no sound, missing hd partition, sos

[zenking]

hi,
okay, I have this compaq computer (5000 series, 40gig hd, 800mhz duron,196 mg ram) after startup my sound will go out in about 5 or 10 min depends on what is going on, if I watch video w/ sound, it goes out after a few seconds. My onboard sound lasted longer, I thought maybe a pci sound card would fix the problem, but now the sound goes out more quickly.
related or unrelated...dont know, but this computer started with win ME so I upgraded to win 2000 pro. ME had lots of problems and only recognized 1/3 of my ram and was bad. So I had win 2000 pro on my other comp. The hard drive was partitioned (5gig D: and 35 gigC:)well, the D: is gone, but the C: still only has 35 gigs on it. Not sure if that matters to the other problem, maybe something is still there that is conflicting. I reinstalled the OS about 4 times now but I dont know if formating C: will do anything different.
Well , those are my woes.
and thank you for at least reading this
zenking

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH I see no one came by to help.

1, Did you install the latest drivers for the PCI card? Were they compatible with W2K? Are there any yellow nasties in Device Manager for Sound? Codecs?

2. Remove the sound drivers , also go to add/remove hardware, and then remove hardware , and click show hidden devices. see if any other sound drivers or devices are picking up and remove them.

3. Now install the latest drivers for the PCI card.

[zenking]

thanks, but ARGH... still no good. Can't find any conflicts. Used new driver (updated) but I got same problem as before. I have sound until some major process seems to be happening, like video, online stuff, etc. Welcome to any new ideas.

thanks,

zenking

[Murf]

Hum,

SPEAKERS

Do yours have a seperate power source??? Any way to check them on another computer or another set of speakers??

[zenking]

not sure about power source. Speakers work in my other comp, sound card works in other comp.
I actually got sound with video for about 15 seconds. I was so happy, then the sound went out. Then i was so mad. If i can't get this thing fixed, i'll probably just remove the pci sound card and go back to my onboard sound, I got better performance , not much though, lol.
could this be a heat issue? I am grabbing at straws now. I'll put a fan in and see if that helps.

Thanks for the ideas, and welcome any others, I am fresh out.

zenking

[Murf]

Ok you have ruled out the speakers and the sound card, by trying in another computer.

That leave only two causes:

1. Wrong CODECS
2. The PCI slot your using for the sound card is going bad, or possibly a shared PCI slot.

Try a different PCI slot.

Also is the "the D: is gone" still a problem???

[Midnight Mick]

You mentioned that you used Onboard sound then went to PCI.
Did you disable the Onboard sound setting within the Bios itself?

[zenking]

on board sound disabled, even tried changing irq's

maybe this will help..

when my sound goes out, the computer seems not to be able to process
the sound. If i go into CONTROL PANEL/SOUND AND MULTIMEDIA then highlite, for instance "asterisk" and hit the play button, the stop button doesnt go away. It seems to be stalling. If i have sound I will hit the play button, it will make a sound, the stop button will go away and the play button reappears. But when the sound is out, the stop button never goes away. Maybe not never, i only let it sit for about 10 minutes before i closed the box.

anyhow, if there is anyway I can help you help me let me know
otherwise, thanks for all the effort.

zenking

[Midnight Mick]

What version of DirectX have you installed (Try reinstalling it?)?

Also try to decrease the hardware acceleration on the "Sound Playback" a notch at a time may help.

[zenking]

thanks for that last tip, reinstalling didnt seem to do much, but the hardware
acceleration helped. I still have to reboot sometimes to get sound back, but I can get it back on other times but decreasing the accelerator, yeah. I think I am going back to my onboard sound though, and with that tip, it should be much much better.
thanks for everyones help
if it is still bad, o well, time for a new computer

zenking