How to Repair Your Soundcard and Install Soundcard
Sound cards don’t have a particularly high failure rate, I believe but they get replaced more often than any other adapter, with the possible exception of modems. The reason is that older PCI sound cards that came stock with systems offered pretty lousy performance, so gamers and musicians often find they have to replace the sound card just to work with the programs they buy. The first step is to unplug the PC and open the case. Yes, you can use a power strip and turn off the power switch to preserve the ground, but I’ll bet more people blow up adapters sticking them in motherboards with a live 5V rail than with static electricity. You only need to remove the top lid on the average midtower - two screw, slide back a couple inches, and off. You can see the original sound card connectors in the center of the adapter bay.
The original sound card is secured in the case with a single screw. If you’ve done this before, you’ll see that there’s something missing along the top edge. This PC was built without an analog audio lead connecting the CD drive to the sound card, which means it never would have been able to play music CDs. This is an extremely common issue with PC’s that were built without any quality control or a CD was installed at a later date by somebody who had a lazy attack. The audio lead is a two cent part, and it’s probably generated more “my sound card/speakers don’t work” service calls than any other assembly oversight, and who knows how many sound cards replaced for no reason. We remove the old sound card, and also a blank bay cover next to it, because our PCI 5.1 upgrade sound card needs two slots for the SPDIF riset.
Speaking of the SPDIF (Sony/Phillips Digital Interface), we now connect this daughter card, or riser, to the new sound card. I like to do this before actually installing the sound card in the case because the connectors aren’t always keyed. This connector is keyed the top left hole on this 2×5 connector is blocked to match the missing corner pin on the board connection block. In a bit of literary foreshadowing, you can also see just above my forefinger the 4×1 connector where we’ll later connect the CD audio lead. To the right of those connectors is the silk screen explaining which is which. This information is available ONLY on the sound card, the one page paper manual that came with it had no info at all.
Here you can see the small SPDIF daughter board held above the basic sound card,which I think I paid around $20 for. It’s a 5.1 sound card, five regular channels (front left and right, rear left and right, center) plus a low frequency or sub-woofer channel. When you’re upgrading a sound card, a 5.1 is pretty much the minimum I’d consider. Newer motherboards come with 6.1 and even 7.1 sound built into the motherboard, so this isn’t anything you should have to fool around with a a newer PC. The game port is quickly becoming obsolete, replaced with USB game controllers, but many replacement sound cards, like this one, still feature a legacy game port.
Whenever you install a sound card or other adapter in your PC, you should be careful not to touch the contact edge (the gold stripes) when handling the adapter, and ideally, you should only touch them on the metal bracket or unused real estate on the card. I seated this adapter in the PCI slot with even pressure on the bracket and the back edge of the sound card. Immediately after installing the sound card, secure both it and the SPDIF riser with one screw each through the bracket on the back rail. That covers how to install a sound card, now you have to get the internal and external connections made right.
Now we attach the CD audio lead to the sound card. Obviously, we have to attach the other end to the CD/DVD drive or it won’t do much good, but I’m going to let you take my word for it that it got done:-) The other connector blocks on the top of the sound card are for modem inputs, lets you play your phone through the speakers or use a system mike with a voice modem rather than plugging a separate mike into the modem card. The truth is, I never fooled around with voice on old PC modems, but the VOIP (Voice Over IP) capabilities of PCs with broadband Internet connections work pretty good. They use the sound card for the mic and headset, not a modem. Below, I just wanted to show the optical SPDIF input. The clear plastic tube directly to the right, is the protector I took off the optical connector, and the black plug next to the clear tube protected the optical port on the adapter.
No sound is
heard from audio (music) CDs
Various conditions may cause this problem. To troubleshoot, check the following:
- Microsoft Volume Control or your mixer program mute options and volume
sliders. - Connect headphones to the stereo phone jack on your CD-ROM drive’s front
panel; adjust the volume control settings on the drive. If there is sound
from your headphones, check the CD audio cable connection from the CD-ROM
drive to the audio card. - Ensure the speakers are properly connected to the audio card’s output
connector.
