A friend of mine has a computer with a Pentium 4 Titan 533 GA-8IEX series motherboard. The thing is not putting out any sound. It does have a Creative CT5880 Sound Chipset but again, no sound what-so-ever. I was wondering (and forgive me because I am new to the hardware aspects of computers) if putting in a PCI sound card would work. If so, what sound card would you suggest?

The computer has six PCI slots that support 33MHz and PCI 2.2 compliant. I know that the recommendations for the computer would be a card from Creative.

Thanks in advance.

Hi ReverendRumbleFish, welcome to SAF

Sound problems may occur if:

1 - On board sound is disabled on BIOS settings;
2 - Sound drivers are corrupted or were not reinstalled after a Windows reinstall or HD reformat.
3 - Dead chipset, but it's quite unusual.

Was the sound working fine before ?
Was it some unusual fact just before it stopped to work ?
Have you tried to reinstall your provided sound drivers ?

Chris

You can download the Creative CT5880 Sound Drivers at http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/down...p?UID=88&kind=1

(just click on the file corresponding to your chipset and Operating System)

Ironbender,

Thank you very much. I think I will check and see if the sound is disabled, if it is not I will reinstall the drivers.

From what I understand my friend had someone build this computer for her. Everything else is working fine, but the sound never functioned. She has long since lost touch with this particular individual.

Again, thank you I will try out what you have suggested.

Very Respectfully,

RRFish

You are welcome, ReverendRumbleFish

Just note that, if HD was reformatted, you probably will need to reinstall all motherboard drivers before the sound drivers, in order to correctly detect the sound chipset.

Chris

That's a Gigabyte mainboard. You can find the drivers for it here.

I attempted to check the sound via the BIOS...the BIOS is missing according to what the computer is telling me. "BUltra133 (PDC20276) not installed.

Where can I get the BIOS and settings?

As far as I know, Ultra133 is a Ultra ATA controller. Nothing to do with your sound problem. I can not figure from where you got this message, but it may be some drivers are not installed.

You can find your BIOS settings by tapping "Del" key just on power on. Be care with those settings, as some of them are critical enough to cause serious problems if changed.

Just search for "Onboard sound" and set it to "Disabled". Do not try to cnage anything else.

Have you downloaded and installed the proper drivers (previous posts) ?

Chris

btw: BIOS can not be missing, or your computer will simply not work.

Sorry. I figured out why I was getting that "BIOS not installed" message.

I was able to get into the BIOS and enable the onboard sound. Everything is working properly now.

Thanks for everything!

Hi ReverendRumbleFish,

If you have re-enabled the onboard sound, you are not using a sound card anymore. But, if it's working with no conflicts, it's all OK...

Have a safe and nice week-end and happy independence day !