C-Media Sound Driver Conflict

[risingTide]

I tried the install again and pointed it that file on my machine from the path you posted above: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386.

It actually finished the install this time but then I received the "Data is Invalid" error again. So now I receive it for both the Multimedia Audio Controller AND this PCI Input Device.

 

[kimsland]

Hmm progress at last. (may not be exactly good progress, but still)

If I were there, I'd start again, remove all sound drivers from Add/Remove programs
Also go back to Device Manager, click on View - Show hidden devices
And then remove ALL sound drivers

Then restart and go into your computer cmos setup (DEL usually)
Confirm onboard sound is enabled

Then start up again, and cancel any driver install (sometimes this is hard)
Then install the above sound driver again

Also confirm Windows Audio is running in Start - Run - Services.msc and is set to Automatic.

And I lastly download/update and scan with Spybots/Ad-Aware (just in case)

There you go, I won't hear from you for a little while.

 

[turbo1]

try to copy the gameenum.sys from C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386. & paste it to the folder where you saved the 10k1 driver,then re-install again.

 

[risingTide]

Just to be clear (so I know what is going on and can learn from this)...

1. Because I received the Data is Invalid error you're hoping that, perhaps, whatever was wrong kind of "reset itself" just like what happened to that other guy in the other thread? Therefore, we're trying everything over again to see if that's the case?

2. Do I have physically take out my friend's PCI card AND turn on my onboard audio in the BIOS? Or can I leave the card in?

3. Should I just forget about the DirectX 9.0 install at this point or try that first?

Sorry for all the questions...I'm just trying to make sure I understand.

Thanks.

 

[risingTide]

turbo1,

I just tried what you suggested but it still asked for the file. I pointed it to the one I copied in that 10k1 file this time, but I still got the Data Is Invalid error.

 

[kimsland]

Now see above, I have the current sound driver and the OLD sound driver ?

Have you tried that exact current sound driver (probably yes) and if so, can you uninstall it (just the sound driver again) and install the OLD sound driver ? (#48)

We're getting there !

Also, "I just tried what you suggested ", have you also put the DirectX 9.0C in?

 

[risingTide]

turbo1/kimsland,

Sorry for my delayed response, life took over for a few days. I just tried the LveDrvPack which turbo1 recommended and I received this error during install:

"The file 'ksuser.dll' on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 CD is needed. Type the path where the file is located and then click OK.' "

It's the same prompt I got trying to install the other drivers but this time it is for a different file. And then, after I click cancel on that prompt (since I don't have the file) I get the same one as before next:

"The file 'gameenum.sys' on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 CD is needed. Type the path where the file is located and then click OK.' "

So then it finishes the install, and asks for a restart...but nothing happens.

Also, I tried to install the DirectX 9.0c but when that install starts it checks for updated files and apparently I already have the latest (which makes sense) and it just finishes without installing anything.

It's almost as if there is something wrong with my XP install since I don't have those two files listed above. Is that possible?

I'm about to try kimsland suggestion of turning my onboard chip back on and trying it all again. I'll post back when I get the results.

 

[kimsland]

Try C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

 

[risingTide]

I tried it, but just like the 'gamenum.sys' file, it seemed to take it but the install still didn't work.

I'm going to try my onboard chip again like you suggested above since the DirectX 9.0c didn't work.

Two questions first:

1. Because I received the Data is Invalid error you're hoping that, perhaps, whatever was wrong kind of "reset itself" just like what happened to that other guy in the other thread? Therefore, we're trying everything over again to see if that's the case?

2. Should I physically take out my friend's PCI card AND turn on my onboard audio in the BIOS? Or should I leave the card in and turn on my onboard audio?

Thanks kimsland!!

 

[turbo1]

un-install the sound drivers,check & make sure no remnants left.

take off the sound card and turn your onboard sound on (in BIOS).

when XP loads, there should be something that will tell about a hardware/component relative to sound (balloon at the tray icon).if that's what you mean of "reset itself".

if nothing found,re-start in SAFE MODE (tap PF8) & re-install your C-Media driver for the onboard sound.then reboot.

If it didn’t fix it
try to do... START>RUN>DXDIAG then click the SOUND 1,SOUND 2,SOUND 3 tab.
check the details & informations (ie name,device ID,version) & post it back.

if still no informations found,try to download BELARC ADVISOR

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

note: belarc is a web based scanner & will display all your system’s informations (if you’re willing to do so,since everest didn’t work to detect your onboard sound chip),when done,scroll down.I just need the informations on the multimedia part.

copy it & post back.

