Audio
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Fix Sound Card Problem
Posted by chloe on 15 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: Audio
Sound card problems are rife with Microsoft Windows, and can be some of the most frustrating to fix, particularly as a sound problem doesn’t always mean that you can’t hear sound altogether. It may be a problem directly related to one particular application, or it may be a distortion that defies logic. Either way, thankfully, there are fixes available that tackle the most commonly reported sound card errors. There is also a troubleshooting strategy that you can use to get to the root of the problem.
First of all, let’s take a look at some of the symptoms you can pin to a faulty sound card:
No sound at all from speakers or headphones.
A sound starts but cuts off unexpectedly, not necessarily in the same place.
A sound that cuts and scratches while breaking up.
The computer slows down dramatically when an app attempts to play sound.
The computer crashes altogether upon a sound being played.
Error messages appear drawing attention to the audio output.
You can use the default Windows troubleshooter, as provided by Microsoft, but this is not always guaranteed to work. It will often tell you the simple basics, such as ensuring your speakers aren’t failing and updating drivers from a third party provider.
Driver faults make up a huge majority of genuine sound card problems. We might have the best sound card in the world installed, with complete audio support. But think again - if the wrong driver is installed, you can forget about getting the most out of your hardware. Always ensure, when you install a sound card, that you check the manufacturer’s website and make any upgrades that are available which were not introduced early enough to be supplied with the software CD.
You should also look out for patches that have been released to cover existing problems. It can’t be stressed highly enough. Most sound card problems can be resolved by simply updating your drivers and ruling out the chances of a failed installation.
Alternatively, you might want to make sure that Windows is configured to actually use the Sound Card that you have installed. There’s an easy way to do this.
Go to Start and then Settings.
Enter your Control Panel.
Go to the Sounds menu.
Click Events and then scroll until you find an event which has a loudspeaker icon pinned next to it.
You will be able to Preview it, and from here click on Play. If your sound card is correctly setup, you will hear the preview sound. If you don’t hear a sound, it would suggest that the sound card hasn’t been set up to run at all.
If tis is the case, follow the steps below.
Go to Start, then Control Panel in your Settings.
Click on System and move to the Device Manager tab.
Make sure that the plus sign is selected next to Sound, Video and Game Controllers.
If the option had been turned off, it’s no wonder that you weren’t receiving any sound. The sound card would not have been prepared to emit any! Save and apply your changes and then reboot the computer. You should notice that the sound kicks in immediately and your sound card begins to output the desired audio.
Audio Drivers
Posted by admin on 03 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: Audio, Drivers
After the installation or reinstallation of an Operating System on a PC, one of the most common hardware related problems faced by users is with the onboard audio system - and it can be extremely troublesome to fix. Most of the computers with an onboard audio generally use High Definition audio or an AC’97 audio. Both of them are made up of two components, an audio controller chipset, which is normally used to communicate with a different chip placed on the motherboard, better known as an audio codec.
For the VIA chipsets the audio controller hails from VIA clan, and the driver support required is the audio codec which can either be from VIA or can be from the third party vendor. Audio drivers are at the root of most problems attributed to the audio system.
Although the computer can easily identify the audio solution with the help of the audio controller which using VIA, the driver needed for the computer should correspond to the audio codec on the computer’s motherboard. Generally, the onboard audio solutions are of AC’97 audio or HD audio, there are few motherboards available in the market that also have audio controllers connected with the chipset PCI bus.
Therefore, you need to identify your driver’s requirements and accordingly have to determine what kind of onboard audio solution you need for your motherboard. For that, you can easily refer to the manual of your PC which was provided to you when you purchased the system. Often, the manuals detail the ideal requirements, which can be helpful for you to decypher which drivers are right for your system. You can also take the help of the dealer if your PC is a branded one. Otherwise, you can visit the site of the manufacturer or the manufacturing company of the motherboard where it’s possible to check for the exact specifications.
Thankfully, there are many high quality driver fixing solutions on the market which are capable of detecting the correct audio driver for you and replacing it if necessary. So you don’t always have to go to the extreme means of digging out your old manuals!
If there is confusion regarding the make and model of the motherboard, the user can run a program called SiSoft Sandra and then click on the information icon of motherboard to get detailed information. The software also provides a guide which helps the user to identify the make and the model. Once the user is aware of the make and model, he or she can easily find out what kind of audio solution the system needs by referring to the website of the manufacturing company.
Any respectable company manufacturer should have an online resource of audio drivers for you to download free of charge. Alternatively you can let an automated driver fixing solution detect and download the files that you need to get your audio functioning correctly.
You will find a considerable number of audio drivers available. Such as Analog Devices, C-Media, Sound Blaster Creative Labs, ESS, Philips, Realtek, Sigmatel,SiS, VIA,Yamaha, etc., all of which are available according to the needs of the motherboard of the user. If you have an audio driver installed in your PC, you can also use the audio driver software updates to improve the system’s performance.
