Just lashed out a few quid on surround sound for my PC and a sound card to allow it to all happen... But, having a few problems which I didn't expect.

I did the usual, turn it off, slot it in, turn it on, found new hardware, located the driver CD, loaded up, but it crashed halfway through setup (went to "not responding") but when I came to reboot the PC it loaded up about three times as slow, and a few seconds into loading up windows explorer, it froze SOLID. :( Tried three times in a row, same thing. Ended up whipping the sound card back out the machine and now I'm afraid to plug it back in again.

Is there a way I can wipe the half assed attempt at installing and start afresh? These speakers look the daddy and I've fallen at the first small hurdle of installing the sound card for them.

I can only think of a possible conflict between on board sound and this card. Maybe I need to disable onboard sound prior to installing?

Thanks

Try removing the card; boot up and then go into the bios and disable the onboard sound. Then try putting the card back into a different slot... also check for new drivers online... if you got a retail pack, it might have ancient drivers...

BIOS should be able to disable on board sound.

Apart from that make sure the drivers are written for your OS.

Timing eh?

Well, I only have one free PCI slot which the card was in. I might try and do a search to find any half installed files. Not sure that'll do any good though.

Shall report how I get on.

What card is it, J?

Its a Mercury 6 channel sound card KOB C384-E.

Only thing I know for sure now, is with the card plugged into ANY PCI slot the PC crashes very soon after loading windows (it seems to be stuck when putting some sound card related icon in the taskbar down by the clock)

With the sound card whipped out, it boots up fine! :confused: I'm still no closer to knowing why having my sound card in the PCI slot would cause a 100% system, mouse,keyboard freeze? :(

Oh, and with the soundcard out there's no evidence of any installed drivers that I can see. With it in, the first time it did its locating software for new hardware, appeared to install them auto, but still froze solid when loading up the desktop. :grumpy:

Try going into the BIOS - if there's an option to reset configuration data you could try that, as it usually applies to the plug-n-play settings.

I'd wait for someone else to second this idea in case it has nasty side-affects though!

Jas - are you still using Windows 98? Can you guess what I'm going to suggest?

Rob.

Jas - are you still using Windows 98? Can you guess what I'm going to suggest?

Rob.

Yeah! time to upgrade to firefox!

:confused:

Or maybe upgrade the OS?

(clutching at straws time) Jay - did you RTM? Some products prefer to have the drivers loaded before you add the hardware... Is there another PCI card you can swap it with? (As you don't have any spare slots)

Yeah, still on Win98.. Was thinking about making the move once I got my new hardware fitted into this tower, but thats a way off yet. I currently have no sound at all because I disconnected my OEM speakers, installed/wired in the subwoofer/amp and the 5 satellite speakers, and tried plugging all three outputs into the 3 wires in the OEM sound card...

I think this must have been wrong as I've no sound at all. i suspect one or two of the 3 connectors on the existing sound card are lines in. Therefore I either need to be looking at ANOTHER sound card with the three lines out (L,R & sub) or try and wipe my slate clean from the aborted install of this soundcard, and maybe try again.

If something can be done through BIOS that would be cool!

What happens if you install the soundcard software now without the card plugged in?

Did the original install add something to the "STARTUP" group in Start > programs. Try removing it if thats the case.

Also look in the registry, Local Machine > software > microsoft > windows > currentversion > run . for anything that maybe related to the card. Also check the same under current user > software > microsoft > windows > currentversion > run

if you see anything be very carefull and make sure its related before deleting.

because its win98, rebooting into safe mode (f8 when starting windows appears) should reveal the card in device manager. under sound video and game controllers. you can then delete it and reboot normally.

Nothing installed relating to the soundcard on start>programs, or in c:

I've just realised I had the volume on zero, so now with all the leads in the 3 ports on my OEM card, I now have subwoofer going, and L&R fronts, but no rear or centre... I need to find a another multi channel sound card I think. :(

edited to say it won't let me install the Mercury software from the CD setup.exe as "I have no Mercury audio item fitted" - i.e the soundcard.

Is it one of these setups where it uses 3.5mm jack plugs, and you have one which is centre/sub, one which is fronts and one which is rears?

And does the card specifically do these, or can the ports be used as a microphone, line-in (or out) and a L+R output?

If so, you might find you need to play about with the configuration to get the ports to do the right thing...

Rob.

Is it one of these setups where it uses 3.5mm jack plugs' date=' and you have one which is centre/sub, one which is fronts and one which is rears?

And does the card specifically do these, or can the ports be used as a microphone, line-in (or out) and a L+R output?

If so, you might find you need to play about with the configuration to get the ports to do the right thing...

Rob.[/quote']

It does have those jack-plugs yes... The card (now its out the PC) I can see has a front out and a rear out, plus the sub. I suspect that of the three plugs I shoved the three jacks from the amp/sub into, two of them are putting out a signal, i.e the sub and the fronts. But not the rears which are dead. (guess this must be a line-in on the OEM sound card... )

I have to say the sub sounds awesome compared to what I was using before. :speaker:

Do you need a surround-sound encoded audio source before the rears do anything?

Do you need a surround-sound encoded audio source before the rears do anything?

Well, I need one like this sound card I have here, with a front, rear and sub/central line out. My OEM soundcard, bolted on to the motherboard (Creative Soundblaster 128), has three holes on it, but two appear to be "outs" and the other I suspect is a "line in", or a "mic in" like there is on this soundcard that does nothing but crash my PC :(

My OEM soundcard, bolted on to the motherboard (Creative Soundblaster 128), has three holes on it, but two appear to be "outs" and the other I suspect is a "line in", or a "mic in" like there is on this soundcard that does nothing but crash my PC :(

On some sound devices, you get these but they can be configured to give surround sound output - the SB 128 isn't one of them though, so my post doesn't really have much significance...

Rob.

On some sound devices' date=' you get these but they can be configured to give surround sound output - the SB 128 isn't one of them though, so my post doesn't really have much significance...

Rob.[/quote']

I'm gonna look out for a soundcard... I bid on one at a penny on ebay last night and was almost immediately outbid despite it being at a penny for 3 days.... I'm not going further with that as I reckon the seller is getting someone else to bid up his auction! :grumpy: