Advent laptop audio problem

[DIYspanner]

I've got an Advent 7109A laptop

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/7109a.htm

to sort out for my family.

Having wiped the HDD, re-installed XP(S3), and installed the drivers from here

http://www.uniwill.com/UserDownload/l51ii/l51ii.php

as advised, I'm unable to get the sound.

Device Manager reports all audio is installed but going to Audio under Control Panel, all Audio options are faded out.

Any ideas?





.

 

[drnowt]

Try installing the AC '97 drivers from Realtek:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

[DIYspanner]

Thanks for that. Sadly it didn't work.

For the fun of it, I live booted from a Linux CD and it reported that there wasn't a sound mixer availabe so there was no sound availble.


I suspect that the laptops sound chip may be faulty.

 

[drnowt]

Check that the audio chip is enabled in the BIOS. You'll need to interrupt the machine when you power it on. Usually a case of pressing F1, F2 or DEL key before windows starts. It should show on screen which key you need to press.

Look for the option to enable/disable audio. You could also try resetting to defaults. I would also try updating the BIOS if all else fails.

 

[DIYspanner]

Sadly the BIOS is not that sophisticated.

There are no options for the integrated hardware.

 

[gregers]

i had the same problem on an old laptop running xp when i done a clean install,
there are programs out there that scan your computer for problems and then update/install missing bits,sorry cannot for the life of me remmember what it is called,but it cured my problem.
think it was called driver something or other

 

[Stivino]

Try Cobra. Sorry I can't find a link.
http://softarchive.net/blogs/warezblog/cobra_driver_pack_for_all_windows.817680.html
http://torrentz.eu/co/cobra+driver+pack+2012-q

Edit; found it.

 

[Igorian]

I know you've already said the audio device is listed, but do you have any other unknown devices listed in Device Manager?

 

[DIYspanner]

Thanks for the above folks.

Have tried several of the driver update programs and although they point out some outdated drivers, none point to audio related issues so if the audio chip is faulty, perhaps the update software can't identity it.

Regarding Device Manager, I can't see a mention of anything strange.

Can anyone recommend a software for identifying hardware conflicts?

 

[Igorian]

Can you list the items displayed under the audio section of device manager?

You might also need this

 

[DIYspanner]

The devies under Audio are


Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Audio Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs


None of them have an X against them.

 

[Igorian]

They are just the legacy audio drivers that XP provides. You are missing the Realtek drivers.

 

[DIYspanner]

Surely all required drivers would be included in the Audio package from

http://www.uniwill.com/UserDownload/l51ii/l51ii.php

 

[Igorian]

Have you installed all drivers, including the chipset?

If the AC97 HD drivers were installed, they would be listed under Audio, which they are not.

 

[DIYspanner]

I've installed both

WDM_A406 and WDM_R268

packages from Realtek and only have the hardware profiles I've listed above.



If I need to install further sofware then I'll take onboard any advice.