Computer folks...Sound Card question....

[vi5]

I have an HP Pavillion with Windows 98. It's only 3 years old. I recently bought a Soundblaster Live 5.1 sound card. I installed it in the PCI slot and installed the software. I also downloaded the 98 driver from the website just in case.

Everything installs fine and if I go to the list of potential drivers, Soundlaster Live 5.1 is listed on my computer. But the issue is that my computer doesn't recognize the card in the PCI slot as a Soundblaster Live 5.1. It simply lists it as "Unrecognized Multimedia PCI card".

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? Why would my computer be able to take the installation software o.k. but not recognize the card as being the make/model that it is? It recognizes that it's a multimedia sound card, so it's definitely snapped into the PCI slot correctly.

[ramapo]

1. Does it work?

n/t

[Kellanved]

2. could you be a little more specific?

1. Did you remove the old Soundcard/disabled on-Board sound ?
2. What list shows the "Live" option? Can you select the driver manually? Does it work, if you do ;-) ?
3. Did you start the computer after the hardware installation without installing the drivers? Then remove the Unrecognized Multimedia PCI card" in the Device Manager and restart the computer (let Plug 'n Pray redetect the card).

[vi5]

3. Sorry...

1)The old sound card was not in the PCI slot it was connected somehow via wire. But yes, I did remove it.
2)The driver/devices list shows the Soundblaster live option.
3)I've done ever combination of removing/replacing, installing uninstalling/searching etc.

[tarheel]

4. I believe Kellanved

probably has hit on the cause of the problem. You should look in your owners manual to see if there is a jumper on the motherboard or a setting in the BIOS to disable the onboard sound utility. This is one reason I don't like pre-built machines. Everything is integrated and proprietary, and not as straight forward as component built machines.

[trogdor]

5. My box has an Ethernet adapter built-in...

...that went tits-up on me, so now I have a card to do what the one on the motherboard was supposed to do.

Most integrated sound and video sucks big time. It's fine if you don't want to do much multimedia or games, but sooner or later, you find yourself buying upgrade cards anyway.

It's probably better to get a beefier motherboard in the first place.