still work fine because we tested both of them today. We've tried installing the Creative Drivers for the Soundcards on the New PC with no luck. We've tried installing both soundcards in the New PC, using different PCI Slots, with no luck. We've removed the network card from the New PC and then tried installing both soundcards again, with no luck. (Please note, we didn't try to install them both at the same time) (That's dumb that is) The basic problem with both of the soundcards, is that the New PC totally and utterly fails to recognise that they exist. We disabled the onboard sound (AC97 Audio) through the BIOS, but that didn't work. I uninstalled drivers relating to AC97 sound, but that didn't work. Can anyone tell me how to get Windows "Plug & Play" to recognise my soundcards, does anyone know if I have to flick a jumper switch on the motherboard? (I don't know much about motherboards, I'm a girl.) Graphics: We solved the graphics problem by installing the ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder card from my old PC. Now this card has 32 MB RAM, compared to the initial setup (the integrated ATI graphics card with 256 MB Assignable RAM). The initial setup should have worked fine, without having to install a much older, lower spec graphics card. If we run games using the integrated graphics, they're slow and freezy, and basically rubbish. Does this sound like there's a problem with the actual motherboard? Presumably if we're running a game with 256 MB RAM assigned to the graphics, we're left with 768 MB RAM for the system CPU, which should be enough for any game to run smoothly. We were assured by the supplier of our PC, that the integrated graphics setup would be able to handle any game, and that the system was deisgned with gamers in mind. If anyone wants to check out the motherboard we have (if that helps!) it's available here, and is either the Axion A3-275 http://www.sapphiretech.com/mainboard/a3-275.asp or the A3-A293 http://www.sapphiretech.com/mainboard/a3-293.asp Whichever one it is, both have the ATI Radeon IGP320 Graphics Onboard. My most pressing problem is the soundcard one, as I'm a musician and all my recording & mastering is done on the PC. There is no chance in hell that the AC97 setup will ever handle what I need to do with Audio, so any help is VERY MUCH NEEDED, OH GOD PLEASE HELP. Thankyou again. :cry:[align=left] |
Sound & Graphic Card Problems.
Yes, that guest was me, in reply to the Reaper.
I forgot to log in. Please remember, I'm a girl. I like kittens. |
You've done some great trouble shooting, to me, I would say it is the motherboard. not so much the graphics, on-board graphics, despite what you where told are not as good as a dedicated Graphics card. You set a huge chunk of RAM for it but it won't negate the fact that integrated graphics are not for gamers. Suprised you had as bad a problem as you did, but it's not suitable for hardcore gaming. As far as sound this may sound extreme but just uninstalling the old sound drivers may not erase all traces of the drivers. This is not a sure bet so just understand this may or may not help. I would format the harddrive, after I had disable the sound card in the bios, then reinstall windows, do the motherboard drivers first (via 4-in-1, or whatever chipset drivers are appropriate for your motherboard) with the sound card disable it should not ever ask or mention that soundcard during the install, I would have the sound blaster in during the reinstall however so windows will see it, it may not ask for drivers in the begining but by the end of the reinstall of windows it should show up in the device manager at a minimum, though it will be with a question mark or exclamation point until the drivers are installed. Some motherboards will just not release the duties of the on-board sound to another card however and people end up with issues like you have. As far a the majical "Plug and Play" jumper I am afraid no such thing exists, this has lead to the phrase "Plug and Pray" which many have found much more accurate. Like I said I know it's an extreme solution and by no means is it sure fire, but I'm sure a large hammer would bring much satisifation, it won't fix the computer but it'll make you feel better. I'll do some lookin' around and see if I can find any other solutions.
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Sound & Graphic Card Probs.
Wow! Many thanks for that, I'm just waiting on a reply from the people who make the Mobo to see if they've got anything helpful to say, and if that doesn't work we'll try your solution.
If possible I'd like to avoid a reformat, but if it's the only way, then it must be destiny. I tried asking Creative Labs for help. HAH! They've asked me the same question for three days running. It doesn't matter how I phrase, re-phrase, re-re-phrase the problem, they seem to think I'm sub-human and it's just a case of "Are you sure you've turned the power to the compuer on?" Uh huh..... Well, pending what Sapphire say, I'll let you know how I get on, as this problem seems to be amazingly common for those trying to upgrade from onboard sound. I've seen the same question in many different forums, but never a definitive answer. Thanks again for your suggestions! :) |
*Insert Expletive* D'OH!
After two weeks of messing about with internal hardware and BIOS settings, sending bits n pieces of my PC all over the country to be checked by some really nice guy who works for Sapphire, they've finally decided that my Motherboard is at fault.
So I have to send the whole PC back. HAH! This is kind of annoying as I hoped there would be a simple solution I could pass onto others with the same problem as me. Best thing I can recommend to anyone else who's done everything I did and installation of a PCI still soundcard didn't work... Complain in a really polite but persistent way to the people who make the soundcard, the people who make your motherboard and whoever sold you the PC. Someone somewhere will help! :evilking: |
You did great troubleshooting, first off.
I think it should have been obvious that the MB was the problem, given it was the common denominator here. They really shouldn't have made you wait so long to RMA it. Congrats on your win. -WC- |
Sorry to hear that ended up being the fault. Congrats on getting stuff on the road to be square however. Hope it all work out for ya.
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This may be a moot point now if you've returned the PC, but were any other PCI cards installed in the system, that you could verify the PCI bus was operating properly?
Not sure on the Sapphire, however the FIC AT31 "Fusion" also uses the ATI 320 northbridge, however makes use of the VIA southbridge as ATI did not have the chipset completed in time. You would need to install both the ATI chipset drivers and also the VIA 4-in-1 chipset drivers to get both bridges functioning correctly. And as has already been said, onboard graphics are generations behind the "standard" add-in video card of the day. Even the latest nForce2 IGP boards use the meager GF4 MX graphics. IGP boards are not designed to be gamers by any stretch of the imagination. They're aimed more at "value" systems and OEM builders. |
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