kony said:
I'm sure they made a best effort to make it so, but if it
was ok would they release newer versions?
I can't argue with that.
Nothing is identified yet, just don't be afraid to try a
newer driver. In general you should not use any drivers
that came with windows if you have a newer alternative.
That extends past the sound card to all other parts of the
system.
Yes, I new better when I first started working with PCs. This has been
my instinct in the past. I've been stuck on a hardware failure on this
system for some reason. Hopefully it doesn't still have one. (crossing
fingers)
It may not be the sound card, but if it were obvious at
first then there'd not be a problem, right? Trying a few
things is the remaining course.
I am starting to wonder if it is the only problem. I need to spend some
more time on the system. I'm wondering about the HD.
Yes, but that makes it at best as recent as what CL has to
offer and at worst, an older buggier driver. It isn't
exactly new now, 2004, let alone 2001 was eons ago in a
computer timeline.
I guess I trust MS on this to much.
This is no excuse for me not trying to install the latest Dell specific
driver by default (I'm a little buggy myself), but you would think
though, as common a piece of hardware as the SB Live! was, that MS, CL
and Dell would be in sync on this. And that at least CL, would have the
last stable driver ever written for the SB Live!, even for the Dell
version. After all, it is there card, and they apparently had Dell
specific drivers in the past, because it is in there little menu system.
But like so many other hardware venders, they all leave you to search
for it on places like driverguide.com . It only takes a little server
space, and with 300GB drives being so cheap and common place. Maybe they
are concerned over available bandwidth for legacy products. But I
thought we had a lot of that too. Sorry if I'm ranting.
How are Vista drivers for the SB Live! 5.1 I wonder? But then again, how
are Vista drivers for anything?
I'd almost be willing to bet that this Dell SB Live! would not cause
these type of problems in Linux. Maybe harder to get full functionality
out of the box, like MIDI support. But then I'm no Linux guru either.
Interestingly (I knew this long ago but forgot about it until getting
into the SB issue), there is independent WDM driver support for the SB
that may be worth looking into...
http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/
Also this one...
http://www.asio4all.com/
I wonder as to there stability.
Anyway, The SB Live! card is out of the system now. I've enabled the
onboard SoundMax hardware and installed its latest driver. I haven't
given up on it completely. I may do an extensive search for the latest
Dell specific driver, and download it if I can for the future. I think
its a good card overall.
I had wondered about that but didn't write anything because
my memory of the difference and which sound card model was
vague. I know at least one Dell card was seemingly named to
be the same model but didn't have some hardware support that
the retail card did, so it needed to do some soft processing
from a different driver - although it wouldn't have been
uncommon for CL to have just merged all the files for both
types of cards into one installer then the installer
identifies the card and installs the appropriate files for
it.
I knew at one point in the past, that it did need a slightly different
driver, but it was one of the many little things that got pushed back
into the recesses of my little brain.
It would be nice if they had merged it into one installer. But CL lists
the Dell SB 5.1 seperately, and seems to have taken any version of the
driver for it off there servers.
You might have some luck with a Google search like,
http://www.google.com/search?q=Live+5.1+Dell+driver
maybe throwing the word "XP" in as well.
2003 is an entire year, not a driver version number which is
what you'd need to compare them. Also there can be some
lag, when a driver is posted it may not be posted at both
the manufacturer's site and windows update simultaneously.
Like I said above. I assume to much I suppose, but a card as common as
this, one would think that there was some concistancy. But I think I
have noticed this phenomenon in the past, even with nVidia drivers. I
usualy try to get driver directly from the manufacturer. But I know, it
takes vigilance.
It feels like we've been missing some critical info here.
Why wouldn't a virus be a suspect? Just because AVG can't
find anything now isn't always telling, some of them mutate
and let's face it, the ultimate goal of the virus writer is
for their creation not to be detected unless they want it to
be so, and AVG is a pretty popular AV due to being free so
any savvy malware writer would check whether AVG can detect
their payload.
The blue screen problem has been occuring since I built the system, not
a daily occurance, maybe once every couple months, maybe a couple days
apart. I've always assumed there was a hardware problem (and there may
still be). When I made my original post, I had not even checked the AVG
test results.
I'm not suggesting it's probably a virus, could still be a
driver or something else.
The WinDbg application seems to point to a driver problem.
Better question now is how did they get onto the system as
this is a potential security hole (even if a user opening
email with attachments) that needs closed to ensure a secure
environment.
There are two people now that use this system, the owner, and her
boyfriend. I think his web browsing habits are behind the increase in
malware found in AVG logs, and seemingly in jest (or maybe with a hint
of seriousness), she suggested that malware brought on by his browsing
habits where the reason for the latest blue screen. I didn't take this
seriously at first because of the blue screen problems that predate
there aquaintance and subsequent relationship. Also, they have had a DSL
connection for a couple months now. This PC has only been connected by
dial-up for most of its history.
The broadband connection, and where he is taking IE, may be the reason
for the increase in malware. The system seemed to have a lot of up to
date software components that I did not install, like IE 7 and WM Player
11. So I think she had been manualy updating the system, or the system
has been updating itself. But I did not try to see how recent its patch
level was before I reinstalled Windows XP.
I don't think they are running any file sharing apps. I wish I would
have kept the AVG logs so I could give a closer look at directories
where the malware was being found. I do remember a few being found in
the Java cache. Also AVG seemed to think that the executable for the
Kodak Easy Share application installed on the system was a virus or that
it had been infected. Whatever the case, the icon for the Easy Share
..exe was missing, and Easy Share software would not run.
While at there place, setting the the system back up, I told him about
the number the viruses found by AVG and warned that some of the sites he
visits can be somewhat shady. And that you can expect these sites to try
to take over your browser and worse.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think the XP firewall was turned on. They only
use webmail, so its not coming in through an email client like OE or
Incredimail. I'm thinking they are coming in through IE.
Yes, I've came across plenty of systems AVG couldn't clean,
some of the more aggressive viri will copy themselves
everywhere as fast as anything can find them, even have
separate threads just monitoring whether anything happened
to each (other) so if you or AVG gets rid of a file the
alternate thread just replaces it again. Real PITA to
clean, can take as much time as doing a clean install or
more, considering it's time spent at the keyboard instead of
letting the windows installer run unattended.
Yes, I have seen comparisons on the web between virus apps and AVG did
not always finish on top.
Quite a few systems with a fair amount of capacitance in the
PSU will momentarily dim the lights due to inrush current to
the caps. Not a big deal so long as the (household) wiring
isn't intermittent which would tend to effect more than just
the PC.
You haven't mentioned if windows was fully patched (or I
overlooked it), there might be something more fundamental
wrong with windows itself as we do know it's windows after
all, plenty of things that don't effect everyone slip
through the cracks.
I'm not sure if Windows was 100% up to date before I reinstalled. It is
now though.
The clean OS installation was probably the best start
towards a solution, but if it ends up bluescreening once
every month or some similarly infrequent period then just
explain that they need to try more to isolate what the
common variable is each time it does, isolating something
that is rare and intermittent is difficult enough on a
simple electro/electronic/mechanical system let alone a PC
running windows.
I plan to go back over there soon and boot up into Seatools to do diags
on the HD. Also run some benchmark and burn-in type of applications to
check for hardware failures. Also I will check AVG logs to see if
infections are getting in even though the system is patched as of this
writing.
Thanks
Eddie
