Windows Sound & Audio Devices

[zmaint]

I am having some serious sound issues. Everything was working fine.. until I decided to install my old K-World TV-PVR 883 tv tuner card. It blue screened in the middle of the crossbar driver installation and rebooted. When Windows came back I had no sound. I have a Creative Audigy 2. I completely uninstalled the driver and all Audigy software from safemode and restarted. I then reinstalled everything. The only sound I have is the demo that the Creative software launches. I have nothing else. Windows says there is no sound devices installed whenever I try to run anything that needs sound. The Sound & Audio Devices section in control panel says I have no sound device selected (for anything) and is grayed out and will not let me do anythinig but look. I emailed Creative, and they had me try what I had already done, that being uninstalling and reinstalling, although they had me do it several different ways. Needless to say if any of that had worked I wouldnt be posting here. They now tell me the same thing I told them originally, I am reasonably certain that the device driver failure has corrupted the section of the Windows registry that tells Windows how to talk to my sound hardware. So even though it is working correctly, Windows can't find it. I have verified that the card is good. I have Creative's diag logs, DirectX diag logs, and screen shots if anyone is interested. I do NOT want to have to reinstall Windows, and don't feel I should have to. Anyone have any ideas?? ???

[Close_Hauled]

Are you using Windows XP? If so, try using the system restore feature:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/faqsrwxp.mspx

[zmaint]

I turn off system restore due to it's wonderful ability to re-release viruses and spyware that have already been removed.... Any non-system restore ideas? Anyone want to cut and paste me their Window's audio sections from their registry?

[StevieO]

Hi zmaint,

It does sound a bit of a pain, but at least you have sound ! Anyway let's see if i can offer some advice that's helps.

I don't think a Cut/Paste from someone elses Reg would be wise as everybodys are different.

Have you checked to see if there Is/Was an IRQ/DMA conflict after you installed the Tuner Card ? Sometimes this can be the cause of gremlins, and you should be able to configure the options for either or both cards so they don't clash. Also check to see what might be being shared, and any highlighted problems etc in System Tools/System Info - various entries.

You could clean out the PC of all references etc to the Sound Card including the Registry with something like Regseeker, and then do the following.

A trick which often works is to power down the PC and unplug the SC, power back up and down again, and then refit the SC and power back up. Windows should auto find it and try to locate the drivers, so have them on standby.

You could load the drivers into a new folder you place somewhere conveniently on the PC before you do the above, but Not install them, and then direct Windows to it when it asks for the location to do that.


StevieO

[zmaint]

No conflicts, just the ole blue screen of death when I tried to install the tuner. Once I noticed it had fubar'd my sound I completely removed the tuner card (physically and all the drivers). Can't conflict if its not there. I have no sound resource conflicts. I use Reg Cleaner, and just went through and uninstalled all Creative software and drivers, along with every registry entry. I shut er down and removed the card. Rebooted, verified I got everything. Shut er down and reinstalled the card, and the drivers. Reboot again, no sound except from the Creative splash screen demo. Sound & Audio devices are all grayed out still and show no device selected.

You know, this is very similar to a damaged/spyware replaced winsock... The network card works, but windows can't connect to the internet because the socket is broken. Almost identical to my sound issue. My sound card works, device manager says its installed correctly, but windows just doesnt acknowledge it exists.

Thanks for the help so far. Any other ideas?