The problem began as "the microphone doesn't work".
nVidia chip on an ASUS A7N8X-X motherboard
Windows XP Home SP2
Athlon 1.8 GHZ
768 MB ram
Direct X 9.0
2 different microphones were tried.
The user installed a Creative SB 16 PCI card, but the driver installation routine hung at SBRES32.dll, which he left running for > 8 hrs.
I tried a Creative SB Audigy card. The drivers installed smoothly, but I couldn't get audio out of a CD. I can get audio out, using Windows sounds [ *.wav ].
Control panel > sounds & Multi-media > all devices set to the SB Audigy. Microphone test failed our ears & Windows Hardware test.
I verified that none of the sound device settings were muted.
When I plugged the speaker cable into the nVidia port, the CD was heard. Then, from the speakers, came a woo woo woo garbled, then the PC froze.
I unplugged the PC, removed the PCI sound cards, booted to safe mode; re-booted to normal mode. CD & *.wav out worked.
No "bangs" in device manager.
I tried 2 different PCI slots.
Speaker setting set, correctly, to desktop speakers.
In event viewer, MCSTRM service failed, event ID 7000.
I look forward to your guidance.
nVidia chip on an ASUS A7N8X-X motherboard
Windows XP Home SP2
Athlon 1.8 GHZ
768 MB ram
Direct X 9.0
2 different microphones were tried.
The user installed a Creative SB 16 PCI card, but the driver installation routine hung at SBRES32.dll, which he left running for > 8 hrs.
I tried a Creative SB Audigy card. The drivers installed smoothly, but I couldn't get audio out of a CD. I can get audio out, using Windows sounds [ *.wav ].
Control panel > sounds & Multi-media > all devices set to the SB Audigy. Microphone test failed our ears & Windows Hardware test.
I verified that none of the sound device settings were muted.
When I plugged the speaker cable into the nVidia port, the CD was heard. Then, from the speakers, came a woo woo woo garbled, then the PC froze.
I unplugged the PC, removed the PCI sound cards, booted to safe mode; re-booted to normal mode. CD & *.wav out worked.
No "bangs" in device manager.
I tried 2 different PCI slots.
Speaker setting set, correctly, to desktop speakers.
In event viewer, MCSTRM service failed, event ID 7000.
I look forward to your guidance.