Sound Help? It makes BEEPING noises!!

drezian · Apr 23, 2008, 07:17 PM

Okay well this guy gave me his Dell Dimension 8300 last year and I haven't used it since I have another PC. Well this one has been sitting in my basement for 1 year and I just ran it today to see how good it was.

I don't know why, but if I go to the Device Manager and the Sound, Audio, Etc. tab, I don't see any card installed (Although I do see Audio, Legacy Audio Drivers, etc). Also if I go to my Sound and Audio Devices tab in the Control Panel, it says there is no audio device!! My computer makes beeps when errors come up and I dont have any sound!! Could this be because it wasnt installed properly? Should I reformat? Also, I tried to download the drivers from the Dell website (all drivers possible lol) and none of them worked. I tried to download the nForce nvidia audio but that didnt work. Any help?? THANKS!!

Russ · Apr 23, 2008, 08:02 PM

Windows should detect the hardware even without any driver installed, so it seems that there is an issue with the card itself, or it is not seated properly. Try re-seating the card or moving it to another slot on the mother board.

drezian · Apr 23, 2008, 08:21 PM

Eek!! Could I get help finding the card plz? im a newb lol..Could there be a possibility that there was no card installed at all??

Russ · Apr 23, 2008, 08:27 PM

Assuming the card is an Audigy 2, as described here:
PC World - Dimension 8300 Review

The card should look something like this: http://www.asisupport.com/audigy2card.jpg

If you look at the back of the computer, you should see the jacks where you would connect your speakers, etc. That would be the sound card (it is possible that the card was removed).

Make sure you fully power off the system before messing around inside the case, etc.

Tyrsonswood · Apr 23, 2008, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

Make sure you fully power off the system before messing around inside the case, etc.

Not only remove the power cable from the back, but after that push the on button, that will remove the charge from the capacitors..... Dell (and others )will hold enough current to fry a card for quite some time.

drezian · Apr 24, 2008, 12:36 PM

Thanks for the tips..but if the slots for the speakers, microphone,etc are there, shouldnt that mean that my sound card is there too?? I mean if you have those slots that is the sound card right? I will try looking at it and seeing if it's loose or what not, but if that doesnt fix anything I'll probably just reformat (even though I only have the SP1 disk, oh well).

Tyrsonswood · Apr 24, 2008, 12:59 PM

Reformatting won't fix a hardware issue. If it was stored for a year as you said all the cards and memory, power connectors, etc could probably use a good "re-seating". If you have a more computer savy friend to give you a hand, I would recommend having him/her around when you do this.

Yes if you have the jacks to plug in speakers in the back that would be the soundcard, so it's more than likely it's there.

Best of luck.

Russ · Apr 24, 2008, 04:08 PM

BTW: This assumes that the hardware is in fact not shown in Device Manager (which is the impression you gave). If you are not sure, then post a list (or a screen shot) of everything under "Sound, video, and game controllers" in Device Manager.

Also, as I said previously, it assumes that it has the Audigy 2 card... It is possible that the A2 is optional, and that it has audio integrated into the motherboard, in which case it would be a chip instead of a card (if this is the case, you might want to check the BIOS to see if there is an option to enable/disable onboard/integrated audio).

drezian · Apr 29, 2008, 08:03 PM

So I opened up my Dell...and on the inside reverse side of the sound jack in the back of my tower, there was just a little silver box. I didnt find any sound card =/. What now!?!??! Also, here is a screen shot of what my Device Manager looks like:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/538/15816274vq2.jpg

Russ · Apr 29, 2008, 08:28 PM

I took a look on the Dell site and it appears that the Dimension 8300 had 3 different sound card options:

SB Audigy 2 (SB0243)
SB Live! (SB0203)
ADI 198x Integrated Audio

From your description, I would guess that you have the integrated audio, and either there is something wrong with the hardware, or it is disabled in the BIOS. Go into the BIOS and check "Integrated Devices (Legacy Select Options)" --> "Sound" and see if it is enabled.

drezian · Apr 29, 2008, 08:46 PM

WOw thanks! The sound was off...but it still is not working. When I rebooted it says found new hardware and showed me it found the Multimedia Audio Controller...So should I install the above link to the Integrated Audio thingy from the Dell website?? or whattttt?

Btw..in my device manager it says Other Devices and has a yellow exclamation point next to Multimedia Audio Controller.

Russ · Apr 29, 2008, 08:49 PM

OK, good, here is the driver for the ADI 198x Integrated Audio. That should get it working for you.

drezian · Apr 29, 2008, 08:57 PM

Fixed. This forum is great..very active and NICE support not like any other forum. I love (well not really) making mistakes because I learn from them and know what to do next time. Thanks again guys! Oh and if you're good with knowing what causing freezing problems with computers, check out my other thread lol: PC Freezing question..

Thanks!!

Russ · Apr 29, 2008, 09:02 PM

Glad I could help... and Welcome to DH

For future reference, this forum is for the kX Audio driver, for audio related questions (that are not related to kX), you should use the Audio General and Technical Discussion forum.

-Russ