Missing device?

June 27, 2007 11:51 PM

Soundblaster problem: WinXP. The device, even after reinstall, does not appear

Doesn't appear in control panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio. This problem showed up after installing the Tranquility game (TQworld) someone mentioned here on MeFi. I love the game, but WTF? Oddly, the Creative player works, but other programs say they can't find the device. No Windows sounds work, and no audio from Youtubery. I did a reinstall of the Audigy device (Audigy 2ZS Platinum).

I've had other crashing issues with Tranquility, and the TQWorld people, who were happy to take my money, dont' seem to read or respond to emails about problems. Thanks!

posted by Goofyy to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I will say that the most common fix to 'missing sound' on windows xp (and earlier) is to double click on the speaker icon by the clock and make sure that one of the important volume controls (wave, volume control, and the like) isn't muted or turned all the way down.

Your's sounds more like a software problem than a settings problem though.

Where i would start:

You could try digging in the control panel and make sure that the correct device is selected. Playing with settings wont hurt anything at this point.

Or you could try a different pci slot / bank of usb ports.

Or the old power off, remove, power on, uninstall, reboot, reboot, power off, insert, power on, reinstall, reboot, try-it-now method.


"Have you tried reinstalling windows?" - dell tech 'support'
posted by itheearl at 12:09 AM on June 28, 2007

Reinstalling isn't an option I'd care to think about, but it would be useful on this 3-year-old XP installation, no doubt. I'm just trying to get my Youtubery back.

I do think it has something to do with Tranquility, as that's when the problems started. But I find it very odd that reinstalling the sound card didn't fix this specific problem. I did find a setting to enable the sound card, but that didn't fix this specific problem.
posted by Goofyy at 12:18 AM on June 28, 2007

Hm...
I've spent some time working on computers for a high school, and i can tell you that this is the time you reinstall the computer if you really want to minimize the time you spend. (the real windows geeks will tell you that you can almost always fix the problem without reinstalling, but in practice...)

If i was troubleshooting it though, i would try removing the card, then removing the driver, rebooting a couple times, reinstalling the card, rebooting a couple times, and only then trying the thing agian.

If that didnt work, i'd try the same thing, only reinstalling it in another slot and removing the offending program.

Then i'd back up data, make a list of needed programs, and reinstall windows. (or replace the hard drive with a new one and keep the old one lying around)
posted by itheearl at 12:43 AM on June 28, 2007

Sounds like you've installed the wrong drivers. Check, and check again. Try older drivers.
posted by humblepigeon at 1:43 AM on June 28, 2007

I'm not a fan of re-installing Windows XP as a maintenance or repair process, unless there is verifiable disk corruption that has irretrievably trashed FAT32 or NTFS MFT. Then, you've pretty much got no choice. If that marks me as a real Windows geek, I'll just say that it is not a label I've ever had great aspirations to attain.

I tend to think of computer problems in terms of likelihoods of sources of problems, and probabilities that an action or procedure would directly affect or resolve the problem. I also try to remember that modern computers are complex enough devices that many problems which might seem to have anecdotal cause and effect, are in fact, coincidental. Just because you installed Tranquility on June 17, doesn't mean that that wasn't also the day that your card's aux in port shorted out, for unrelated reasons. So, I try to think of causes that might be coincidental, and procedures that would independently test for such issues, in my troubleshooting efforts.

But, you believe strongly that Tranquility screwed up your sound. So, have you uninstalled Tranquility? Did you make a System Restore Point before installing the software, to which you could now return? Because that would be a pretty definitive first step, in my mind. (And if you don't make restore points as a regular part of installing new software, maybe this will make you think of that in the future.) Some programs automatically create System Restore points as part of their installation scripts, and their de-installation scripts call these restore points when exiting, and prompt you to restart to activate them. So, if you have that with Tranquility, un-installing is a really quick effective way to test whether or not Tranquility is, in fact, the source of your problems. If un-installing Tranquility and returning to a restore point doesn't return your sound functions to normal, then it's quite probable that you've had a coincidental but unrelated problem. And you could start from there troubleshooting it, with a clear head that Tranquility wasn't the source of your trouble.

If nuking Tranquility (typing "nuking Tranquility" was fun!) does revert your machine to full sound functionality, do file a bug report with the game's developer, providing as much detail as possible. Particularly the card type, and driver versions from Creative.

