Sound Problems

[5milesbaby]

Friend of mine posed a problem he was having with his 5 year old comp - thought I'd bring it here for some proper advice.

Basically, following a virus (fully cleaned off) he has fully re-formatted and then installed Windows 98 SE. The original Windows package on the computer wasn't Second Edition but as the original disk isn't available and a 98SE was lying around (!), thats whats been loaded. However now no sound comes out through the speakers where as they worked fine before. All the usual first checks have been done (ie checked they are plugged in and turned on etc.) and a search through the system shows that the driver for the sound card hasn't been installed. Running through "other devices" in the driver menu shows PCI multimedia and PCI something else both with exclaimation marks by them, and clicking on each brings up the usual menus to attempt to install drivers from disk etc. All the methods have been tried but to no success "driver not found". Also a check with add/remove programs shows "communications" greyed out and unavailable to be touched, so the uninstall and reinstall doesn't seem available. Anyone got some advice on what could be the problem or a way to try and solve it? Layman's term answers would be appreciated!!

PS the computer is old as I said, its 64mhz processor speed and 64mb RAM, 8gb harddrive so any big downloads or installs may not quite work!!

Thanks, 5mb :ok:

[FunkyMunky]

Do you know the manufacturer and model of your soundcard (or motherboard/sound chip, if the sound is built-in)? It could simply be a matter of going to the appropriate website, downloading the drivers and installing them. Versions of windows below 2000/XP generally do not have all the necessary drivers included with them by default, requiring you to install them from CD/internet.

[5milesbaby]

Having found that its not the soundcard but more likely the Windows disk he was trying to install(copy of), he has purchased Windows 98se from eBay. Trying to load this onto his old setup has crashed windows fully, and when he starts up it just goes into MS Dos and no further action is possible. He has tried going into BIOS (delete on startup) and changing the medium to startup from the disk he has bought. There is a problem after going into BIOS and selecting "ccdromca" or "ccdromac" as when the page comes up "select <1> to boot from hard drive or <2> to boot from CD Rom" the keyboard does not work - as in pressing either the numbers on both main strip or number pad or using the arrow keys or trying the mouse or even page up and page down in either number lock on/off, this has no effect on the page and the computer times it out and just restarts from the harddrive into MS Dos. Once in MS Dos via this route the keyboard does not work at all, but it does work when the computer is booted straight from the harddrive.

This has got really puzzling, anyone able to shed a little light please??

5mb