Hi,

I'm having problems with the sound on my computer. I have a Windows XP Home Edition, with a Creative Soundblast PCI card.

Last month, the sound suddenly disappeared. It showed the soundcard as installed and functioning, but Winamp would give an error message saying , "Bad Direct Driver Error Code 80004005". A technician looked at the problem and installed Realtek AC'97 Audio drivers. The sound came back and it worked without any problem.

But after about three weeks, the sound completely disappeared again, and this time, its not even showing the soundcard as installed. At startup, the computer detects "Multimedia Audio Controller", but it isn't able to install it, saying that there aren't any drivers. And Winamp gives an error message saying "Device not found. Please select another device in configuration. Error code: 88780078." Also, right now, when I click on the Volume Control option through the start menu, I get this message: "There are no active mixer devices available. To install Mixer devices, go to Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Add Hardware."

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Realtek drivers again, but it doesn't fix anything.

Can anyone please help me? I'm not sure which drivers I need to install or where to get them from.

Thanks.

Try shutting off the computer, pull out the sound card, reseat it, turn on the computer and let the computer find the new hardware. The drivers should already be in the Windows/system32/drivers folder. If they are not download them from the Soundblaster website. Try these drivers
http://www.totallydrivers.com/drivers/download-driver.asp?driver=45

Can you tell me what the driver name should be, in the drivers folder?

Look for any yellow circles with exclamation points in them in the Device Manager. The Device Manager is located under System in the Control Panel. Right click on these yellow circles and remove them. Restart your system and let Windows reinstall the drivers automatically, if it can. Are you using any registry cleaners or virus/spyware software?

When I run the .exe file, and when it detects hardware and asks for the driver file, where do I have to point it to? I tried pointing it to system32/drivers, but it said there isn't any driver file there.

I think I need a step-by-step procedure on how to install the driver. I only know how to install drivers that come with .inf files, and this one doesn't seem to have one.

Foget about installing new sound drivers for now. You said that the drivers "disappeared". They actually are still there, but some other program, or OS update is messing with them. Search for a program called RegscrubXP... It is FREE. You can do this search from Google. Install and run the program. Restart your computer. After your computer is on, ignore all the prompts to install sound drivers, and look in the Device Manager. Control Panel, System, Hardware= Device Manager. Do you see any yellow circles???

Okay, after running RegscrubXP, I looked in Device Manager, and under the heading of "Other Devices" there's "Multimedia Audio Controller" which has a big yellow circle on it.

Right-click on that yellow circle line and remove only that one line, and restart your system...
Creative card drivers can be a real pain to install. XP seems to tolerate them better than MS's older Operating Systems, but if after you restart, you are asked to install the Creative drivers once again, point the installer to where the downloaded Creative drivers are located and let the installer install them in a default location. I know this sounds confusing. I hope XP just installs the sound drivers automatically. As I said, because the drivers disappeared, they are actually still on your system...

I've removed that multimedia audio controller many times and restarted, but always the same thing happens. This time, I pointed it to one of the folders in the installed Creative drivers, and it started installing, but then it said that it needs sbpci.sys and to point to the location. I couldn't find that .sys file anywhere.. even after doing an entire computer search, and in the end the drivers didn't install.

Help?

I was afraid of that...
Can you skip the file "sbpci.sys" and let the install continue?

no, it doesn't work. A window pops up saying "Files needed" and to give the location and press OK. But pressing OK just makes the same window appear. And if I do 'cancel', then the installation just quits and the little bubble in the taskbar says that there was a problem and the hardware didn't install properly.

first, realtek drivers are not soundblaster drivers. They're for your internal sound on your motherboard. uninstall them and also turn off integrated audio on your motherboard.

Second, obtain the drivers for your creative card (CD rom or website) and install them.

Third, be aware what kind of speakers you have - digital or analog

if you have digital speakers you will need to enable that setting within the creative programs.

How is the integrated sound on the motherboard turned off? And I'm not sure which type of speakers I have..

But I'm having problems with installing the drivers. Maybe I'm downloading the wrong file, and I need some other type of creative driver?

Kirei Blossom,
lets assume that you have analog speakers for now, ok. Do you know how to get into your system's bios? Sometimes hitting the "DEL" or "F1" key with the system is starting, will get you into the Bios. Once in there, get into the advanced screen, integrated PCI or somthing like that, and "turn off" integrated sound...

Ok, I went into Bios, but couldn't find an option for integrated sound anywhere.

But can anyone please please tell me where I can get that sbpci.sys file? Aren't there any other soundblast/creative drivers I could try?

It really sounds like you installed the wrong Creative driver. We really need to determin if you have on-board sound or not. Is there someone you know, that could answer this question for us. Someone that is a little more familiar with computers and their hardware?

All I know is that I have a separate soundcard: Creative Soundblaster PCI. This was the device name I always saw in the Device Manager.. though, that device lately vanished, along with my sound.

So what is sbpci.sys? And why doesn't it come along with the driver file? And is it not possible at all to get it anywhere else?

I'm thinking that you DO NOT have on-board sound. That "Creative Soundblaster PCI" you saw in the Device Manager was your separate sound card. Pull the sound card out of your computer and give us the number on the largest IC on the board, and any other numbers you can see. "sbpci.sys" is a Windows system file. This file is part of a device driver. If we can get you the proper driver, it will have sbpci.sys included. Because this file is flagged by the Windows installer, this tells me that you have the wrong driver for your card/Operating System

I took out the soundcard, and here are all the numbers I could see:

-------------
On the biggest IC:

CREATIVE
ES1373
1373-0001-05
S JL805H
0049 Kor
-------------

-------------
On the Barcodes stuck on the card:

AB172965 Audio PCI0138
Assy No: 05Rev A
Assembled in Singapore
Serial No - A8172965
CT: P344B0AHYMCD1I
CPQ Assy No: 102392-003
CPQ Spare No: 113897-003
--------------

--------------
On a smaller IC:

4297A-JQEP
YTTRBHOO51
--------------

--------------
And other numbers and information I could see printed onto the card:
Audio PCI - 5200
Part No - 4001049601 Rev A
Assy No - 40900496
-------------
-------------


And get this! I put the card back in and booted the computer, and this time I didn't get the "Hardware Detected: Multimedia Audio COntroller" Window.. At first, I thought I broke something, but then I looked in Device Manager, and right under "Sound, video and game controllers" I see
* Creative AudioPCI (ES1371, ES1373) (WDM)
* Gameport for Creative

However, still no sound.. so what now? I right clicked on Creative AudioPCI >> driver details, and it tells me that the driver file is: /system32/drivers/es1371mp.sys