[thintin]

Hi.

I've run out of ideas trying to solve this problem, so now I'm begging for help

History/Syptoms.

I have an Asus M2N-VM DVI mainboard which has on-board HD sound (ALC662 High Definition Audio) and on-board video adap.

On a fresh instal of Win XP SP2 everything worked great. Then, after about two weeks, the sound just stopped working (nothing had changed, no new drivers, no new hardware, not even installed any new apps at time of failure).

I tried removing and re-installing drivers (methodology later) but no luck, so eventually I re-installed windows; hey presto, sound worked again...for a few weeks! Then it stopped again!!!

I really don't want to have to keep re-installing Windows, so I need to sort out this problem.

Here's what I've done so far...

• I disabled the soundcard in the BIOS
• Booted into safe mode and used add/remove progs to remove all chipset and soundcard drivers
• Re-booted into safe mode to ensure nothing was listed in device manager under sound, nothing was.
• Re-booted into BIOS, enabled sound device
• Re-booted into normal mode
• Cancelled the Windows 'Found new hardware' dialogue
• Installed latest chipset drivers from Asus
• Re-booted...

Now the problem.

Windows detects the soundcard as 'PCI device' but will not associate it with the correct drivers.

I've tried using the Windows 'found new hardware' function to search, nothing found, even with driver disc in tray,

I've used the 'don't instal automatically, I will pick the best driver' option, but Windows always says 'the location does not contain information about this hardware',

I've tried just installing the driver package using its own setup.exe, this installs but the soundcard doesn't work and on re-boot windows finds new PCI device again.

I've gone through many variations of this process but nothing will make the soundcard work.

Any suggestions?


Please?

[tomthedrummer1992]

Have you tried updating to SP3?

[philthomas]

In addition to the Chipset driver, you need the Audio driver go here for download

[thintin]

Thanks for the replies. I should of mentioned that I upgraded Win to SP3 after installing, and I've got the latest sound driver from Asus...

any more ideas?

[philthomas]

Might be worth checking to see if there is a bios update for this board.

I do remember reading that a number of folks have had problems with the on board NIC and some with Audio .... I recall it was something to do with the nvidia chipset.

[thintin]

..and that I've got the latest BIOS...

B^)

[MJM]

So I had no ideas for this so I went ahead and googled. Looks like people have had the same/similar issue, but not necessarily with the same board (just sound chipset).

Open 'regedit' (Start -> Run), search for 'enum'. There should be two occurrences. Both will have a subfolder called 'HDAudio'. Delete both HDAudio folders (one may require changing the permissions on it). At this point you should be able to install the driver. Have Windows search for new hardware. It should detect the audio device as though it has never seen it before, and install the drivers for it.

I'd recommend backing up your registry first!

[thintin]

Thanks, I'll give this a try later! B^D

[thintin]

Tried it, it didn't work. The soundcard re-installed but still shows error code 10.

I can now update this issue with new info.

I put a blank HDD in to my PC and installed a clean version of Win XP SP2, and hey-presto, the sound works fine. I updated Win XP to SP3 and updated everything (from windows update site) except the sound drivers and it is all still working.

It would be nice to just use this new install but I really, really don't want to re-install all of my other apps (I use lots), not to mention the fact that the HDD I used for the new install is considerably smaller than my other one, and there are no IDE places left to be able to use both.

So my question, and your mission should you choose to accept it, is: how do I get my soundcard working on my original Win XP installation?

My first thought is that it is something to do with the newer drivers not being replaced by older ones when I try and retro-fit them (or that the registry is not allowing me to go backwards with driver installations) but I'm just guessing...others have suggested that it may be one of my apps causing the problem; should I list them to see if anyone else can identify one that may be a culprit?

Help?

[MJM]

Unlikely that I'd be able to see anything... If you go to the devs website and download the newest drivers and it still doesn't work then I really have no idea... especially since it works with a fresh install