Alright well I just reformated my hardrive and put windows xp professional on it. Previously it had home edition and the sound worked on that. My issue is no matter how many times I try to update the audio codex or drivers for some reason windows will not recognize any kind of audio device. I've tried installing the drivers off the CD that came with the motherboard since it is an on-board sound card, and that worked on the home edition one but for some reason will not work for this. I've also tried to download the latest drivers off the web and install them that way and it still will not work. I've checked the bios and on-board audio is enabled. I have not touched anything inside of my computer so it is still hooked up properly. I've spent about 3-4 hours now trying to find out what could be causing windows to not recognize the audio device and i've come up with nothing. I can't think of anything else to try. Anyone have any ideas?

Also note that previously before I reformated the HD I had Realtek AC'97 installed for my on-board sound device. Logic would say that same thing would work now. But it hasn't so far.

I had the same exact problem with the same Realtek AC'97 installed as on board sound.

first thing make sure that the drivers are in-fact installed by going to device manager
just right click on my computer and click properties then click on the hardware tab then click device manager

once there look to see if there are any question marks, if there are question marks for the sound, then the sound drivers are not installed

if there are no question marks then they are installed and you need to download a codec pack, this is the one that worked for me

http://www.xpcodecpack.com/

hope this helps

if this doesn't work we can go step by step to find out whats going on

That is the issue, when I go to the Device manager to check if the drivers I just installed worked the audio device is not listed under the sound and game controllers section.

Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs

Those are all listed under the said area and work properly. When I had windows home edition a Realtek AC'97 device was listed there as well but now despite my efforts it refuses to show as an option. The only thing I can think of is one of my other devices is listed as PCI device and has a yellow exclamation point. I figured that was the sound device but for some reason no matter what version of realtek I try it will not take the drivers.

Also note that i'm currently using Windows XP Professional (5.1, build 2600) Service pack 3. Now i'm reading the drivers and they say they are for service pack 2. Would that cause an issue, if so where can I find drivers for sp3?

ok so what cards are installed in your PCI slots

oh and what motherboard do you have

I turned off the onboard sound in the bios just to check and the PCI device went away. So obviously it is my onboard sound card. The only odd thing is it wont recognize the audio device. The only thing in there is my graphics card which comes up just fine. As for my mother board type, MSI k9n sli platinum

I've tried pushing the button to reset my cmos as well and reset it up. Still have the same problem.

Are you install correct driver for the sound device as it has Realtek 7.1 CH HD audio

I tried installing the ones from the motherboard's cd, there is only one on it. As well as 3 I found on different sites, uninstalling and reinstalling the new one each time. All of them said they worked with it. If anyone has a link to a working one ill try that as well

when you installed them did the the
question mark in device manager go away
if it did and you still dont have sound then downlaod the codec pack that I posted earlier

did you try the one that I posted above

I have installed the files from both links and no it did not go away.

Also it is an exclamation point not a question mark on the PCI device.

ok earlier you posted that your windows was sp3 did you update it to sp3 or is it a disk that has sp3 on it

Heres what I did exactly.
1. Booted with a Win98 cd, formated my HD.
2. Booted with the Win98 to the command prompt with cd capability.
3. Put in the windows xp pro cd and began installing it.
4. Once everything was setup and installed I began to install my drivers from the cd. All but the sound driver installed fine.
(note it says the sound driver installed, but for some reason it just won't recognize it. prior to formating the sound worked just fine and I didn't touch anything inside the computer.)
5. Searched for other sound drivers and tried them as well with the same results.
6. Tried resetting my cmos by pushing the red button and re-setting it all up.
7. Ran out of things too do so came and asked on here. :P

To answer your question, yes it came with SP3 on it.

ok well the problem might be that you used a 98 cd to format the drive. boot from the windows xp cd then delete the current install and then format the drive with NTFS and then install

Can't do that, the xp cd is non bootable. It's an upgrade

Student Edition to be more specific

ok, well anyway an exclamation point indicates the device is in a problem state.

there is a chance that there could be somthing wrong with your intigrated sound and you might need a new sound card

I was thinking there was a question mark this whole time. a question would indicate no drivers for the device, but in this case it could be a hardware problem that requires a new sound card.

you should also consider converting the file system to NTFS instead of FAT

How can I do this without reformating?

Also how would it be an issue with the on-board card when it worked literally the night before? And nothing was touched or changed >.<

it could just be a configuration problem if you double click on the device in device manager and research the error code you might find the the fix, but sometimes it just happens that way one day everything is fine then you make a change and then you have problems and hardware failure.

to convert from Fat to NTFS open the command promt

start>run
then type cmd once at the command promt type

convert C: /FS:NTFS

and then hit enter, thats it

hey it just hit me you dont need to boot from the 98 cd to upgrade to xp just insert the xp cd and install.

so If I were you I would try all over check add remove programs to see if you can uninstall windows xp then just insert the disk for the upgrade

or reinstall 98 and then insert the xp cd for the upgrade

Thats the thing I never installed 98 to upgrade to Windows Xp. I just formated then installed xp from the command prompt. As for the windows 98 thing I did being the issue that can't be it because I did the same thing for my Home Edition and sound worked.

if you haven't yet i would install chipset drivers from the motherboard disk that you may have, because ones would have come with the tower or with the board .if not disk go to the MSI site for chipset drivers .also get www.CCleaner.com and clean temp files and do a registry clean to get rid of ac97 shit .from all the installs of different drivers ..

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