Help with computer

[dsmrolla06]

I recently reformatted my hard drive on my computer and reinstalled windows xp professional, service pack 2 on it. After reinstalling it I dont have any kind of sound. In the sounds and audio devices in the control panel it says there is no audio device. The computer was custom built awhile back so no way to just go through the manufacturer. What to do?

[givememyleg]

you need to download the drivers for your sound card.

what brand is it?

[kmind]

Make sure the insides are fine too. Some guy had to go into mine and reformatted it and after downloading the drivers I still had nothing. I noticed everything was placed back exactly. Definitely try the drivers first.

[dsmrolla06]

How do I find out what my sound card is? I wouldnt even know what it looks like if I open it up

[BennyLaRue]

Make sure the insides are fine too.

That's what she said?

[Galapogos]

http://www.apple.com/

[kiwiMark]

http://www.apple.com/

+ about fourteen.

[Halv]

If you don't know what soundcard you have, chances are you're using one that's onboard (built into the motherboard). Look at the speaker output, if it's is on the same board as the mouse, keyboard, network inputs then it's an onboard one. Either way you identify the card by opening the case and looking at whatever the speaker output is connected to. Note the model (usually printed directly onto the PCB, sometimes on a little sticker) and google that + xp audio driver.

[bigspenda73]

I get this error a decent amount when I switch from headset back to speakers, and the only way I've ever fixed it is by re-booting. I'm sure you've tried that already and that's no help. I researched the problem and the two main things I was told were

1. download/update/install drivers
2. check your hardware, clean out your CPU, etc...

[dsmrolla06]

http://www.apple.com/

+ about fourteen.

I already have a mac, this is for pokers only.

If you don't know what soundcard you have, chances are you're using one that's onboard (built into the motherboard). Look at the speaker output, if it's is on the same board as the mouse, keyboard, network inputs then it's an onboard one. Either way you identify the card by opening the case and looking at whatever the speaker output is connected to. Note the model (usually printed directly onto the PCB, sometimes on a little sticker) and google that + xp audio driver.

I opened up the computer and it is an onboard. I cant find anywhere where theres a model number or anything.

[dsmrolla06]

Problem solved! I downloaded the realtek ac97 audio driver and it works now.

[oskar]

lohlz
I was just going to say Realtek AC97, cuz that's the onboard chip on 99% of all mainboards.
For future reference, you can look in the device manager:
win + r
devmgmt.msc
The rest is self explanatory.

You apple people aren't really helping its reputation if you scream "OMG get a mac" at the first sign of OMGZ complikatez system maintenance.

And you don't even have to type - you can right-click workplace and navigate to the device manager... or if the concept of a two button mouse is too much for you to fathom, then you can left-click your way through the system control.

[dsmrolla06]

lohlz
I was just going to say Realtek AC97, cuz that's the onboard chip on 99% of all mainboards.
For future reference, you can look in the device manager:
win + r
devmgmt.msc
The rest is self explanatory.

You apple people aren't really helping its reputation if you scream "OMG get a mac" at the first sign of OMGZ complikatez system maintenance.

And you don't even have to type - you can right-click workplace and navigate to the device manager... or if the concept of a two button mouse is too much for you to fathom, then you can left-click your way through the system control.

Thats not really common knowledge though. And I was in the device manager and have no idea what youre talking about. Meh i would still rather use a mac if holdem manager worked for it. Im not a fan of running windows on a mac.

[Galapogos]

And you don't even have to type - you can right-click workplace and navigate to the device manager... or if the concept of a two button mouse is too much for you to fathom, then you can left-click your way through the system control.

Or we could just not worry about our devices randomly deciding they no longer want to cooperate with each other...

[kevster]

And you don't even have to type - you can right-click workplace and navigate to the device manager... or if the concept of a two button mouse is too much for you to fathom, then you can left-click your way through the system control.

Or we could just not worry about our devices randomly deciding they no longer want to cooperate with each other...

I lol'd. I'm inches away from getting a macbook for this and a billion other reasons. There a couple of things holding me back but I figure I'm just going to let my PC rundown slowly. It's done pretty well for a PC - 7+ years old.

[oskar]

It didn't randomly decide not to work. He installed a bare operating system and did not install the device driver.
The reason why everything works so perfectly on a mac is because they decide for you what hardware you can use. Which is not a bad thing. It's all those "I CAN BUILD THAT DELL COMPUTER FOR HALF THE PRICE" tardcakes that give pc's a bad rep. That's like saying... I need a car... I'm just gonna take this turbocharged V8, put it on a Honda chassis with skateboard tires - and then blame the steering wheel when you inevitably crash.

Ok, to be fair though the home built ones are rarely the problem - it's the supermarket pc's.
Proximity to groceries is inversely proportional to quality of electronics.

[oskar]

In the device manager - when you don't have a components driver installed there is a big yellow exclamation mark - follow the exclamation marks to the device - I just checked and I can't figure out where you see which chipset it's using, but the name is usually enough - just google for that, and download the driver from the manufacturers site.
You could also run dxdiag and check there.
On unix it's lshw and then you pipe it through grep or something - both of which I would not expect to work on a mac because of apples babysitting policy.

Actually, I'd be interested in that - could someone run:
lshw | grep audio
on a mac command line and tell me if it does anything?

[kiwiMark]

There's no lshw command for darwin, but the closest equivalent we can use is probably system_profiler.

I was going to tell to show you that you were wrong, etc., and that of course Apple displays the chipset (because I know for a fact that they did last time I wanted to look) but, uh, they don't any more. Curious. Will ask around.

Before you go getting too excited about your awesome knowledge of how inferior macs are, your belief that they don't right-click shows you haven't used one in about five years.

Sorry@hijack OP, gl with your problem, I'm sure by answering oskar's question I'm indirectly helping you

[dsmrolla06]

My computers working fine now. I dont really have any interest of knowing how to fix things or why things go wrong, I just want it to work. I still prefer my macbook tho.

[Jack Sawyer]

I lol'd. I'm inches away from getting a macbook for this and a billion other reasons. There a couple of things holding me back but I figure I'm just going to let my PC rundown slowly. It's done pretty well for a PC - 7+ years old.

This actually. A month ago I wanted to buy the macbook pro 13 [for work and study stuff], but now a new contender emerged in the form of the HP Probook 5310m, which has more ram but almost 300 bucks less. Of course the actual programs will make a difference(that old mac vs win thing), but if I have to tell you that for you to realize it its because you are missing the point.

The HP dv8t Quad Edition seems as if it will do nicely for poker and leisure time.

I've said it before and I repeat: there has never been a better time to be a kompootah usar.