 

[kimsland]

1. Yes
2. Yes

And turbo1 covered exactly what I'd say.

Get the onboard sound working, without the PCI pluggin card
Then disable again, and plug in your PCI card and load the right drivers.

 

[jhannica]

hi.. somebody please help me..

how am I able to know the manufacturer of my mother board?? I accidentally uninstalled my sound card and i can't have it back.. I tried downloading some installers from the internet, but still, it doesn't work.. What will I do?? Please.. Please help me..

 

[kimsland]

jhannica you should create your own new thread. Do Not Reply Here.

As you may be able to tell from this thread, a simple question can have many posts. Start with your System Specs, update your Profile and create a new Post.

Again: Do Not Reply here

 

[jhannica]

im so sory if i replied again.. I cant update my profile because i don't know what to put in those blanks, thats why im askin how can i find the manufacturer of my mother board.. And also, im just a beginner. I'm not familiar with this site, but it makes me curious when i red solutions to some problems regarding softwares.. i do hope that this site will help me arrange my pc and bring my sound card back..

im so sorry.. please help, i dont know what to do..

 

[kimsland]

There's my point, we have now got to 4 posts about you.
Ok you are new, so therefore I will answer. BUT if all goes wrong or if something doesn't work, please create a new thread. Just For You.

As I stated in my last post System Specs here: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3100-system-spec.html please download. Then run it.

Once you see all your specs, you then Manually update your profile (Look down the profile list until you see Additional. And just write in what System Specs states.

Mind you, if your computer is proprietory ie Dell; HP or any other manufacture. Just type in your manufacture and model number (which is written on your proprietory computer somewhere) into the Motherboard field.

You know you can ask these and any question in a new post, so therefore if you reply here again, you may be ignored, which will mean you will not get ANY support. Just letting you know. No Reply required!

 

[risingTide]

Many thanks to kimsland & turbo1!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 6 months without sound everything is now working!! Amazing!!

Here's what happened:

I made sure all my previous drivers were uninstalled in Device Manager (including Hidden ones) and Add/Remove Programs. I also ran CCleaner again and did both the cleaner and the registry tool cleaner. I shut everything down and took out the PCI sound card that I borrowed from my friendI then booted back up, leaving the onboard sound off in the BIOS for now. Everything booted up fine and it didn't ask for any drivers or anything (as it shouldn't because there was no PCI card and the sound was still off in the BIOS). I double-checked and all the drivers and everything were still gone. So I rebooted and turned the onboard chip on in the BIOS.

Now here is where it gets a bit interesting. After turning the onboard chip on in the BIOS Windows wouldn't load. It came up to the Windows XP loading screen and just hung with the blue bar going across the bottom indefinitely. I let it sit over 10 minutes but it just hang with the blue bar moving. So I manually reset (had no choice) and then it gave me the prompt about how "Windows didn't start correctly last time..." and I chose "Use last known good configuration." Still didn't work. It still hang just like before. So I manually reset again and this time chose "Safe Mode with Networking." It booted up fine in Safe Mode.

So then I was in safe mode and I went into device manager and noticed that I actually a "CMI8738/C3Dx PCI Audio Device" entry under Sound, Video and game controllers. That was cause for excitement since I haven't seen that entry in months.

But I still didn't have sound. So I first tried the newest drivers from SOYO's site that I had tried before and that kimsland posted above in #. To my disappointment I immediately received the notorious

"Our audio chip provides mult-speaker surround and realistic sound effects. Due to the fact that your computer is not equipped with our audio chip, you can not avail yourself of these advanced features. For more information, please contact your computer dealer - C-Media Electronic Inc. - Website http://www.cmedia.com.tw"

So, I then tried the older drivers which I tried before and which kimsland had posted above in # and said to try if the new ones didn't work. Well, they worked! During the installation I received two balloons at the bottom right that said "Found Multimedia Audio Controller" and "Found CMI8738/C3Dx PCI Audio Device." After a few seconds I got a prompt that said they were installed SUCCESSFULLY and that I needed to reboot for it to take effect. After a few more seconds the driver install that was still running also gave me the option to reboot if I wanted the drivers to work properly. So I rebooted.

Now I was still in safe mode when all that was going on but when I rebooted I loaded Windows regularly and behold! not only did it windows not hang on startup this time, but I also had sound!! Nice indeed. At that point I also received a prompt to pick 2, 4, 5 speaker setup from C-media which I did and that worked fine.

