New HDD, Win XP, No Sound

[acbus1]

Hi

Just installed a new hard drive, Win XP and Service Packs 2 and 3.

Tried installing the Motherboard software, but get 'I/O Error 21' from autorun.

Manually performing Start/Run/Browse/Realtek/setup gives me:

E: \Sound\RealTek\setup.exe. Clicking OK starts the installation. No problems to begin with, but about half way through installing, I get a message stating that file ALCXWDM.SYS on the Realtek driver disc is needed. I don't have, have never had and have never before needed such a disk - it's all supposed to be on the Motherboard disk.

Using Windows Explorer, on the Motherboard disk, I find:

Sound
Realtek
WDM
ALCXWDM

Accepting 'Copy files from E: \Sound\RealTek\WDM' gives a message 'Setup cannot copy the file ALCXWDM.SYS.

This CD works fine with exactly the same computer and motherboard and same make, model and capacity hard drive with Windows ME. Sound works OK with those. The motherboard is stated to be for Win ME/2000/XP.

Can anyone advise of a solution, please?

Thanks

[mixture]

Place said CD in bin. Download or otherwise obtain latest drivers from the motherboard manufacturer. Job done.

[onetrack]

acbus1 - If you check the audio driver properties, it should have a "compatibility" tab. There should be options to run the program in an earlier version for compatibility. Have you tried rolling the driver back to an earlier version?

I think all the new upgrades and security packs are making Windows OS's into a nightmare.
I've just done a clean install of the latest Windows 7 (on a new HDD), and my Realtek ALC889A audio drivers refuse to work, so I have no sound. I try to repair the driver and it tells me there's an incompatibility issue.

Checked the MS Windows 7 compatibility site, and it tells me cheerfully there's no compatibility problems with my Gigabyte MB. BS there isn't.
I've downloaded the latest audio drivers from Gigabyte... still no sound... rolled the drivers back... still no sound... tried earlier versions for compatibility... still no sound. I'm tearing my hair out here and get no joy from anywhere.

I would suspect a "security" update in the SP3 pack could be causing the conflict for you.

As for Windows 7, I've never downloaded such a "buggy" OS system in all my life...

[P.Pilcher]

One reason that Microshaft are going to have to work a lot harder to persuade me to change from XP to win 7 than they are is that I know that should I do so I will be unable to get modifications for some of my software and will thus be obliged to acquire the latest versions of this. Some of my software was designed for DOS (thanks Dosbox) some was designed in the days of Win 3.1 and it still works - just. I bet it won't with Win 7 thus the cost of changing OS could approach £1000! For what purpose?

P.P.

[acbus1]

First off, I've now got sound , thanks to your advice(s).

I'm still running WIN ME on some of my caddied hard drives. My old software works with it and is simple enough not to need constant use (I forget how the complex stuff works all too easily). I don't need a Ninja PC and have, in fact, stocked up with spare Win Me-capable computers at stupidly low cost from eBay etc.

I found an old set of Win XP service packs on a CD I made yonks ago. I started again from scratch and, instead of downloading SP2 and 3 from the Web, I used the CD. The sound driver on the motherboard CD still didn't work, so I downloaded V3.0 from the Web.

I now have a Win XP computer with no glitches and sound. Problem is, I think it may be running slower with XP, compared to ME, but I'm not certain, yet. Unfortunately, I need XP because a lot of internet stuff won't now run with ME (sob!).

Thanks, guys and gals, for all your superb help!