[Adam]

"where in the world - not at pc world"

[Funky Drummer]

yeah, without a doubt. i think (if) we take it in next time i'm gonna insist I stay and watch.

[Tall Pall]

sndvol32.exe goes into the "c:\windows\system32\" folder. If things dont improve after that, then just reinstall your sound driver software. Once again this is easy enough to do.

Go into device manager and check to see what drivers are running your sound card and that you dont have any yellow or red flags next to these drivers. If you have yellow or red warnings then really you need to download that driver again and reinstall, and possibly uninstalling before hand. Either way check to see what the exact type of sound card you have, then take a trip to the manufactures web site and download the software for your hardware.

... Also you can access your sound card information through control pannel. Here it should hopefuly at least tell you what hardware is running your sound. Then even a simple search on google should provide you with the appropriate drivers and software.

[Funky Drummer]

cheers, I'll give it a shot

[Spud_Nic]

i work for currys - which is part of the same group as pc world - and itz the biggest load of rubbish on the planet.... a group of monkeys would have a better idea of how a computer works than the ppl at pc world!!!!!!!!!!

dont get conned... stay away from pc world!!!!!!

[Funky Drummer]

thanks spud. if only you'd been around earlier...

[Funky Drummer]

oh, by the way, how do I find out who the manufacturer of my hard drive is so that i can re-download the driver

[Tall Pall]

If you needed to reinstall your hard drive software then its unlikely you would be posting here as yout pc probably wouldnt boot in anything but safe mode. However you should be able to find out what hard drive you have by looking at your manuals. Other than that, go into device manager once again and look under disk drives. It should give you a code like ST260000A or somthing. Whatever the code is for your hard drive is all you need. Do a search online and it will give you links to probably sale information as it often happens for me. Although this isnt the software your looking for, it will give you the information on your hard drive, i.e. make and type, Western Digital ATA 100 or whatever, this will allow you to find your hard drive drivers on there web site.

Anyway, this sounds all wrong lol. Seriously If your hard drive and hard drive controlers arnt working then you should be having serious problems even turning the pc on.

I would phone PC world back up and say, that you have been advised to reinstall yout OS but it isnt working. Them being nice, they should provide you with CD's. You paid for a liscense of whatever OS you have, and if its under warranty they should provide it on a medium you can use!

[Funky Drummer]

oh...errr....sorry - instead of typing "hard drive manufacturer" i should have typed "sound card manufacturer"

looks like ive successfuly wasted about two minutes of your time in making you post the above. sorry!

[Tall Pall]

No problem, same should apply though. In device manage, under "sound, video and game controlers" there should be the name of your sound card. For me it says "soundmax intergrated digital audio", if i typed that into a search engine along with driver, it should take me to the right place. In theory, any way.... dont get confused with the codecs that are there, ignore them and everything else.

Errr ignore them unless they have yellow or red warnings next to them. Otherwise they will need to be uninstalled and reinstalled also (which can be tricky sometimes).

[Funky Drummer]

Okay, here's what it says under Device Manager in the System area of Control Panel:

Sound, Video and Game Controllers
Analog Devices 1816 Codec (This has a little yellow warning triangle)

AND

SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio




I'll try the search thing you said.

Rich~

[Tall Pall]

You need to right click on Analog Devices 1816 Codec and go into properties to see whats wrong with the thing. But I suspect uninstalling and reinstalling the sound card drivers and software should sort this problem.

I searched the web and quickly and found the drivers AND additional software, it would be a good idea to get it all (specific to your OS).

[Funky Drummer]

yup, downloading as we speak.

Thanks for your help everyone - I know where I'll go from now on if I'm having computer problems!!!

[Adam]

well- why go to stupid pc "crappy" world when you can get free advice over the net or pc mw.

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

this stuff should really go in miscallaneous so people only realise how sad we all are after they join up....

[Funky Drummer]

UPDATE:

Downloaded new driver. Still won't work.

[Tall Pall]

Did you uninstall the old driver first. then install the full software package?

[Funky Drummer]

yup, sure did, still knackered

[Morals]

You really need a Windows ME CD - it will help no end...

As for the sound card. Did you remove the sound card from the device manager list and reboot the machine? This should force Windows into asking for drivers for the new hardware it has found as it boots up - this is where you bung the drivers CD in the drive. You may have to manually search through fodlers on the CD until windows reckons the driver is correct (it'll tell you if it's not).

[TJD]

well, it can just seize up sometimes and one thing that is really annoying is occasionaly it throws up an error saying "Explorer has caused an error in <unknow>" The only was to get around this is to Ctrl+Alt+Del and close down Explorer. It only seems to happen when I've got certain programs running though, so it could be a bug within either AOL or Cool Edit Pro 2.

Rich~

i get that problem, i think. is it one where if you open a folder, explorer crashes and you have to restart before you can open any folders?

[Funky Drummer]

yeah, thats the one TJD.

I've t=tried all the things I can with the driver (even done what compaq tech support said) but its still not working. I havent got time to work on it today (working), nut I'll keep you posted...

[Morals]

If you can get hold af a Windows ME disk and run through the full install procedure you may well find the problem gets solved.

[Funky Drummer]

okay, i'll give that a shot - I think my neighbour may have one; I'll ask him.

Cheers,

Rich~

[TJD]

i thought the problem was caused by the fact that i first got aol7 and ran it on ie4, then i upgraded to ie6, i thought that may be to do withit.

[Funky Drummer]

Thanks, I've taken all of your comments on board and will start emergency surgery on sunday.

Cheers,

Rich~