My PC (Mesh) has a motherboard with the sound chip on it. It had Creative 5.1 surround sound but has now decided it prefers to play through 2 speakers only!
I was wondering if simply plugging in a sound card rather than repairing the motherboard will solve my problem ??????

Yes bolshi, you would need to disable the internal sound chip. There will be an option in the BIOS. Plenty of cheap cards on eBay.

Mind you are you sure that there isn't an option for surround sound that has somehow got disabled? Try Control Panel/Sounds/Sound Playback device/Advanced and check Speaker Setup is 5.1 surround. Also in Volume Control, Advanced button and Other Controls. Also try reinstalling the sound drivers, you can find them on the motherboard manufacturer's website.

Thanks Kayak. It's option is for 5.1 in the control panel. I'll try re-installing the drivers. I never thought of that because of the combined motherboard/sound chip.

my friend had a new hard drive and after that no sound at all,
that was the drivers,loaded a 2nd time and they worked ok,

Latest Microsoft A.V.update

I have accessed my 'motherboard's site' (ASUS). There appears to be a whole range of sound driver updates 'n stuff.
A couple of questions for you experts.
1. Should you do the updates in date order? ie oldest first working up to the new ones or doesn't it matter?
2. Should I do a system restore point before each one just in case?
I must confess to being a tad worried over re-installation and updates to the motherboard.
Oooooer mother!

Bolshi, there isnt a standard and they can be hard to work out which one does what.

If you cant be sure which is shich do not update the drivers unless you have a good reason to do so.

bolshi, you just need the latest in each category. As Spaceman says, it's probably safer to stick to just the sound drivers if that's where your problem is. If you have problems identifying it post up your motherboard model no.

Thanks lads. I have downloaded Asus's software wizard which has looked at my PC which has (supposedly) just brought up the relevant updates.
My motherboard is K8V (deluxe Athlon 64 mainboard) 800FSB, Dual Lan, Ieee 1394, Sata.
I must confess to feeling confused over some of the audio updates offered.

Bolshi

You are not alone in your confusion - but at least we all have Kayak. :-)

Rule 1. The only daft questions are the ones that never get asked.
Rule 2. When a computer asks a user a question it has multiple interpretations and is never pertinent to the problem being experienced.

OK, discount the beta drivers and the ones for 64-bit systems (yours will be 32-bit) and it looks like this is the one you want:

5.12.01.3663

OS Win98SE / WinME / Win2K / WinXP

Description SoundMAX Audio Driver version 5.12.01.3663 WHQL driver for Windows 98SE,ME,2000,XP


I looked up K8V by the way, but there are several variants with additional letters after the code. I'm assuming you got the model number printed on the motherboard in which case it will be that one.

Take a system restore point before updating.

As an IT person I spend lots of my time updating drivers in my PC's when there isnt really a good reason to do so, I also always upgrade my BIOS's when there is a new version and I generally tinker most days. However the downside of this is that I often have interesting problems to deal with on my machines. I dont mind this and I can sort them out but some of the problems caused by bad drivers and particularly with bad BIOS flashes can bring your machine to a standstill.

A bad BIOS flash on many PCs is very very hard to resolve, I am happy to do hot BIOS switches (prizing out a BIOS chip after the PC has booted and changing it) but I would not recommend it to anyone else!

Moral of the story, as someone who helps out not technical PC users I often find that their problems goes back to a driver updates, and often they only upgraded the driver because it was newer than the on they had. But these updates often only have very minor bug fixes. So now I recommend that you dont upgrade them unless you have a good reason to do so, for example something isnt working. Some machines have good wizards that know your PC and know where to get updates, I would not worry about them, its the ones where they say go to a website and download it without giving any indication of what you should download and why that worry me.

Just my view, feel free to ignore.

Kayak. Many thanks.

Spaceman. I would never ignore anyone with more knowledge than me (apart from shares where I am a right prat!).

Thinking cap time ...... ! For 50 I could buy a sound card. Though even with a new sound card I've got to tinker with the Bios which is (yet another) an area I always steer away from.

Time to take a break methinks.

Bolshi, that sort of tinkering is fairly OK just write down what setting you cahnged and what they were before you changed them, do you need another sound card?

Spaceman. M original problem was 5.1 surround syatem only working on the 2 front speakers. My sound is onboard, hence the questions about motherboard updates.

Sorry Bolshi, I had forgotten the original !

Bolshi, if your sound doesn't work I don't think you're going to do any harm by reloading the sound drivers. The ones that are more dangerous are the basic ones like the BIOS and disk drivers etc. where if you mess it up you may not end up with a bootable system.

Kayak & Spaceman. Thanks for all help & support. I have a couple of critical trades on the go today & tomorrow so I'll leave it until Saturday I reckon. Will keep you informed of progress.
Thanks again.

Hi all--not much good with computers but have a really annoying problem I'd like some advice on. I am on BT broadband 1.1m and keep losing connection while working online--I have the dial up notice appearing constantly and sometimes says unable to establish a connection or unable to connect to remote computer, this is while I have been using it. I sometimes just have to leave it an hour or so and try later. I am on a country exchange and wondered if it is just unable to cope with too much loading it cannot offer 2m yet. Having moaned at my husband to get windows xp and a better computer--I'm hacked off to still have the problem !!

moneyplus, what sort of modem do you use for the connection? is it a usb device that came with the broadband?

It shoudl not keep disconnecting this could mean there is a problem with the ADSL signal on your phone line, but it shoudl not have been installed if the line loss was to high. Have you asked BT to check the line?

Do you have filters plugged in on the socket where the BB is? do you notice crackle on your phone line when you are on the phone?