The analog devices having up to date and compatible audio codecss helps when it comes to improving the performance of different applications that make use of your Windows audio system. The C-Media audio solutions support all the PC audio peripheral components counting the USB speakers and adapters, PCI sound cards, VOIP accessories and any hi-tech wireless audio device.
Audio drivers are not fun to have to fix, and can disrupt your system performance considerably. Ensure that you keep all drivers up to date and use a good driver clean-up utility to get rid of bad files.
Audio Drivers Problems
Posted by admin on 16 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Audio, Computer, Configuration, Drivers
As with any other type of hardware for your computer, there are many different models of sound cards and they come available with many different levels of features, usually depending on their price. A sound card is an expansion card that has the ability to input and output sound through various computer programs, especially computer programs such as multimedia players and video games.
Most sound cards will include a sound chip, which usually has a digital to analog converter built into it. This is used to convert recorded digital information into analog voltages used by speakers to reproduce sound. Most sound cards will also have a line in plug where input signals from cd players, mp3 players or other sources can be input. The sound card then has the ability to record this sound and store it in a digital format on the computer’s hard drive. Another input connector that is often found is for a microphone. This is usually used for speech recognition or Voice over IP applications.
As with any other type of hardware that is installed on a computer, a driver is required to properly control a sound card. With most sound cards, the operating system usually requires a specific driver that is written for that exact model of sound card. Some operating systems will have drivers included with them for sound cards. In this case you will not need to install the driver yourself. However, other cards will come with the drivers supplied on a CD or diskette and other cards have drivers that are available for download from the manufacturer’s websites.
DOS programs in the IBM PC often would have to use universal driver libraries which included the drivers for most common sound cards that were available at the time since DOS itself did not have any real concept of a sound card. Some manufacturers would provide a middleware TSR-based driver with their sound cards, but this was often times inefficient. Other programs simply had driver/middleware source code built into them for the sound cards that were supported by that particular software application.
Windows on the other hand, uses proprietoary drivers that are usually written and supplied by the sound card manufacturers. Many of these sound card developers will give their drivers to Microsoft so that they can be included with the next release of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Some drivers are also supplied by individual vendors for download and installation by the customers that have purchased their products. Any updates to the driver or bug fixes are also likely to be available faster using the download method as Windows CDs are not updated as frequently as a web or FTP site.
Several different versions of the UNIX operating system use the portable Open Sound System. Drivers are seldom created by the manufacturers of the sound cards for these operating systems.
Mockingboard support on the Apple II systems are usually incorporated into the programs themselves since many of the programs for this system are booted directly from a disk.
Audio Controller Driver Problem
Posted by admin on 16 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Audio, Computer, Configuration, Drivers, Windows
If you have a computer, chances are it has some form of audio hardware installed in it. After all, no one is going to want to download music or play video games if they can’t hear anything on their computer. The device in your computer that is used to play sounds is referred to as the sound card, and just like any other type of hardware for a computer, there are many different types and the proper drivers need to be installed on your computer in order for that hardware to operate properly.
In order to ensure that you install the proper sound card driver, also referred to as the audio controller driver, you will need to determine the type of sound card that you have. Often times, Windows will be able to automatically find the type of sound card that is installed in your computer, and often Windows will install the drivers that are needed for it to run properly. However, if Windows does not have the proper drivers built into it for the sound card that is in your computer, you are going to have to take on the responsibility of installing them yourself.
If your sound card is built in, meaning the hardware for the sound is already included on the motherboard that your computer uses, then you will most likely be able to find these drivers on the motherboard CD that came with your motherboard or computer. Often times there will be an auto-running setup program that will start when the CD in put into your CD-ROM drive. If this is the case, you can browse through the menu and start the installation of the drivers for your audio controller or sound card. On the other hand, if the sound card in your computer is an add on card, meaning the sound card hardware is an additional card rather than built into the motherboard, then you will likely need to use a separate CD that came with the sound card that is installed in your computer. This CD will also likely have an automatic startup menu that will allow you to install the drivers and software required to get the most out of your sound card.
What if you have lost the CDs that came with your computer? Well, there is still hope. First of all you will need to determine what type of sound card you have in your computer. One way of doing this is to open the cover on your computer and look at the sound card for markings that will indicate the make and model of the sound card. Be careful when doing this though that you do not touch any of the components inside your computer or you may give them an electrostatic shock that can be very damaging. If you do not feel like opening up your computer, you can also try and look in the Windows device manager to see if Windows was able to determine the make and model of the sound card. However, if Windows does not already have the proper drivers for the sound card that is installed then chances are it will not know.
Once you have been able to identify the make and model of your soundcard, a quick trip to the manufacturer’s web site will often lead you to a quick download of the drivers required to get those tunes pumping out of your computer speakers in no time! Just be sure to carefully follow the instructions that are provided with your sound card and any documentation that is included with drivers that you download.
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