So, I now have sound (did I mention I'm extremely excited about that yet?) and I am now showing this in my device manager View attachment 28602 which, if you compare from an earlier posting, is much better! Also, Everest now finds my sound info just fine and I've enclosed a posting of that as well. View attachment 28603

I also actually have the driver listed in my Add/Remove Programs which wasn't there before either so it really does look like the install was an all around success.

Now I haven't reinstalled the PCI Audio Applications software yet, but I'm going to try that next. I set a system restore point in case something crazy happens, but at this point I'm hoping for the best.

Let me just thank you both again for your patience and continual posting over the last month. I appreciate it so much and I've learned a ton from the process!! I've tried to show the solution as best I could in this post, but if either one of you think that there is more info that I could post that would benefit others, please let me know and I will post it. I truly hope that this thread will help others with similar problems!!

I'll post back after I try to install the PCI Audio Applications...which probably won't be until tomorrow.

Many, MANY thanks again!!

 

[turbo1]

That sound chip it is........

whewwww!!! you little de_il sound chip you.....

I thought it would never show up.finally,you made it switched back on again.

g-o-o-d for you & well done.

there you go,,BOOMBOOMBOOM.time to hook up your JBL,BOSE,KENWOOD speakers & kick the bass out of 'em..

I suggest down-firing speakers would be the best.

Enjoy the music now!!!

BTW:you want me to send again another latest driver for C-media8738?..LoL.....

 

[kimsland]

Incredible !!!

So this is what we've found (which I have also successfully done)

If your pluggin ausio device does not work, and onboard audio exists.

1. Remove the addon sound card
2. Remove ALL sound drivers/software to do with sound / everything!
3. Disable onboard sound in CMOS
4. Again remove ALL sound drivers/software to do with sound / everything! in Safe Mode
5. Enable onboard sound in CMOS
6. Install the correct onboard sound drivers
7. Confirm sound OK
8. Disable onboard sound in CMOS
9. Pluggin addon Sound Card
10. Install all New sound card software

10 steps to success

Now why, the new sound card will Not work, even though sound is disabled in CMOS is strange, but apparantly important.

Also #10, users find that they need to un-install the old sound drivers again, this part is a little unclear.

I'd like to get this totally clear, especially with all the users problems with sound driver installs. (That seem to come nearly every day)

We need a really good guide written up, even displaying some driver links so forth, if anyone want to do this it'll be ideal. ie refer to this Sound Driver Install guide.

So, the pluggin PCI sound card, how did that go ?

 

[turbo1]

the pci sound card is for win2k,drivers for XP? i dont think so.no more available services for the SB live player 1024 card for now (XP version). the gameenum.sys is a file in 2k OS.work around is to rip that to XP.but no guarantee will work & i dont know if thats illegal.

for the onboard sound C-Media 8738,it was detected in safe mode with the driver installed.

then boot to normal windows,and BAM!.there goes the console that will ask you (radio button) 2CH/4Ch/6CH.That's the Audio Rack with 4 decker interface.CD player/general MIDI player/24 bit digital/MP3/DVD/ player/wave layer so & so forth.the on-board sound that risingTide has,is already a functionality of a PCI sound card.has 4 to 5 sockets,front/ rear/center/subwoofer in a SPK5 MODULE...would you believe that?

BTW:risingTide,no need for a PCI sound card anyway.

 

[kimsland]

Good point - No need

But a lot of users do plug in another sound card so II wonder if the process should always be disable in CMOS, it seems to be the most common answer.

The exact drivers are always an issue - and sometimes OLD drivers only work - it's all very strange!

 

[turbo1]

right Kimsland

BIOS is the main switch of the motherboard's components.enable/disable,depends on how you need it.just my opinion.

but not all motherboards are equipped with that "on/off" switch in BIOS for the AGP & PCI slots.some on-board functions are automatically turned off if a card is seated in the slots.but still,you need to disable the on-board function in the device manager to ensure no conflicts or avoid any "collision detection" (same as in network) across or from both hardwares.otherwise it wont work.

and for the drivers,yeah,you’re right.exact drivers are essential,we can always revert back to old drivers if we know it was working before,and doing it in the process sometimes hard to tell.we just have to hunt around on how to kick it working again.just my thought.

 

[kimsland]

OK I'll continue with the "disable onboard sound" (in the event of new PCI sound card) if the BIOS does not allow automatic disable.

