I have reformatted my six month old AMD 533 PC and discovered that I have no sound. Everything is working great except the sound and color which right now is only 256 instead of the 16 million that I should have. It has the socket 7 motherboard. The company that I bought the PC from will not help by providing a driver to activate the on-board sound. I got no motherboard book or system CD with the PC. All I got was the W-98 second edition CD. How do I get the sound back?. The numbers on boot up are MVP4 686A 2A5LHFOAC-00 if this helps.

That's the BIOS ID string. Take that number, and look through the links at my site, posted below. Look in the top link, Trish's, in the Motherboard/BIOS section, and find Wim's BIOS site. There you'll find the info you need to identify the board, and might be able to find a manual. The AMI or Award sites are also posted in my links, I think you can go directly to their sites for motherboard identification, once you have the BIOS ID string. You might try that first, then look at Trish's. Either way, you'll find the info you need. That should tell you what the sound card is. Once you know what sound card is onboard, you can get drivers for it. The driver sites you'll need are also posted on my site, and Trish's.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

I'm looking at the site that you sent me to and it is a great site with loads of info but so far I haven't found anything. My eyes give me problems even with a 17 inch moniter.


Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
That's the BIOS ID string. Take that number, and look through the links at my site, posted below. Look in the top link, Trish's, in the Motherboard/BIOS section, and find Wim's BIOS site. There you'll find the info you need to identify the board, and might be able to find a manual. The AMI or Award sites are also posted in my links, I think you can go directly to their sites for motherboard identification, once you have the BIOS ID string. You might try that first, then look at Trish's. Either way, you'll find the info you need. That should tell you what the sound card is. Once you know what sound card is onboard, you can get drivers for it. The driver sites you'll need are also posted on my site, and Trish's.

Did you re-install the correct drivers for the vid and sound adapters?

I do not have anything to install...That's what I am trying to find. I only have the W98 SE CD that came with the system and that is all I got. No user manual or information of any find.

Only thing I can find is that the 00 at the end means you'll have to email unicore with the BIOS ID numbers and any ID numbers you can find printed on the board. Some magnifying glasses will be a big help, I have to use them all the time, and my eyes aren't bad...yet...try reading the numbers on a memory chip out of an XT sometime... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

support@unicore.com

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

I have located some information that helps but when I get to where I need to connect to the address to get the actual driver I can't get connected. It says page can not be found try again later. I have tried many times and at diffeent times during the day. The motherboard is made by FIC First International Computer, Via Apollo VP4 Chipset, Modular Award Bios v 4.51PG. There has got to be a better way. I have searched until I am blue in the face for other places and keep being sent back to that site that I can't get into. Oh yeah....The motherboard number is PAG 2130. Surely I have enough information now but where do I go from here?

First... a couple of questions.

Who's name is on the computer? Do they have a website that might have a support or download area for getting drivers?

Are the sound and vid built on to the motherboard or are they isa/pci/agp cards?

If they are cards, and you can identify who made them, then the drivers are out there and can most likely be found. Some vid cards will identify themself as soon as you turn your computer on. You have to be pretty quick to catch it though. You might see a string of text that gives you the name of the chip on the card just before the post starts.

You could also try searching the windows cd for better drivers, though it probably won't help.

Have you tried simply adjusting your screen resolution for the vid problem? (right click on an open area of your desktop, choose properties, then settings. See if there are options for setting the color and screen area.)

As I mentioned in my first question on this subject...I have contacted the place where I bought the PC and they absolutely refuse to help me with this problem.
They do have a site but my motherboard is not listed and they only list information on the items that are for sale at the time. After that...there is nothing to go back and get.
There is no name on the PC as it was shipped as ordered on the telephone. Everything was put in it prior to shipment. This was a wholesale outfit that uses the size tower that you ask for and you just tell them what size hard drive that you want along with any other items you want added. Mine has 128RAM, 44max CD 19 GIG HD, 56 K modem (I had to replace this right off the bat) and the CPU speed is 533 with AMD Processor.
The audio and sound are built into the motherboard...not cards like the old PC that I had.
I have already went through the Windows CD many times trying to find the drivers for sound and color but none would work. Yes I have tried all the settings and screen area. When I started out I only had 16 colors but finally got 256. Should have 16 High Color.

I had a quick look around and I'm not sure if you've been here or not, but FIC have some drivers on their FTP site. There seems to be 3 different versions of the CD that you should have. Anyway check out the FILELIST.TXT at the following URL. There are video and sound drivers available for download.

ftp://ftp.fic.com.tw/cd_pro/cd_pro_v401/

Hope this helps

Mark

[This message has been edited by Mark B (edited 10-19-2000).]