low sound

crater

crater

1
hello everyone
I was wondering if anyone has heard of problem with XP that the sound dose'nt work or is very low, with all the volume controls all up I get very little sound.
I was told that this could be do to the speakers not being compatible with the sound card, but now I have installed my XP on a friends pc and there sound don't work either? What gives?

creative audio sound card
XP pro
creative speakers
 
Z

zen

1
Depends on which creative sound card you have (version?)If you use Soundblaster Live ! and use creative drivers there can sometimes be a conflict with XP.If you uninstall creative's drivers and let XP install It's own everything is hunky dorey !

Depends which sound card. Creative does have a free access forum you can use.
 
crater

crater

1
low-sound

@zen Ok I went to creative actually found out that there was a update so I installed new driver. Still with no luck I still only hear what may be 1/4 of the volume (with all the vol. controls up all the way)
Anymore ideas

@ R.W. yea the mixer was the first place I expected the prob. to be but it wasn't there either.
 
roadworker

roadworker

1
Re: low-sound

crater said:
@ R.W. yea the mixer was the first place I expected the prob. to be but it wasn't there either.
Click to expand...
Did you run Creative Diagnostics to see if the drivers for surround mixer are correctly installed?
 
crater

crater

1
well R.W. not quit sure what you mean?

Do I get diagnostic app. from Creative to do this? or
do you mean device manager/sound device/sb pci(wdm)/general?

if the second is the case it says that the device is working properly. And the troubleshooter there is'nt much good for more than the most obivious things like "are the speakers plugged in"

And the only way I can get to to mixer is in the sb pci(wm)properties/properties then if offers audio devices,Midi devices, Mixer Devices, I open the mixer device tree and all that is in there is sb pci(wdm) I double click on it and the properties for sb pci(wdm) propeties come up showing that (status: Driver is enabled and functioning properly) the only thing I could do from here is turn the mixer off for all that I can see.

Any more advice?
 
K

killamente

1
this isnt meant to sound patronising, but double check your volume controls. Sound can be turned down in many areas. Go through them all again (Speakers, main volume, wav etc.) and check how your speakers are set i.e desktop stereo. Last settnig shouldnt do anything but check what they say
 
Denexo

Denexo

1
Run Regedit and then HKEY_CURRENT_USER and change the key on the right window to Default (value not set)
 
crater

crater

1
Road Worker:
I can't find any Creative software package anywhere not even their http, and because I bought this pc used I don't have the software package that came with either. ie. (driver or app.)
But I have found the drivers for the card, installed it without no probs. And still very little sound (some but not very loud, like 1\4 volume)

@ Zen
Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI
win xp pro (not orginal)"if you Know what I mean"
creative speakers (model sbs 10)
driver version : 5.12.1.5017

@ Denexo
I ran regedit hk_C_U and the key was allready set to windows default (value not set) unless I need to dig deeper that looks allright too.

@killamente
no probs. I myself have checked the vol controls about 1 billion times thinking that I got something clicked that should'nt be. And yes I was wondering about the diff settings (desktop, stereo headphones ect.) I also found out that changeing that setting dosen't do anything.
 
Last edited:
roadworker

roadworker

1
And for the package:
do a search @ their support pages for livedrvpack or sblivedrvpack......there are 2 versions:a 26 mb and a +49mb pack,with Playcenter and minidisc software....
 
crater

crater

1
@Denexo
ok deleted (value not set) thats all it will let me delete. Didn't work same ol story
@ Road Worker
thanks for the info. I d/l liveDrvpack, tried t install and it now gives me a message "setup could not detect and Sound Blaster Audio card on your system."

Please ensure that your Sound Blaster hardware is properly installed before running this setup program.

setup will now exit.

so I deleted the sound card in the Device Manager restarted the pc it automatically found new hardware and installed it. So why is'nt my sound card being reconized?
You know that it almost sounds like it is playing at a systems sounds level. Because I opened up Windows Media Player played a cd and I have NO vol. control at all.
 
roadworker

roadworker

1
Remove the creative drivers @ control panel->software ,shutdown and plug your audiocard into another pci slot ,reboot and install the driver package.
Check also your bios to see if there's an enabled onboard souncard...
 
crater

crater

1
ok I removed drivers from control panel->software
looked at bios Advanced->I/O Device Configuration->onboard AC97 Audio Controller it was set to Auto so I disabled it
shutdown and moved sound card to different slot & restarted. It found the new hardware & installed it, I tried to install the driver package but with no luck it still dosen't reconize the card (same message as above). And it still has no more sound than before
 
roadworker

roadworker

1
crater said:
It found the new hardware & installed it,
Click to expand...
2 things you can try:

1/Don' let your os do this....cancel it when it tries....
Try to install the driver package...

2/Let the XP creative driver install,then go to the folder where the downloaded driver package is,and extract that 1 to that folder,instead of running setup..
Go to device manager-->sound game and videocontrollers-->your cards properties-->update driver and point to the .inf file in your extracted driver package.....

If none of this works,you better check it in another machine,or let it test in the store where you got it...
 
crater

crater

1
well Thanks for the help
I could'nt stop os from installing driver automatically so I tried your 2nd but the new driver package is .exe so the setup takes over no matter what.
Again thanks for the help, and if anyone else has any more info on this please respond, cause I'll try just about anything now.

And oh yea I will have to test card on diff machine as it came with used pc
 
roadworker

roadworker

1
crater said:
but the new driver package is .exe so the setup takes over no matter what.
Click to expand...
Just use winrar to extract the .exe to a usable folder....;):D
If winrar is shell integrated on your system:rightclick the .exe-->winrar-->extract.....:
 
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