- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
Thought I'd provide you all with some entertainment. I'm attempting to get an old AT based K6-2 system to behave itself with Windows XP Pro and an old ISA ESS 1868 sound card. The system is my sister's, who is still waiting on the budget for a much needed upgrade.
When I put the ESS card in there last year, the sound worked no problem. Today, while I was doing some routine maintenance on it, I noticed that sound was totally gone. I could move the Windows volume control up and down and hear crackling as I did so through the speakers, but nothing else. Windows Media Player and Winamp both hang when trying to play something... even a CD will hang them. System sounds will not play at all. Yet everything I've checked has been fine - drivers, connections, and speakers are all good. Tried another old known good ISA ESS card I had lying around - same chipset, still no sound. Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers several times, still nothing. Did a repair install of Windows... again, no luck.
I'm about out of ideas - was hoping someone else might have some suggestions. I'm pretty sure the old motherboard, Asus P5A-B, has had it with the ISA bus, but wanted to see if someone else had some ideas before I pull the card entirely and make my sister do without sound until her upgrade. Would throw a PCI sound card in there, but I don't have a spare and it's not worth spending another nickel on this old relic. That is, if it even had a free PCI slot. Believe it or not though, XP likes the rest of the system just fine... even the AGP Voodoo Banshee works.
On the bright side, I did get the old K6-2 400 humming along at 500
When I put the ESS card in there last year, the sound worked no problem. Today, while I was doing some routine maintenance on it, I noticed that sound was totally gone. I could move the Windows volume control up and down and hear crackling as I did so through the speakers, but nothing else. Windows Media Player and Winamp both hang when trying to play something... even a CD will hang them. System sounds will not play at all. Yet everything I've checked has been fine - drivers, connections, and speakers are all good. Tried another old known good ISA ESS card I had lying around - same chipset, still no sound. Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers several times, still nothing. Did a repair install of Windows... again, no luck.
I'm about out of ideas - was hoping someone else might have some suggestions. I'm pretty sure the old motherboard, Asus P5A-B, has had it with the ISA bus, but wanted to see if someone else had some ideas before I pull the card entirely and make my sister do without sound until her upgrade. Would throw a PCI sound card in there, but I don't have a spare and it's not worth spending another nickel on this old relic. That is, if it even had a free PCI slot. Believe it or not though, XP likes the rest of the system just fine... even the AGP Voodoo Banshee works.
On the bright side, I did get the old K6-2 400 humming along at 500