Lost onboard audio...

[BANZAI56]

Howdy, I have an Intel 850E on a MSI-6182D (i810 chipset) with 160 MB of PC-100. The system also has a Realtec RTL 8029(AS) Ethernet adapter and a 3dfx V2 1000 PCI card installed. The system has been together for about a month and sailed smoothly during that time with Win98SE. Last Sunday the audio started dropping out and/or freezing for a few random moments. I was using the MoBo's built in audio device..the SoundMAX ADI AD1881.
In Device Manager I asked Windows to search for an updated driver. Out of the audio file I found on MSI site..win98 claimed to find a better driver. After allowing the install and a restart I lost all sound!
In a effort to repair the audio glitch..I removed SoundMAX from the Device Manager and then used Add/Remove programs on it. I still have no sound even after the reinstallation.
I'm sure reformatting the HDD would cure this, but I'd kinda like to avoid that if at all possible...
any one have any ideas?

[Randy_tx]

Are there ANY "?"'s in Device Manager? You may not have loaded all of the Drivers after all if there are ?'s in there. Also, you may have installed the same Drivers that you downloaded from the net. You SHOULD have to use the Drivers which came on the Motherboard CD to correctly load the Sound drivers on an "On-Board" sound setup. I would try to Remove them again along with any ? items in Device manager and direct Device Manager to the CD that came with mobo to reinstall. Good luck.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[BANZAI56]

During the initial set-up of the board I did use the drivers supplied on the MSI CD. However, everything had been updated as of a few weeks ago. I collected the newest stuff for the 810 chipset from Intel and MSI had newer drivers (as per the dates) for the onboard audio devices. I used the setup installer supplied by each update. I also, updated the BIOS from Ver. 1 to 1.4. Again..that all happened a couple weeks ago and everything was fine there after. SETI even dropped to around 10 hours a block. The fact that Win98 claimed to find a better driver in the update I had already installed should have been a warning to me, but I was willing to try it if it would have repaired the audio glitch.
Since I lost sound totally..I have tried to revert to the audio drivers on the CD as well as reinstalling the downloaded update. Nothing has improved the situation so far. BTW..I did have a pair of "?" listed in other devices, but the system would not tell me what they were. I tried manually searching for the drivers needed, but was always given 'the folder does not contain information for your hardware' (or something to that effect). Now I don't even have the "?" showing.
As much as I hate to do it..my next move, I believe, will be to reinstall the OS after removing all references to the audio devices. Thanks for your reply!

[mjc]

Just on the off chance that the "found" driver may have only partially loaded, boot up into safe mode and remove the audio components there, also there may now be multiple audio devices in device manager (in Safe Mode) delete each instance of the the device and when you reboot Win should find the hardware and then you should direct it to either the update (which you should extrac to a new folder before starting this procedure) or to the original CD.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Evil wizards, evil creatures from the foulest pits of the nether world....scary? Nah, WindowsME now that's scary!

[BANZAI56]

I think you are correct. The driver(s) was somehow only partially loading.

I had used Safe Mode to remove the audio references and then tried to reinstall. I believe that is when I first got the "?" in the device manager, but it did not resolve the sound issue.

Now for the good news. After removing the audio references and reinstalling the OS..I now have sound again. When Windows was installing the audio software for the onboard hardware..it copied quite a few more files and warned of newer ones that were being copied. I don't believe the installation processes I had tried before even made it to that point (copy/warn). I kept all newer files and located the others it requested. Everything appears back on track except for the garbage the OS reinstall created... Thanks folks!