Philips Sound Card not detected by WinME

[JustinPS]

I just bought a fairly cheap Philips Sound Card (model PSC604, 32bit PCI) for my sister becuase she really wants sound on her computer, instead of having to use mine every time. I installed the card correctly, put the drivers CD in, and turned it on, but the expected "Windows has detected a new hardware device" window never popped up, and when I tried to install the drivers it gave me a window saying the card wasn't installed. So I went back into the case and connected the CD audio cable, just in case that might help. Still nothing. I thought it might be the PCI slot itself, so I took out the audio card and tried a video card instead, and the video card worked fine, so it's not the slot. I reconnected the audio card and found that I still had other PCI audio drivers installed from a long time ago, so I uninstalled those, but still nothing. I've also disabled the on-board (AC-97) audio in the BIOS, but that didn't help, either. I tried downloading the drivers straight from the Philip's website, but they gave me the same "error" message.

Any ideas? I'm all out on 'em!

-Justin

 

[JustinPS]

Well, I finally solved the problem above by taking out both the sound and network card, and then putting them into each other's slot. This, magically, caused WindowsME to recognize that I did, indeed, install new hardware.

However, now none of the media players I've tried recognize the sound card! I installed the newest drivers and updated Windows Media Player to version 9, but it still gives me the "You don't have a sound thingy installed, so we can't play sound" message when I try and play an MP3. I also tried Musicmatch Jukebox (which came on the Philips CD...ugh...) and that was the biggest barrel of crap I've ever seen. I may try RealPlayer, but last time I did that....well, ME didn't like it.

Any suggestions now? I'm going to see if songs play from within Kazaa (which I haven't uninstalled yet, even though it doesn't work), but I'm won't be surprised if I don't get any sound.

-JustinPS

PS: I know the speakers work becuase I did a speaker test from within a program that the Philips CD installed, and sound came out.

 

[aidsministrator]

Hello there JustinPS.

No you don't have to keep wasting your time searching for perfect media players for your sound card. All media players work fine and will play any sound media just if you have your sound card properly installed & enabled on the system. Nothing wrong with media players...

Try to check whether your computer chooses the Philip device as its default sound player.

1. Open Control Panel > Sound & Audio Devices (for XP. if you're not using XP, just look for 'sound'.)

2a) On the 'Volume' tab, you should see something like 'Philip bla bla bla v.0.0 bla bla' on top of that 'sound & audio devices' window. You see it? If yes, then congrats! the computer chooses the philip. So now, the problem is just either the philip is disabled on device manager or speaker problem. Or maybe user problem too?? hehe just clowning.

2b) do you see any message like 'no sound device installed'??? You see it? If yes ,that means you didn't properly installed the driver for the Philip sound card.

3. You shouldn't let the computer install the driver for you automatically. It's helpful if you know how to install the driver manually using technics & tricks.

note: you have the Philip CD right? In that CD, you might see a 'driver' folder & see some OS-named folders like win98, winME, win2k, winXP. In each folder, the driver is different since each of it run/supported on specific OS. So, If you let the computer install the driver for you, it will find for the first driver it discovers. If your OS is windows XP, what if the computer 'lazily' take the first driver it found (example: from 'win98' folder) & install it on the computer? so the driver is not compatible right? Computers do make mistakes sometime.

OK now, you can try my procedure:

1) Uninstall all sound drivers from the Device Manager including the Philip's. (right click my computer > properties > Hardware > Device Manager)

2. Turn off your computer

3. Take out your Philip card from the slot

4. Turn on the computer again & quickly go to BIOS.

5. ENABLE the on-board sound device on the setting. (Hope you know where to access this option in BIOS).

6. Hmm.. you can try choosing the 'Load Optimal Setting' on BIOS. but this is not necessary anyway (in case you had 'accidentally' changed anything other than the on-board settings)

7. Save & quit BIOS. restart PC (right now, no PCI sound card installed).

8. Let the PC load to windows. Then shut down again. (Before that check the device manager again. There should be no sound driver/device determined)

9. After you turn off, open the cover again & re-seat/re-fit the sound driver again.. but now, try to use other available PCI slot. Fit it properly.

10. Turn on your computer again.

11. The PC should detect the sound card & will automatically install your device using an existing driver. (your philip of course... because the driver is still saved in the system. but nevermind about this)

12. Insert your Philip CD.

13. Open Device Manager. Select the philip device. right click & select 'update driver'.

14. Ok I'll make this simple. Hope you understand..

a) Select 'Install from a list or specific location' (Advanced)
b) Select 'Don't search. I will choose the driver to install'
c) click 'Have disk'
d) Try to explore the CD. try to search for the OS-named folders like I mentioned before.
e) Good news if you can see the folders. Then select the correct folder following your Operating System (if you're using windows XP, then choose winXP)
f) select that driver (usually *.inf extension)
g) wait until the computer install that requested driver for you.
h) If failed to install, you can try other *.inf files in that CD one by one.

15) The rest is up to you.

Ok. I hope I'm not wasting a lot of my time for this.