I realize it's a bit late to be doing this, but I reinstalled Windows XP Pro on my old Laptop - everything worked except the installation of the Conexant Audio Driver, so I'm left with no sound.
I was confident that I had all the Drivers saved and all but this one ran ok. I'm sure I have the correct one but each time I try to install it, I receive a "failure" notice.
I "googled" a fair bit and tried some of the suggestions I found without any success.
It's an American Gateway M325 Laptop and I downloaded all the Drivers from the support page on their website (they were the same ones as I'd saved on a previous occasion).
When I've done previous installations, I've never had any trouble with this set of drivers, so I'm not sure what has happened this time.
If anyone could offer some advice, I would be most grateful.
I see that there are plenty of suggestions
ie http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=37616
http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=37616
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-22932-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&product=434854&sw_lang=
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/47464-35-audio-driver-failure-installing-hard-drive
Thanks Steve, but I've trodden those paths already and I still can't get it working.
I have the driver files in my C:cabs folder, but the Windows install wizard just keeps saying it can't find the correct information and I finish up back at square one.
I'm just frustrated because on previous reinstall occasions, all the drivers have loaded correctly.
I have tried the previous (older) Gateway driver and also some "random" ones from other manufacturers, but still no luck.
Sorry if this something you've done, but have you checked to see if the sound card is listed in Device Manager? If so, it should have a yellow ! symbol as the device hasn't been installed correctly. If you right click it, then Uninstall and reboot, the machine should once again locate the sound card and request the driver. You can then try again with the driver you think is correct. I know this may seem to be a long way around in a circle, but it's just possible that the driver may not have installed properly the first time, and is 'blocking' further attempts at installing. Uninstalling the device will get you back to square one.
At times I've had to install generic drivers (for this PC I think even) as the manufacture provided ones were slightly off. But thankfully if it's a generic chip, the chip maker should have generic drivers to go with it.
Steve - yes, I already did all that a few times without success and the "multimedia audio controller" still has the warning triangle against it no matter what I try.
Ben - I've tried various alternative drivers, Intel, Realtek etc. but not found one that is compatible yet, I'm open to offers if you have any ideas where else to look.
Peter, have you tried the Gateway driver? http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20819&dscr=Gateway%20Conexant%20AC-Link%20Audio%20Driver%20version:%206.14.10.0575&uid=409040697 There are 2 versions of it for 2 different part numbers.
Hi Glenn
Yes, that's the driver I've always previously used (successfully) and the one that's giving me trouble now.
Does it give an error code along with the failure notice, something along the lines of 0xFFFFFFFF?
Have you tried installing in safe mode?
No error code appears, the install box reopens showing the device and just says "Failure".
I didn't try it in Safe Mode, but I will...
I tried in safe mode, but same result...I also ran Windows system file checker, rebooted but again, no luck.
Maybe I should attempt another clean reinstall?
When you say system file checker, did you run a chkdsk /f /r from a command prompt?
I ran both chkdsk and sfc but no change, it still won't install.
Drivers, especially for laptops, can be a pain. Let alone the hardware. ;D
Well...I did yet another clean reinstall and the damned thing still won't install :-\
I'm ready to call it a draw unless one of you magicians can suggest anything else...
Does the sound work if you run from a live Linux cd?
When are you trying to install the drivers, before or after applying service packs? Try changing the order that the drivers are installed.
Hi Glenn, yes the sound is fine in Linux.
This time, I installed the drivers straight after the new installation from the disk - it's XP Pro with SP3 - last time, I updated Windows first before trying the drivers.
I've already tried different sequences of driver installs too, but no luck yet.
The only unusual thing I've noticed is that in the past, the driver set up files have run and extracted to the "C:cabs" folder, but these last 2 times, that hasn't happened (there is no C:cabs folder).
Peter, I assume you're aware that Microsoft support for Windows XP is drawing to a close very soon? Would it not be worth upgrading to a newer operating system, while you're in 'reinstallation mode', so to speak? You might even find that newer OSes have the required drivers built in. I know, when I upgraded my seven year old Windows XP desktop to Windows 7 last year, I didn't have any driver issues with my old hardware.
Hi Simon
Yes, I'm aware of the XP situation, that's really why I was trying to fix Windows on this machine and just leave it as an emergency backup whilst I plan a possible move to Linux.
I'm currently dual-booting Linux Lite and XP Pro on here temporarily, before I move to a new machine - I am using it as an experiment before I decide which Operating System to choose on a new Laptop.
This machine is now 9 years old and I'll probably leave it running Linux only and use it as a fallback should I ever need it.
It's so frustrating that I couldn't get the sound working, it's not life-threatening, it would just have been nice to have been able to figure it out.
Is it possible that your soundcard has just packed in. I had this problem with an xp machine and it turned out I needed a new soundcard.
Hi Lona...no, the sound is fine when I boot into Linux on the same machine...
Go into device manager and select properties for the sound device, select the "Details" tab and in the "Property" drop-down select "Hardware Ids"
Put the displayed values into Google and that will give you details of all the drivers available for the underlying sound chipset.
Alan
Thanks, I tried that, but it just led me back to the Gateway driver that I already have...
Was your laptop originally loaded with XP or a previous version of windows. It could be that, say you had Vista previously then you could install a Gateway driver compatible with Vista.
It's always had XP on it and previously, when I have had to reinstall, the same audio driver has always loaded ok - that's what's so frustrating this time around...
Long time since I installed Windows but any other exclamation marks in device manager? Did you install the motherboard software first? Anyway of extracting the correct driver from the cab?
By any chance, being American did it have a different set of drivers previously? Even something like a keyboard layout or.... language pack? (I know those wishing to play Japanese/Chinese games that never got an English translation, or just buying a PC here, but playing their birth tongue language games, often have to install those language packs else it never works on their PC.
Though never had that from a driver.
PS, the problem I had on this Win 7 machine and AM3 board was sound popping/crackling on the mic (I bought a new mic just to find it was a driver problem later :( ). I ended up installing the drivers direct from the AC97 website, but did find newer motherboard manufacture ones that were updated.
Steve...everything else in Device Manager is ok and yes, the Chipset driver was the first one I installed - I double-checked and it is using the correct one according to the Gateway specification. I tried to match the Audio device with all of the files within the Chipset files, but no luck at all. I could go back and uninstall all the drivers and start over, if you think it might help?
Ben...the set of drivers I have are the same as I've had all along and match with the ones listed on the Gateway support site for this model. That's what's so annoying, I've reinstalled a few times before with the same drivers and had no problems.
Lateral thinking is there any way the presence of an alternative OS is affecting the Windows install.Don't know why is should though.
Steve...I did wonder about that, but when I did both fresh reinstalls of XP, it was the only OS on the machine and the audio driver wouldn't install at that point - in both cases I added Linux afterwards and the sound is fine when I boot into that.
Just for the record, I finally solved this today after almost giving up...
The .inf file in the installer package didn't have my device i.d. within it for some reason, so I added an extra line in Notepad, re-ran the .exe file and all is now well.
:thumb:
Thanks for letting us know.
Sounds like good news to me! :whistle: