A7N8X-Dlx and win98se - No Audio - has me stumped

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kyle Brant
  • Start date Start date
K

Kyle Brant

Can't get the soundstorm audio to work with win98se. I had an old
win98se install with older hardware when I installed the mobo, so I
deleted the "enum" key in safe mode before the first win98se boot,
then let win98 do it's thing to find all the new hardware, and np, all
was found, but I get no sound, and attempting to open the nvidia
control panel results in a "driver initialization error, reinstall" or
some similar message. Device manager sez the nvidia audio devices are
working properly, but the "multimedia" control panel applet reports no
audio devices installed for playback and recording devices. Am
currently trying to use the latest nvidia driver package for win98/me.
I started out trying the latest Asus driver and had no luck with it
either.

I have done the following:

-tried the "update driver" approach for the nvidia audio devices
-reinstalled win98se over the existing installation
-booted safe mode, deleted all audio devices for nvidia and let them
all get redetected, and they DO get redetected every time, but it
appears the driver still does not load/initialize properly
-installed a couple of MS patches I found on the net for audio
problems regarding wdmaud.sys and other dx related issues/problems
-removed and redetected devices too many times to count

All other devices in Device Manager are working ok. I have a dual boot
system, and win2k works fabulously, so I know the hardware/soundchip
works. I do have the 3com NIC and the SATA interface disabled, but
this should have no bearing on my problem.

I guess the fact that nearly all the mobo devices are on IRQ 5 or 11
is also a bit disturbing, tho ACPI and IRQ sharing should work
properly if the drivers are written correctly.

I've found some other posts on usenet where others have had the exact
same problem, but found no real solution to the problem.

Any suggestions/tips/ideas would be welcome. If I find a solution, I
will post it.
 
Why would I use Realtek drivers when the nvidia drivers are, or should
be, complete? My board has the MCP-T southbridge, not a realtek audio
solution, tho I do understand my board uses realtek devices for output
(codecs or D/A's). Do these realtek drivers work in conjunction with
the soundstorm drivers or replace them?

--
Best regards,
Kyle
| On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 14:52:24 -0500, "Kyle Brant" <[email protected]>
| wrote:
|
| >Any suggestions/tips/ideas would be welcome. If I find a solution,
I
| >will post it.
|
| Just get the realtek drivers right off their site.
| ------------
| When your PC gives a little they give a lot.
| http://www.dslreports.com/forum/disco
 
A LARGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!

OK, I fixed the problem, and cannot explain why, this worked. Here's
what I transpired:

I searched all over the internet and usenet for "no audio playback
devices available" and found one fellow who had put a special registry
file together to "rebuild" the kernel sound "mapping" info in the
registry, and he listed certain devices that should show up in safe
mode but do not appear in normal mode (this was in regard to an AC97
sound system). This gave me the idea to go back and review my setup.

On a normal boot into win98se, I would see 2 Nvidia audio devices
named (in device manager):

-Nvidia Audio
-Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)

Then, I booted in safe mode, and noted that there were 3 Nvidia audio
devices named:

-Nvidia Audio
-Nvidia audio codec interface
-Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)

Hmmm, now that's odd, why do I see 3 items show up in safe mode and
only 2 in normal boot mode? I realize sometimes unused devices showup
on safe mode (such as old hardware that has been removed), and yet, I
was fairly certain I had booted into safe mode earlier and deleted all
Nvidia audio devices in my efforts to fix this problem and the only
devices present in the system should be those detected on the last
"detection" process.

Then, I opted to take the scientific approach, I guessed (a wildass
blind stab in the dark) and deleted ONLY the "Nvidia audio codec
interface" whilst in safe mode. On reboot, win98se found a new PCI
audio multimedia device, and I pointed windows to the directory with
the latest Nvidia audio drivers (2.41 is what I think I have for
win9x/me) and lo and behold, the sound hardware works now. Thus, it
appears there is some oddity in the driver installation process where
all of the drivers are not installed, or, the wrong driver gets
installed for one of the devices or some problem is created that
windows cannot figure out on it's own (do you suppose this is the
first time such a problem has occurred with windows, lol).

Now, in normal boot mode, I have 2 audio devices which are named:

-Nvidia audio codec interface
-Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)

and the sound works as it should, Nvidia control panel works, I am
quite pleased to have found a fix. The other device (Nvidia Audio)
just disappeared.

BTW, the names for the devices above may not be exactly accurate as
I'm typing this in from memory at another puter, but what I have set
forth is very close if not exact.

Hope this helps those who have the same situation/problem.

And finally, there is no need to d/l and install the realtek drivers
if you own this mobo (A7N8X-Deluxe), as the realtek drivers are NOT
required to get the soundstorm sound system working under win98se.
The suggestion that the realtek drivers can be used to fix this
particular problem may be true, but I did not take my experiment that
far.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
| Can't get the soundstorm audio to work with win98se. I had an old
| win98se install with older hardware when I installed the mobo, so I
| deleted the "enum" key in safe mode before the first win98se boot,
| then let win98 do it's thing to find all the new hardware, and np,
all
| was found, but I get no sound, and attempting to open the nvidia
| control panel results in a "driver initialization error, reinstall"
or
| some similar message. Device manager sez the nvidia audio devices
are
| working properly, but the "multimedia" control panel applet reports
no
| audio devices installed for playback and recording devices. Am
| currently trying to use the latest nvidia driver package for
win98/me.
| I started out trying the latest Asus driver and had no luck with it
| either.
|
| I have done the following:
|
| -tried the "update driver" approach for the nvidia audio devices
| -reinstalled win98se over the existing installation
| -booted safe mode, deleted all audio devices for nvidia and let them

| all get redetected, and they DO get redetected every time, but it
| appears the driver still does not load/initialize properly
| -installed a couple of MS patches I found on the net for audio
| problems regarding wdmaud.sys and other dx related issues/problems
| -removed and redetected devices too many times to count
|
| All other devices in Device Manager are working ok. I have a dual
boot
| system, and win2k works fabulously, so I know the hardware/soundchip
| works. I do have the 3com NIC and the SATA interface disabled, but
| this should have no bearing on my problem.
|
| I guess the fact that nearly all the mobo devices are on IRQ 5 or 11
| is also a bit disturbing, tho ACPI and IRQ sharing should work
| properly if the drivers are written correctly.
|
| I've found some other posts on usenet where others have had the
exact
| same problem, but found no real solution to the problem.
|
| Any suggestions/tips/ideas would be welcome. If I find a solution,
I
| will post it.
|
| --
| Best regards,
| Kyle
|
 
| A LARGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!
|
| OK, I fixed the problem, and cannot explain why, this worked.
Here's
| what I transpired:
|
| I searched all over the internet and usenet for "no audio playback
| devices available" and found one fellow who had put a special
registry
| file together to "rebuild" the kernel sound "mapping" info in the
| registry, and he listed certain devices that should show up in safe
| mode but do not appear in normal mode (this was in regard to an AC97
| sound system). This gave me the idea to go back and review my
setup.
|
| On a normal boot into win98se, I would see 2 Nvidia audio devices
| named (in device manager):
|
| -Nvidia Audio
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| Then, I booted in safe mode, and noted that there were 3 Nvidia
audio
| devices named:
|
| -Nvidia Audio
| -Nvidia audio codec interface
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| Hmmm, now that's odd, why do I see 3 items show up in safe mode and
| only 2 in normal boot mode? I realize sometimes unused devices
showup
| on safe mode (such as old hardware that has been removed), and yet,
I
| was fairly certain I had booted into safe mode earlier and deleted
all
| Nvidia audio devices in my efforts to fix this problem and the only
| devices present in the system should be those detected on the last
| "detection" process.
|
| Then, I opted to take the scientific approach, I guessed (a wildass
| blind stab in the dark) and deleted ONLY the "Nvidia audio codec
| interface" whilst in safe mode. On reboot, win98se found a new PCI
| audio multimedia device, and I pointed windows to the directory with
| the latest Nvidia audio drivers (2.41 is what I think I have for
| win9x/me) and lo and behold, the sound hardware works now. Thus, it
| appears there is some oddity in the driver installation process
where
| all of the drivers are not installed, or, the wrong driver gets
| installed for one of the devices or some problem is created that
| windows cannot figure out on it's own (do you suppose this is the
| first time such a problem has occurred with windows, lol).
|
| Now, in normal boot mode, I have 2 audio devices which are named:
|
| -Nvidia audio codec interface
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| and the sound works as it should, Nvidia control panel works, I am
| quite pleased to have found a fix. The other device (Nvidia Audio)
| just disappeared.
|
| BTW, the names for the devices above may not be exactly accurate as
| I'm typing this in from memory at another puter, but what I have set
| forth is very close if not exact.
|
| Hope this helps those who have the same situation/problem.
|
| And finally, there is no need to d/l and install the realtek drivers
| if you own this mobo (A7N8X-Deluxe), as the realtek drivers are NOT
| required to get the soundstorm sound system working under win98se.
| The suggestion that the realtek drivers can be used to fix this
| particular problem may be true, but I did not take my experiment
that
| far.
|

All right, this stuff always bugs me when it happens, so I went back
and "printed to file" a list of devices in the sound controllers
section of device manager, then booted in safe mode and printed a list
of the devices, and here is the resulting lists (much detail about
drivers and resources used is deleted, only the actual device names
are set forth here):

Normal Boot Audio Controllers/Devices:
Device: Microsoft Kernel Audio Mixer
Device: Microsoft Kernel System Renderer
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit
(Dolby(R) Digital)
Device: MPU-401 Compatible
Device: Gameport Joystick

I note that only 2 of the above listed audio devices actually appear
visually in device manager of a normal boot, the kernel audio mixer an
d system renderer and the "NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio" devices do not
show up visually in device manager's list, yet printing the list
reveals their presence. Can't explain why, some quirk of Windows,
perhaps only displaying devices that actually use "hardware
resources". In fact, that appears to be the case after reviewing the
text file.

And here is the safe mode device list:

Safe Mode Audio Controllers/Devices:
Device: Microsoft DirectMusic SW Synth (WDM)
Device: Microsoft Kernel Audio Mixer
Device: Microsoft Kernel GS Wavetable Synthesizer
Device: Microsoft Kernel System Renderer
Device: Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy
Device: Microsoft Streaming Clock Proxy
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit
(Dolby(R) Digital)
Device: MPU-401 Compatible
Device: Gameport Joystick

Finally, I should share a link to the information that prompted me to
give this "no sound" problem another go around, here it is:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/t1031527906 . This page
discusses the exact problem I was having and one poster provides a
link to another page
http://www2.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads18/19370.html where a
"registry fix" file can be downloaded, and a review of the registry
fix file reveals how the "extra" rendering/streaming kernel devices
that appear only in safe mode are added back in for winme, and there
is a suggestion this registry fix may also work with win98. The
registry fix adds many of the devices that only appear in safe mode.
Note: I did NOT use the registry fix to solve my problem.

Finally, one might ask, "if I delete all the devices in safe mode,
will this 'no sound devices available' problem re-emerge?"

So, I did just that, booted in safe mode, deleted all the audio
controller devices set forth above, and rebooted, and win98se was able
to redetect my audio hardware, I pointed win98 at the appropriate
drivers directory, and the sound hardware came back to life without a
hitch on the very first boot into normal mode. If that don't beat
all.

Finally, I do recall that when I was originally installing the Nvidia
drivers (using the setup program that comes with the driver package
for 2.41) there were 2 long extended delays with a progress dialog
indicating Windows was adding devices or updating the system (probably
nearly 2 minutes for each one) and the delay was I guess my warning
that things were not proceeding as they should. Thereafter, upon
attempting to open the Nvidia nForce control audio control panel, I
would receive the "failed to initialize audio driver, reinstall"
message.

I took the time to post all of this info because there are just a few
who have had this problem and the solution is difficult and also
perhaps dependent on the specific sound card solution in use. A
reinstall of Windows does not fix the problem. Perhaps a
format/reinstall would solve this problem, but I tend to avoid that
approach at all costs as losing the installed programs and data is a
pain. At least all have a possible solution to this problem, and
usenet now has a detailed post for the benefit of anyone who might
encounter this problem. HTH.
 
Kyle Brant wrote:
<SNIP!>

Yeah... I noticed that the 3rd, hidden device didn't update to the newer
drives when I updated them... this was using some Asus driver set that was
not published to their website, just before the nForce 3.13s came out. (I
think it had the 3.66 audio drivers, which are the latest official nVidia
release)

If you go to View -> Show Hidden Devices in device manager you will see them
all there (I think you'll see all the ones you would see in safe mode too)

I have been told by somebody on nForcersHQ (that was either a mod or driver
beta tester) that that could cause problems (and it does seem to make
sense) - you experienced them.

If you are having sound problems, view the hidden devices and confirm that
all 3 Nvidia sound devices have the latest, or at least the same, version
number. Additionally, the control panel almost always needs to have the
same version number as the drivers as well.

Ben
 
| Kyle Brant wrote:
| <SNIP!>
|
| Yeah... I noticed that the 3rd, hidden device didn't update to the
newer
| drives when I updated them... this was using some Asus driver set
that was
| not published to their website, just before the nForce 3.13s came
out. (I
| think it had the 3.66 audio drivers, which are the latest official
nVidia
| release)
|
| If you go to View -> Show Hidden Devices in device manager you will
see them
| all there (I think you'll see all the ones you would see in safe
mode too)
|
| I have been told by somebody on nForcersHQ (that was either a mod or
driver
| beta tester) that that could cause problems (and it does seem to
make
| sense) - you experienced them.
|
| If you are having sound problems, view the hidden devices and
confirm that
| all 3 Nvidia sound devices have the latest, or at least the same,
version
| number. Additionally, the control panel almost always needs to have
the
| same version number as the drivers as well.
|
| Ben
| --
| I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...
|

Win9x/me does not provide a mechanism for viewing hidden devices like
win2k and xp, hidden devices are only viewable in safe mode afaik.
 
Kyle said:
Win9x/me does not provide a mechanism for viewing hidden devices like
win2k and xp, hidden devices are only viewable in safe mode afaik.
Click to expand...

Ahh yeah... my bad. There are still people using Win98? :-P

Ben
 
| Kyle Brant wrote:
| > Win9x/me does not provide a mechanism for viewing hidden devices
like
| > win2k and xp, hidden devices are only viewable in safe mode afaik.
|
| Ahh yeah... my bad. There are still people using Win98? :-P
|

<grin> yup. Got 2 machines used primarily for work (word processing,
spreadsheet, occasional graphics scanning) running k63+ CPUs at 550 or
600 MHz with win98se, and they are plenty fast for such uses. Didn't
see winme as a worthwhile upgrade, and win2k or XP will surely "break"
my voice/fax software. Also, I hate to toss all my old ISA cards
(particularly controller based voice/faxmodem cards that are used to
answer phone and receive faxes on 2 telephone lines) in the dumpster
just to have a faster word processor system. However, my router
machine (shares cablemodem), server machine (client file machine and
shares dsl line with network) and game puter all are running win2k.
BTW, the sound problem I resolved was on my game puter which is dual
boot win2k/win98se, and win98se is still faster with some games,
though win2k is a bit "smoother".
 
Kyle said:
<grin> yup. Got 2 machines used primarily for work (word processing,
spreadsheet, occasional graphics scanning) running k63+ CPUs at 550 or
600 MHz with win98se, and they are plenty fast for such uses.
Click to expand...

I was using a PIII 450 up until a couple of months ago. Was fine for me
(had 512MB of RAM)
Didn't
see winme as a worthwhile upgrade, and win2k or XP will surely "break"
my voice/fax software.
Click to expand...

Almost certainly, since the way it deals with COM ports is different...
depends how it works, really.
Also, I hate to toss all my old ISA cards
(particularly controller based voice/faxmodem cards that are used to
answer phone and receive faxes on 2 telephone lines) in the dumpster
just to have a faster word processor system.
Click to expand...

Not with you on that.
However, my router
machine (shares cablemodem), server machine (client file machine and
shares dsl line with network) and game puter all are running win2k.
BTW, the sound problem I resolved was on my game puter which is dual
boot win2k/win98se, and win98se is still faster with some games,
though win2k is a bit "smoother".
Click to expand...


I remember once trying WinNT when I had Win95 with Quake3 (or maybe it was
the original Quake, hmm, doesn;t seem right as that was DOS based before
GLQuake came along) and it blew me away it was nearly 50% faster I think...
albeit without sound :-P

I migrated to Win2K when Win98 was being unstable - I'd open up 10 pretty
memory hungry files in various applications (Word, Excel, Acrobat etc.) and
it would keel over and die... reboot, repeat about 4 times and then
installed Win2K. It seems a lot more stable - memory management is
considerably better. Not looked back since.

I guess it comes down to what you use it for... if it works, why change it?

Ben
 
<snip>

| I migrated to Win2K when Win98 was being unstable - I'd open up 10
pretty
| memory hungry files in various applications (Word, Excel, Acrobat
etc.) and
| it would keel over and die... reboot, repeat about 4 times and then
| installed Win2K. It seems a lot more stable - memory management is
| considerably better. Not looked back since.
|
| I guess it comes down to what you use it for... if it works, why
change it?
|

I still use word95 and excel 4 and Lotus 123 (millennium edition) as
well as old versions of Paint Shop Pro, the original Schedule Plus
(the WFWG version, haha, still works fine with win9x if ya did an
upgrade from win3.1) and other old programs I've found to be
extremely reliable and stable, and they are not near as memory or
system resource hungry as the newer versions of similar programs. I
have office 2000 on 1 machine so I can convert files to the older
formats if necessary, lol. With win98, your comments are right on
point, some newer programs are so system hungry any more they need a
1 gig cpu to run decent. The latest version of acrobat is an
overbloated POS, imho. I went back to ver 4 or 5 and for my use the
old version is just fine. I'm behind a firewall, so I don't run any
anti-virus software (I also disable all the javascript, activex etc.
with IE so no nasty stuff runs on my machines). Many anti-virus
programs just eat up system performance in many respects, tho I see
the need for many to use them.
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to post all this info. I've now
finally gotten the SoundStorm working on mine from removing all the
NVidia sound devices while in safemode, and then booting back into to
normal mode and letting it rediscover them and installing the drivers
at that point. I had looked online for hours and it seemed like many
people had this problem but could not find a definite answer. I'll
point them here if I see more! Thanks again.
 
Hi Chris.

You are most welcome.

Yes, I found the posts of others with the exact same problem just like
you and I in many places (even others with different sound cards/chips
having the same problem) and no solutions found. Glad the info helped
at least 1 person, b/c that makes the effort in compiling the detailed
post worthwhile.

--
Best regards,
Kyle
| Thanks so much for taking the time to post all this info. I've now
| finally gotten the SoundStorm working on mine from removing all the
| NVidia sound devices while in safemode, and then booting back into
to
| normal mode and letting it rediscover them and installing the
drivers
| at that point. I had looked online for hours and it seemed like many
| people had this problem but could not find a definite answer. I'll
| point them here if I see more! Thanks again.
 
news:[email protected]...
Click to expand...

| A LARGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!
|
| OK, I fixed the problem, and cannot explain why, this worked.
Here's
| what I transpired:
|
| I searched all over the internet and usenet for "no audio playback
| devices available" and found one fellow who had put a special
registry
| file together to "rebuild" the kernel sound "mapping" info in the
| registry, and he listed certain devices that should show up in safe
| mode but do not appear in normal mode (this was in regard to an AC97
| sound system). This gave me the idea to go back and review my
setup.
|
| On a normal boot into win98se, I would see 2 Nvidia audio devices
| named (in device manager):
|
| -Nvidia Audio
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| Then, I booted in safe mode, and noted that there were 3 Nvidia
audio
| devices named:
|
| -Nvidia Audio
| -Nvidia audio codec interface
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| Hmmm, now that's odd, why do I see 3 items show up in safe mode and
| only 2 in normal boot mode? I realize sometimes unused devices
showup
| on safe mode (such as old hardware that has been removed), and yet,
I
| was fairly certain I had booted into safe mode earlier and deleted
all
| Nvidia audio devices in my efforts to fix this problem and the only
| devices present in the system should be those detected on the last
| "detection" process.
|
| Then, I opted to take the scientific approach, I guessed (a wildass
| blind stab in the dark) and deleted ONLY the "Nvidia audio codec
| interface" whilst in safe mode. On reboot, win98se found a new PCI
| audio multimedia device, and I pointed windows to the directory with
| the latest Nvidia audio drivers (2.41 is what I think I have for
| win9x/me) and lo and behold, the sound hardware works now. Thus, it
| appears there is some oddity in the driver installation process
where
| all of the drivers are not installed, or, the wrong driver gets
| installed for one of the devices or some problem is created that
| windows cannot figure out on it's own (do you suppose this is the
| first time such a problem has occurred with windows, lol).
|
| Now, in normal boot mode, I have 2 audio devices which are named:
|
| -Nvidia audio codec interface
| -Nvidia audio processing unit (Dolby digital)
|
| and the sound works as it should, Nvidia control panel works, I am
| quite pleased to have found a fix. The other device (Nvidia Audio)
| just disappeared.
|
| BTW, the names for the devices above may not be exactly accurate as
| I'm typing this in from memory at another puter, but what I have set
| forth is very close if not exact.
|
| Hope this helps those who have the same situation/problem.
|
| And finally, there is no need to d/l and install the realtek drivers
| if you own this mobo (A7N8X-Deluxe), as the realtek drivers are NOT
| required to get the soundstorm sound system working under win98se.
| The suggestion that the realtek drivers can be used to fix this
| particular problem may be true, but I did not take my experiment
that
| far.
|

All right, this stuff always bugs me when it happens, so I went back
and "printed to file" a list of devices in the sound controllers
section of device manager, then booted in safe mode and printed a list
of the devices, and here is the resulting lists (much detail about
drivers and resources used is deleted, only the actual device names
are set forth here):

Normal Boot Audio Controllers/Devices:
Device: Microsoft Kernel Audio Mixer
Device: Microsoft Kernel System Renderer
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit
(Dolby(R) Digital)
Device: MPU-401 Compatible
Device: Gameport Joystick

I note that only 2 of the above listed audio devices actually appear
visually in device manager of a normal boot, the kernel audio mixer an
d system renderer and the "NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio" devices do not
show up visually in device manager's list, yet printing the list
reveals their presence. Can't explain why, some quirk of Windows,
perhaps only displaying devices that actually use "hardware
resources". In fact, that appears to be the case after reviewing the
text file.

And here is the safe mode device list:

Safe Mode Audio Controllers/Devices:
Device: Microsoft DirectMusic SW Synth (WDM)
Device: Microsoft Kernel Audio Mixer
Device: Microsoft Kernel GS Wavetable Synthesizer
Device: Microsoft Kernel System Renderer
Device: Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy
Device: Microsoft Streaming Clock Proxy
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface
Device: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit
(Dolby(R) Digital)
Device: MPU-401 Compatible
Device: Gameport Joystick

Finally, I should share a link to the information that prompted me to
give this "no sound" problem another go around, here it is:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/t1031527906 . This page
discusses the exact problem I was having and one poster provides a
link to another page
http://www2.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads18/19370.html where a
"registry fix" file can be downloaded, and a review of the registry
fix file reveals how the "extra" rendering/streaming kernel devices
that appear only in safe mode are added back in for winme, and there
is a suggestion this registry fix may also work with win98. The
registry fix adds many of the devices that only appear in safe mode.
Note: I did NOT use the registry fix to solve my problem.

Finally, one might ask, "if I delete all the devices in safe mode,
will this 'no sound devices available' problem re-emerge?"

So, I did just that, booted in safe mode, deleted all the audio
controller devices set forth above, and rebooted, and win98se was able
to redetect my audio hardware, I pointed win98 at the appropriate
drivers directory, and the sound hardware came back to life without a
hitch on the very first boot into normal mode. If that don't beat
all.

Finally, I do recall that when I was originally installing the Nvidia
drivers (using the setup program that comes with the driver package
for 2.41) there were 2 long extended delays with a progress dialog
indicating Windows was adding devices or updating the system (probably
nearly 2 minutes for each one) and the delay was I guess my warning
that things were not proceeding as they should. Thereafter, upon
attempting to open the Nvidia nForce control audio control panel, I
would receive the "failed to initialize audio driver, reinstall"
message.

I took the time to post all of this info because there are just a few
who have had this problem and the solution is difficult and also
perhaps dependent on the specific sound card solution in use. A
reinstall of Windows does not fix the problem. Perhaps a
format/reinstall would solve this problem, but I tend to avoid that
approach at all costs as losing the installed programs and data is a
pain. At least all have a possible solution to this problem, and
usenet now has a detailed post for the benefit of anyone who might
encounter this problem. HTH.
Click to expand...

A new NForce2 driver release has been put together for Win9x by
Morpheus1, which includes v3.75 audio drivers. Check out the details
about it here:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36254&highlight=

The actual remixed drivers (v3.25 & 3.26) are available here:

http://www.techconnect.ws/modules.php?name=Downloads&cid=1

I installed the 3.26 package and it's working fine on my A7N8X Dlx
(running Win98SE), though I didn't have any serious problems with the
last NVidia package either. I am hoping it will help with some odd
game incompatibilities. Previously I tried remixed drivers from
MWarhead, but these caused all my games to CTD, even though DXDiag
checked out okay.

Jack
 
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