Forums > Help! > Sorry, more computer trouble. Please help!
Login/Join to ParticipatePooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
Hi people,
Just wondered if any of the PC techies out there could help me with this.
I just bought a soundcard (Creative Soundblaster Live! 24-bit) and a set of speakers (Creative SBS 260) and tried to integrate them into my system. Soundcard went into a spare PCI slot, and the drivers downloaded and installed from the internet no problem. The PC recognises the soundcard as being properly installed and functioning. I have disabled the onboard sound through MS-DOS and it should be working.
However, whenever I plug my speakers (or headphones) into the soundcard, one of two things happen. Either I get no sound, or my monitor loses it's signal and goes blank (but the power is still on). When this happens I have to unplug the speaker/headphones and hit the reset button on my PC.
I'm slightly confused, because the monitor (17" Prolite E430 Flatscreen) is plugged into my graphics card, and I don't see how the sound card and the graphics card can affect each other.
The only thing that they have in common is the motherboard, but I've never had any problems with this. I assumed if there was a problem with the mother board then my PC would stop working pretty sharpish.
Thx to everyone who reads this!
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
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I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia
check the IRQ assignments. i can't remember the way to do it, though. might be something in help about it. If there's a conflict between the sound and graphics, that may be the cause.
If so, try moving the card to a different slot, might solve the problem.
"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA
"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie
Clique Infiltrator, Cunning Linguist and Master Debator
4,219 posts
Location: Edinburgh burgh burrrrrr, United Kingdom
take it to pc world! sorry i cant help - hmmm maybe i'll take a computer gynacology course...
Always use "so's your face" and "only on Tuesdays" in as many conversations possible
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom
generally your bios will have a turn off onboard sound feature. It is possible to write to the bios from an operating system, so i guess if you used a special utility it may work, but it's best to check in the bios to make sure.
It could be an irq problem, it could be a power problem (ie your PSU isn't able to cope with the added load), although soundcards generally don't draw much power.
Is the graphics card agp, pci or onboard?
I wouldn't pay PC World to fix it, but you may want to try creative's online support. They were pretty helpful a couple of years ago when i had a question about one of their products.
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
Here's what I've tried:
I've turned off the onboard sound from the BIOS. (The onboard sound didn't work in the first place, which is why I've got a sound card.) But now it is definately disabled.
The Graphics card is AGP (GeForce 6600), the Soundcard is in a PCI slot. I've tried changing the slot but still no difference.
All the diagnostics (add/remove hardware, Hardware manager, Creative's own diagnostics) say that the soundcard is installed and functioning properly. But no sound. I've checked the speakers, so it's not them that's the problem.
With regards to the power problem, I can't think that the Soundcard uses much. Maybe if all else fails I'll try taking it to the PC shop next door and seeing what they say about my PSU.
The IRQ seems to be fine, but I don't know very much about that, so I'll not trust my own word.
Thanks for the help
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
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I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Geek-enviro-hippy priest
1,858 posts
Location: Diss, Norfolk, United Kingdom
How many watts is your power supply?
There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
Don't know, never had to check before. How would I find out? I can't see it in the BIOS or Hardware sections. Do I have to crack open the case to see?
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom
yes, you may be able to monitor voltage settings from your BIOS but not the wattage itself. It will probably be written on the psu itself if you open the case, but possibly not if it's a computer you bought built and contains some random taiwanese oem'ed thing. It's measured in watts, so will be something like 250W, 300W, 325W, 350W, 400W, 450W etc, probably a multiple of 5, possibly 50.
If you tell us the exact spec of your system (such as how many harddisks, optical drives etc) and what the psu rating is then we should be able to predict whether power is an issue. Many systems prebuilt will come with whatever is cheapest, which may well be something that's only good enough for the basic spec it comes with.
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
Ehh. Right:
Intel Pentium 4 2.80 Ghz (came with it)
1 GB RAM (came with it)
Motherboard: Siemens D1527 (came with it)
DVD-RW Drive (Came with it)
17" Flatscreen (Came with it)
It only has the one hard drive: 30GB
Geforce 6600 (Upgraded from a GeForce 4 MXsomething *shudders* )
USB Webcam (Upgrade)
I'll tell you the wattage when I crack my case open.
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
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I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
300W PSU
And the Hard drive is actually 120 GB, but only 30 shows up on "My Computer". Weird.
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia
owch. To fix the hard drive problem, you should be able to right click on my computer, and hit manage. In the left hand side box, click on storage> Disk management.
see if the whole thing is formatted to the same file system (fat32 or ntfs). If it's not, then you'll need to reformat it to bring the whole lot up to your 120gb. It's a bit of a job though, and probably best done with someone there, rather than based on internet advice
"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA
"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie
not different, just not the same
263 posts
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA
i've seen similar stuff happen to some of my customers (i do computer repairs and what not) and the typical cause for this is either A the IRQ settings being crossed, or B a short on the mother board. firstly, does the mother board have onboard graphics or no? if so, uninstall your graphics card and REMOVE it from the system, and use the onboard graphics (just temporarily) and re-plug up your sound card, see if that does the same problem. if you DON'T have onboard graphics, try reinstalling both the graphics card AND the sound card, obviously do the graphics card first. once again, check for the problem.
also, how many PCI slots do you have and what all is in them?
now, to set IRQ's go here https://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/change-irq-settings.htm
to see how. IF YOU AREN'T COMFORTABLE DOING THIS, DON'T, GET A GEEK FRIEND TO STAND THERE WITH YOU.
let me know if the IRQ is the problem.
EDITED_BY: Imbalance (1126497956)
I once learned every move that there was,
Every style, Every technique.
Then I woke up, and forgot it all,
So now I struggle to dream.
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom
what he said, although if removing your gfx card makes it work it doesn't mean that power isn't the issue. 300w may well be not enough, it's really at the low end of the scale.
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
6 PCI slots, with a Home network card and a soundcard. That's all.
There doesn't appear to be a problem with the IRQs, me (and my geek friend) can't find any conflicts...
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Pooh-Bah
1,762 posts
Location: York University, United Kingdom
I did a clean un-install and then re-installed the drivers, and now it works. Thanks to everyone who helped!
Still don't have a clue why it didn't work the first time, but hey...
After much consideration, I find that the view is worth the asphyxiation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia
could have been a file conflict between the old and new. happens sometimes, windows keeps a file it wants when it should be copied over.
"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA
"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie
not different, just not the same
263 posts
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA
actually, 300w isn't all that low, as a matter of fact a 300w psu easily has enough power to halndle the equipment he had. If you go into any retail computer store and look around at most of the p4's around what he has, you will see that many of them come with only 250w psu's. This is why most manufacturers never put mention of the powersupply on any advertisements or on the box if they can help it. 300w is fine for most pcs. however if you are like me and have lights and many many fans, multiple hard drives and a graphics card that requires extra power (for the fans on it) AND a bunch of usb devices (tablet, mice/keyboard, flash drives, PDA etc) then you will need more, I run a 500w.
I once learned every move that there was,
Every style, Every technique.
Then I woke up, and forgot it all,
So now I struggle to dream.
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom
well, it's not really worth an argument over, but I'd say 300w is at the low end of the scale these days given the amount that the nvidia 6xxx series draw. As far as I know, I may be wrong as I can't find it on their website at the moment, nvidia specify 300w as minimum for 6600, and it can be found easily on manufacturer websites. Not all cheapo power supplies will perform well at their max either, and some may not be as good as they state.
Personally I have a SilenX 520w < 14db PSU in my main gaming machine, but I'm obsessed with being able to hear myself think when using a PC.
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