If your motherboard also has a sound chip, you might want to try removing the Creative card entirely, and enabling your motherboard sound functions. More than once, I've been burned by Creative drivers creating conflicts with devices, and just plain not working with some software, so that I'm always suspicious of systems which include Creative products. Since most motherboards made in the last 5 years do include at least a basic stereo sound chip, it has become a lot easier to fall back on those built-in capabilities in troubleshooting Creative driver issues. And to be fair, Creative has had fewer driver issues in the last several years as their products have matured. But the fact that the Creative Web site has been throwing HTTP 500 errors trying to look up the current driver for your card, while using the Web site's own navigational system, doesn't inspire much confidence ;-)
posted by paulsc at 1:48 AM on June 28, 2007

According to Tranquilities website, they install nothing outside of the directory where the excecutable resides. This makes it seem doubtful the program is responsible (even though it crashes Windows entirely, frequently).

Restore Points aren't something I've made a habit of doing. I've managed without for 3 years, somehow. Next time, I think I'm dropping Windows and going with some Linux or another. (nearing replacement time, and don't want Vista).

Come to think of it, it is more likely something to do with a new printer installed. I'm used to thinking of printers as non-events, but this time it's a 4-in-one (because Fax is still frequently required in South Africa). Bought a Brother MFC5440CN. I'll do some searching on that issue.

I'm most puzzled by this failure of the card to show up in the device list for sound playback, combined with the fact that Tranquility uses sound fine, as does the Creative player--Even after the reinstall of the soundcard driver (that last being the Big Puzzle).

I leave today for a 10 day art festival, so I won't be able to reply after a few more hours, and will have to come back afterwards, then I'll have time to deal with this more.
Additional advice is very welcome.
posted by Goofyy at 2:12 AM on June 28, 2007

Ok here's a few things to try when you get back:

The problem appears to be that


1.) Get into your system's BIOS. Find an option to reset PnP data (basically renumerate IRQs). You don't want the option that restores factory settings, rather something that *might* be called "Reset Configuration Data" depending on the BIOS. Also while you're there find that enable onboard audio feature again and turn it off..just to minimize conflicts...also turn off USB Legacy Support, and disable serial or parallel ports you do not use (this will free up more IRQs)

2.) If no luck there, atleast get into safemode (press F8 before the windows XP loading screen starts). From here fire up your device manager and click on View/Show Hidden Devices. Find anything associated with your soundblaster and remove it.

3.) You may also want to take the advice above and physically move the card to a different PCI slot...this actually will make a difference as to how PnP sees it. Generally you'll want to avoid the slot directly below the video card as those two slots often share the same IRQ.

4.) When you're in Windows normal-mode. You should get a prompt saying it found new hardware. Just be sure you have the latest and greatest drivers for that particular card...and specify that location during the driver install.

5.) You can also try to clean out the old driver settings (probably one of the first things you'll wanna try actually...but I'm too lazy to renumber this...hah!) If you're uncomfortable navigating through the registry you might have luck with a program called DriverCleaner. You can get a copy from drivercleaner.net but the latest version is $9.99. The older 1.5 pro version is still a free download...try this copy here...

6.) If all else fails you can try getting the driver to install as a differently named device. To do this, extract all the files from driver-exe to a folder. Now go to the .inf-files located in \drivers\wdm and open each one of them, changing the lines under [Strings] which contain "DeviceDesc" by just adding a letter, like "2" For example:

[Strings]
CREAF="Creative"
StrDisk="Creative Installer CD-ROM"
CLMfgName="Creative Technology, Ltd."
EMU10K1.DeviceDesc="Creative EMU10K1 Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
Audigy.DeviceDesc="Creative Audigy Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
Audigy2LS.DeviceDesc="Creative Audigy Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
Audigy2PCMCIA.DeviceDesc="Creative Audigy Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
Audigy4PCMCIA.DeviceDesc="Creative Audigy Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
SA.DeviceDesc="Creative Audigy Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
EDSP.DeviceDesc="E-MU E-DSP Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
EDSP2.DeviceDesc="E-MU E-DSP2 Audio Processor2 (WDM)"
XFi.DeviceDesc="Creative X-Fi Audio Processor2 (WDM)"


Hope that helps, good luck!!
posted by samsara at 6:54 AM on June 28, 2007

Upon review...I didn't finish my diagnosis part....the problem appears that there may be some residual WDM driver entries that are limiting the ability for the driver to re-install. Try cleaning up anything related to the old driver first :)
posted by samsara at 6:55 AM on June 28, 2007