Joystick port
is not working
To troubleshoot, check the following:
- The audio card joystick port conflicts with another joystick port in the
system. Disable the audio card joystick port, and use the system’s joystick
port. - The joystick drivers, MSJSTICK.DRV and VJOYD.VXD, may not be installed.
Uninstall the joystick, then reinstall to load the drivers. The drivers
should come with the driver CD or floppy diskette with your sound card.
Computer
hangs or restarts during installation
A hardware conflict may cause the computer to hang or restart during the
installation procedure. Check the following to resolve the conflict:
- A hardware conflict with another device in your system.
- Previously installed sound card hardware or software needs to be
removed. - The audio card is not seated in the slot properly.
- PCI bus mastering devices may be interfering with the operation of the
audio card. Temporarily remove non-essential PCI bus mastering devices.
Resolving
hardware conflicts
Hardware conflicts occur when two or more devices contend for the same
resources. Conflicts between your audio card and another device may occur
regarding the I/O address, IRQ line, or DMA channel:
- Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select
Properties. The System Properties dialog appears. - Click the Device Manager tab. In the Device Manager, a plus
sign(+) represents an expandable list of items. A minus sign (-) represents
an expanded list. A circled exclamation mark denotes a conflict. - Double-click Sound, video, game controllers. A list of multimedia
devices appears. - Select your audio card.
- Choose the Propertis button.
- Click the Resources tab.
- Uncheck the Use automatic settings option.
- Change "Settings based on:" if alternate settings are available.
- Determine the conflict by reviewing the "Conflicting device list".
- Select the conflicting item in the "Resource Settings" list.
- Click the Change Settings button.
- Use the mouse to select a new setting.
- Select OK to close each of the properties windows, and restart your
computer.
Audio card is
not automatically detected
To manually configure your audio card for Windows 95/98:
- Click "Start" on the taskbar, and select Settings from the Start
menu. - Select Control Panel. The Control Panel group appears.
- Double-click the Add New Hardware icon. The Add New Hardware
Wizard dialog appears. - Select Next to continue.
- Choose Yes to have Windows search for new hardware, then select
Next - Select Next to continue.
- Select Finish, and follow the prompts to complete the new
hardware installation.
CD does not
automatically run when you insert it in the drive
To enable the "Audio insert notification" feature:
- Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select
Properties. The System Properties dialog appears. - Click the Device Manager tab. A list of devices appears.
- Double-click CD-ROM, and select your CD-ROM drive.
- Choose the Properties button. The CD-ROM drive properties dialog
appears. - Choose the Settings tab.
- Click the "Auto insert notification" option to enable.
- Select OK until all Properties dialogs are closed, and restart Windows
for the changes to take effect.
No sound is
heard from speakers
Verify the following:
- Check the Microsoft Volume Control or the Audio Mixer Program mute
options and volume sliders. - Ensure the speakers are properly connected to the audio card’s output
connector. - Check the volume control and power connection of the speakers, if they
are amplified. (Refer to the speakers documentation for detailed
information). - Ensure a hardware conflict does not exist between your audio card and
another device in your system. - PCI bus mastering devices may be interfering with the operation of the
audio card. Temporarily remove non-essential PCI bus mastering devices. If
the device is a display card, upgrade the display card drivers, or set the
card to the default Windows VGA mode.
If you are experiencing no sound only
during audio CD playback, see "No sound is heard from audio (music) CDs" above.
Static sounds are heard in wave files
Check to see if the static sounds are heard in all wave files. If the difficulty
occurs only with certain games, refer to the software manufacturer’s
documentation. To troubleshoot static sounds heard in all wave files:
- Try different resource settings for the audio card, or set the card to
use low DMA. - Move the audio card to another PCI slot. Feedback from the power supply
or another device may be responsible.
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