Ok, now I'm really bummed. I got a new sound card because the other one's sound was terrible (see the 'grounding' topic in General Chat). The computer won't even boot after I install this sound card! It won't boot if I install the drivers first and it won't boot if I install the card first. It boots fine once the card is removed. It's not having a conflict with the network card. The sound card is rated for Windows XP. Is the fact that I have a 64-bit processor the problem? The card is a Mad Dog CMI8738/PCI-SX.
did you make sure to disable your onboard sound?
Yeah I read that off the new card's manual b4 I installed it. Disabling the onboard AC97 has no effect, however.
I'm guessing you've tried the simple stuff, like a different PCI slot? Tried reseting bios to defaults? ...
Min
Yes to different slots, no to resetting bios because I thought it woud re-enable the onboard AC97 if I did that.
it will, but you should do it anyways, if that doesn't help, I would try doing a bios update if there is any new bios revisions availible.
Min
Ok, I moved the whole computer into a different case. This case is aluminum instead of steel. The power supply is farther away and the cabling is all different. Even with all these changes, the audio still has a high-pitched buzz.
I'm guessing at this point that the SOYO board/audio just sucks. I think I'll get a MicroStar board. Thanks for your help, anyway, Min. 8)
that's what ya get for buying second rate computer equipment! If it has an application for you i'd go with an asus or abit board. I would also recommend the audigy 2 ZS, its probably the best soundcard on the market...not including the $3000 audio editing ones.
Yes I agree go with abit or asus board, and $3000 of audio equipment,lol.
Sounds like good advice. What really pissed me off about the SOYO board is that the audio controller is apparently a necessary system boot item. I can't remove it to make room for a PCI audio card, or the system won't boot, and I can't keep it and use a PCI slot without a dead-end conflict. This just seems like poor engineering to me. I've heard other good recommendations for Asus, so it seems like a solid buy. I'm only partial to MicroStar because my other system has an MSI board and it has never given me a lick O' trouble, despite me wiring it wrong on several occasions. :roll:
MSI boards are ok, is this for the a64 system?
Y'all gonna love this. I got this MSI board to replace the idiot SOYO board. However, it doesn't work. It says 'bios not installed'. After some researching, I found out that the board is a RAID board and gets confused if you install only one HD, which won't work with a system designed for multiple HDs for RAID setup purposes. Amazingly, there is no option to disable the RAID in the BIOS setup. I also can't install a BIOS update on a computer that won't run!! Isn't this cool? I'm about ready to shoot myself and anyone else within sight........ :x :x :x
ok I lied msi boards aren't ok...that sounds rather fucked up i think there is something your missing. Maybe a jumper etc to disable raid.
There should be way to shut it off, probly in the bios, maybe you missed it or something, or like SJ said maybe a jumper, but I have two words for you, Abit,Asus.
I did find a section in integrated peripherals relating to this. The choices were: SATA, disabled, and RAID. I tried all 3 with various levels of 'no luck'. I also tried a gazillion other combinations with that and some of the other settings. Maybe the board wasn't designed to use just 1 SATA Hard Drive. Seems like that would be stupid, though. It has no trouble detecting the drive, it just refuses to boot from it.
Well if your suing just one SATA drive then you would choose SATA, but you said that didn't work, well try to reset your cmos, then let it try to startup and see hat happens, if nothing happens then switch it to SATA and see what happens, if nothing, well I don't know really.
Ok, I talked to MSI.
I hope this might help anyone who buys a RAID board:
My HD had an existing OS on it, (WinXPSP2). MSI said the board would only work if I installed XP with the 'SCSI' and 'Raid' controller floppy disks. Fortunately, the 200GB HD had an empty 60GB partition. I moved all my junk to the partition, erased the other partition, and reinstalled XP using the floppy disks to install the controllers the board needed at the same time. (Windows says hit F6 to do this during setup) Once Windows was installed, I needed to go into BIOS and disable the serial port connections that are controlled by the 'Promise' chip, while making sure the ones controlled by the VIA chip were working. After that, I set the proper boot device order, and all is well.
What a pain in the ass. On the plus side, the onboard sound is MUCH quieter on this board. At the moment, the computer is a random bunch of components arranged randomly on a one-inch thick piece of foam on my desk. It sure looks terrible, but runs good! WOOHOO! 8)
