Self Build nightmare

Beepstar

Beepstar

New Member
Hi,

I have got myself a new computer as a self build

Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe
Athlon 4800+
XFX 7800GTX
2GB Corsair XMS (2 x 1GB Matched Pairs)
2 X Western Digital 300GB SATA 16MB Cache
Windows XP

but everytime I install the Realtek AC'97 Audio drivers the system freezes on start up. When I uninstall the MultiMedia Audio Controller it then says - Found New Hardware. I have tried to install from the Asus CD that came with the MB and also downloaded the drivers but both ways when I restart it hangs and I have to restore from a point previous to the AC'97 install - driving me mad

So I have a choice.. no sound or freeze - any pointers
 
Need a better sound card?

Are you using onboard sound?...If so you really should try a new sound card. If your doing any gaming youll run into tons of snags. Buy.com always has a bunch or maybe newegg.

Buy.com
 
Yes, it will be alot better. I have tried onboard and it will have lots of problems with gaming and everything else. Not to mention no surround sound or anything.
 
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okay guys..... Telling him to just buy a new sound card is such a hack of an answer. There is obviously something wrong here and instead of diagnosing the problem, you just tell him to ignore it and buy something else. I'd expect that from a Microsoft Help Desk.

First of all, you said windows "discovers" it fine and installs the drivers it wants to, then when you restart it hangs up? Are you getting a blue screen at all?

If you are getting a blue screen, write down EVERYTHING it says and post it back. If you are not getting that far, then it points to a VIDEO card conflict.

So if it's just randomly freezing on the loading screen, download the latest vid card drivers, completely uninstall the vid card through the device manager, restart and install the video drivers yourself (don't let windows do it).

Another thing to check. Make it freeze on you, then restart in Safe mode. Go into the system error logs (in admin tools) and see if you can find an error related to the crash.

Also, are those SATA's in a RAID and is it a PCI RAID controller? Any other PCI cards we should know about? Have you installed ALL the latest drivers for ALL your harware? Including the Chipset?
 
OK here goes..

I downloaded the latest drivers from RealTek. I installed from there - still fails to start up - excuse me if this is slightly untechnical - what happens is it does all the normal stuff, then I get the XP startup and the little blue progress bars trundle across then suddenly stop. And that's it. I left it to figure itself out and finally I get a black screen with a small smiley text icon in white (inappropriate smile) so then I restart with the power button and XP kicks in in startup and asks me to restore to a previous point. As long as I restore to a point before the audio drivers it starts up fine again.

And thx for the help - I do have an Audigy2 ZS Platinum but I really wanted to keep it for my other machine seeing as the A8N32 SLI is meant to have reasonably good audio onboard.
 
PCI I have just the XFX7800GTX - must install latest drivers and see then - and a firewire card.

The SATA drives are not in RAID although there's a bunch of raid controller software. This is my first build and I am flying a bit seat of the pants to be honest.
 
okay guys..... Telling him to just buy a new sound card is such a hack of an answer. There is obviously something wrong here and instead of diagnosing the problem, you just tell him to ignore it and buy something else. I'd expect that from a Microsoft Help Desk.
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I agree with you. But.... It does not hurt to recommend a soundcard for a system of that caliber.

However If I were to recommend for a system of that caliber I would suggest you look at a creative card of the X-fi lineup. You have spent so much to make sure you had great equipment you should pay as much attention to your sound. Also with gaming using headphones the X-fi cards are the best there is at the moment.
 
are you using on board video or a video card. I have had conflicts between the onboard sound drivers and videocards before. have a look for the latest drivers for your video card aswell as your onboard sound. this may sound like a dumb question but have you check wether the drivers for your sound are compatible with windows xp, since you r building the pc yourself the drivers that come with the motherboard will be standard an not xp specific like when you buy the pc whole
 
Are you using onboard sound?...If so you really should try a new sound card. If your doing any gaming youll run into tons of snags.
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1. yes, that's what the problem currently is.
2. what snags?

The new Creative sound card the ZS will be a kick ass upgrade for yah
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That card is actually quite old...

okay guys..... Telling him to just buy a new sound card is such a hack of an answer. There is obviously something wrong here and instead of diagnosing the problem, you just tell him to ignore it and buy something else. I'd expect that from a Microsoft Help Desk.
Click to expand...
Yay save me from saying it.

I downloaded the latest drivers from RealTek.
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1. I assume u tried drivers on the CD?
2. Try downloading drivers from thewebsite?

And thx for the help - I do have an Audigy2 ZS Platinum but I really wanted to keep it for my other machine seeing as the A8N32 SLI is meant to have reasonably good audio onboard.
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I dont think the A8N32SLI has a problem running dual sound (since its managed by the SLIx16) but that might be an issue (although id be very surprised) but does it install properly if you remove the soundcard (and then put the SC back in after it works)

how come onboard sound interferes with gaming?
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It doesnt
 
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