But, it still seems to be the case, of getting your onboard sound right, then install the addon Sound card (ofcourse disabling the onboard!)
You must admit that's strange. If you'd like to supply a reason for this, I'd like to know - does onboard require to be set up first ? (in some cases)

 

[turbo1]

if you're referring to disabling first the onboard sound before plugging in the sound card,then i would say yes.

in my case,i disabled the on-board first,reason is to give way to a new hardware (sound card) to be detected upon windows boot-up.then proceed with the installation of the driver.

but thats only on the side of successful install of the hardware & software.how about after that you've got no sound?probably turning off/disable the on-board audio codecs would solve the problem & let the sound card's software do all the audio jobs.

its a case to case basis.and if you're referring to risingTides's situation,honestly,were just responding through posts & replies of how things got complicated or solved.

I admit its quite strange & sometimes add-on cards are one of the most complicated things to deal with in terms of troubleshooting.but things would somehow be different (i guess) if im right infront of risingTide's machine..(perhaps i made it worsen :haha: )....just my thought.

 

[kimsland]

OK that's reasonable.

I know it sounds a bit vein, but I have had people come to me and say, no one has been able to fix this, can you have a look? And 5mins later it's working (I have had the 3 days later scenario too - haven't we all)
So it's a case by case, and therefore a guide may not be ideal.
Too many hardware; codecs (yes all sound); drivers; os; system files; installed progrms; firewalls; and user! differences, to get it right on one guide.

All done.

 

[risingTide]

Greetings again.

I successfully installed the pci audio applications (audiorack) today. There was an error on installation that said that the uninstall file had a problem and i might not be able to unistall...but the audiorack application works fine in every way. That error may have had something to do with the fact that part of it never was uninstalled from before since i got a bsod right in the middle of the install that one time. But i'm not too worried about that since ccleaner and revo can help out enough to uninstall it if i need to.

Also, i'm still getting some BSODS and IE 7 crashes which i thought would go away once the sound was fixed, if indeed it was a driver conflict of some sort. However, i'm now thinking that they are unrelated to the sound. I'm definitely going to try to trouble-shoot those however, because in my previous install of windows (before i reinstalled six months ago and all this madness happened) i had only had about 3 BSODS ever. So something is definitely awry. Since it's not a sound issue though, i'll post those to one of the other forums...wouldn't be appropriate here.

I also wanted to clear up the overall order of my final solution as well. For me, the real help in the end was actually plugging in a pci sound card to my motherboard. note, that i never had a pci sound card to start with. My problem was solely with my onboard sound. The shortened version of the solution looked something like this (of course, a read of the full thread would be helpful if you are someone else that is having this same or similar problem).

1. onboard sound does not work.
2. tried multiple drivers (uninstalling the previous ones each time).
3. uninstalled all the drivers and sound software i could.
4. turned off onboard sound in the bios.
5. shut down, inserted a pci sound card, and turned computer back on.
6. tried multiple drivers for the pci sound card (uninstalling the previous ones each time), receiving slightly different errors but still unsuccessful in obtaining sound with the pci sound card.
7. note here that i tried turning the onboard sound back on in the bios with the pci card still in (to which windows wouldn't load). Not sure if this did anything or not, but i'm including it for completeness. Then i turned the onboard sound back off again in the bios and windows loaded again...still with no sound from onboard or pci card.
8. uninstalled all the drivers and sound software i could.
9. shout down, removed pci sound card, and turned computer back on with onboard sound still off in the bios. Verified all drivers were still gone (which they were).
10. rebooted and turned onboard sound back on in the bios.
11. windows would not load normally at this point.
12. booted in safe mode and installed the older driver from there (as the newer one still wouldn't work). The older one installed successfully.
13. rebooted into windows normally.
14. rejoiced greatly as the onboard sound now worked.

I think these steps are slightly different than what kimsland posted above because there was no original pci sound card involved in my case.

Also note: in my case, i had previously (before any of these steps above) already tried turning the onboard sound off and on before i ever involved a pci sound card. nothing happened when i tried that. there was definitely something about plugging in a pci sound card that was part of the solution. As to what it was...that's beyond the scope of my knowledge.

So, that's the "short" version. i do hope that this helps someone else out. kimsland, some sort of manual would indeed be helpful in my opinion...especially since you probably tell everyone the same basic steps as you did me in the beginning...it could save time for the helpful guys like you and turbo1 who answer the same basic questions a million times.

Finally, thanks so much for your help kimsland and turbo1. If there was some way to give a shout out to the techspot for your patience and endurance in helping me i would! you guys are great!

†risingtide