More Pc Trouble

[Tater Mane]

Howdy!

Here again with more PC problems!

I recently reformatted my PC. Everything was going fine. After I installed all of my virus protection and firewall crap, I installed the drivers for my sound and video cards. Everything was working like new. I then installed the drivers for my Cyborg peripherals and tested them out. Everything worked! WOO! I was prompted to restart the computer in order for everything to work properly, so I did. Everything booted up fine, but in the process of installing Steam and all of my games, my sound stopped working. I inspected the hardware and drivers and everything was in working order, except for the fact that it didn't work >_>

Everything functions a like I have sound. For example, most Source games will give you an error message if you don't have a functional sound card. I can play any of the ones I have installed without fail.

I tried downloading the updated drivers from the Creative website, but I found out that they removed them. Seems like an intelligent thing to do, right? I eventually found the drivers on CNET, but they didn't work. I also tried rolling back the drivers, but there were no older drivers to rollback to.

I assume it has something to do with the drivers, as all of the hardware checks out. I haven't plugged or unplugged anything.

Halp?

 

[dung0beetle]

Make sure your memory and video, audio, and other cards are seated properly(pushed in all the way). While you are in there, get all the dust out. (air duster)
I am assuming that this is a desktop computer, not a laptop. If everything is seated properly, inspect the motherboard for blown capacitors, scorching, etc.

If you don't see anything like this, try updating your bios through the dell website. It does seem like a software error to me. Have a geek friend look at it.

 

[Spurks Donut]

I'm a computer tech, and usually when we see this problem, it ends up being a dead motherboard. If it's a Dell, it isn't worth replacing. They usually go for $150-$400. That's Dell for you!

If you can, check the power supply too. You can usually find a PSU tester for around $20, even on newegg.

 

[sirblood]

Before you panic too badly, have you attempted to boot in safe mode? From your description though, it doesn't sound like the computer even boots up far enough that you can even get that far.

From my experience I would say its not the power supply or the memory. I would check the Bios 1st.

Before you go out and spend money you might not have to, I would suggest doing these 'free' things... all it will cost you is a little bit of your time.

I would attempt to 'reflash' your bios with the most up to date bios update you can find. You can download the software to do it and put it on a boot disk. You WILL have to find a computer with internet access though... but since you managed to post on here , I'm guessing that's not an issue.

unplug just the hard drive, try to start up your computer and see what it does.

You could try unplugging all unneeded expansion cards and see if the computer boots. You may want to leave all the memory in though, as it doesn't sound like a memory problem.

go into the motherboard bios controls. You do this from the boot screen that displays dell or the motherboard name, usually you do this by pressing F1 or Delete (whatever it tells you to). Double check the boot sequence. I would make sure the 1st and 2nd boot options are both the hard drive.

Bad motherboards are a pain to deal with because they don't always act up, and can be very expensive to replace.

If you don't clean your computer, it couldn't hurt to give it a good cleaning at least 2 or 3 times a year.

 

[CommanderFluffy]

wall o text... not software hardware failure follow these steps.

i had a simmilar issue to this a month or so ago.. give it a through air and vaccum cleaning. pull out and clean each pci board... like video cars or exteral audio.. next try booting without harddrive or cd rom frive plugged in. depending on model you should boot fine.. i find some dells dont boot properly when the cmos battery (its a watch batter of 3 volts) is dead. also look for blackened capacitors or resistors... some resistors are really tiny.. any the size of a milimeter dont bother checking.. poped capacitor was my issue it could be yours... if you find one or more bring it to a local video refit shop for tv repair they would charge you 30-40 $ for a repair on the dammaged components. afterwards the computer should run fine.. so do those things first

1. clean it
2. reseat the ram and other cards
3. look for dammaged risistors of capacitors.
4. check cmos batter voltage with multimeter.. or buy a new one

usually bios has nothing to dowith this issue do not attampt to flash your cmos unless its the last resort cause everything else failed.

 

[TexasAggie2011]

Make sure your memory and video, audio, and other cards are seated properly(pushed in all the way). While you are in there, get all the dust out. (air duster)
I am assuming that this is a desktop computer, not a laptop. If everything is seated properly, inspect the motherboard for blown capacitors, scorching, etc.

If you don't see anything like this, try updating your bios through the dell website. It does seem like a software error to me. Have a geek friend look at it.

for some odd reason my computer (dell laptop) will do that to me anytime i've got my ipod in the docking station when i turn my computer on. second i pull it out, its fine. try unplugging any external media you might have.

 

[ninjaspartan]

this happened to me when i got it working i found out it was a virus, repartioned the whole hard drive. hope you don't have that

 

[Spawn Camp3r]

I know this seems very simple but There once was a dell at work that had some start up problems and all I had to do to fix it was unplug any attached (mainly the keyboard and mouse) items. If you are still using the standard dell keyboard/mouse try using another one. If that doesn't work then you can go about the dangerous stuff ie: BIOS and dead mobo.

PS, if you are still under any dell warranty you can receive another PC of equal or GREATER value, so look that up first before you void anything by opening it.

 

[Tater Mane]

I would like to thank everyone who offered their advice in solving my first problem. After I made this thread, I didn't turn on the computer for two days, and on the third day, I turned it on fine. I haven't had any problem since.

Odd...

ANYWAY! I updated the original post with a NEW and IMPROVED problem!

Again, I am requesting the assistance of the tech-savvy board members.

 

[Spawn Camp3r]

ok, well first of all, what sound card are you using? And what OS are you using?

also if worse comes to worse you could uninstall the drivers for it and take it out, then use on board sound if your mobo has it.

 

[Tater Mane]

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and Windows XP Professional.

Is there any other information you need?

 

[delta38]

to be honest, thats the exact same thing that happened to me. If your setup is the same as mine, and i doubt it would be, lol. you can go to your sound board thing, where you can test your speakers, and there could be a drop down box that has a list of things like, headphones, rear speakers, front speakers or somthing like that. i chose headphones and it started to work, but only the left side would work... i've never fixed the problem, but i have a temp. solution, which is just a coaxial cable or what ever they are called that goes directly into my mother board from my surround sound system, which is an expensive mofo.. idk if this really helped but it's a bit of info i could give you atleast

 

[BFDesigns]

Make sure your memory and video, audio, and other cards are seated properly(pushed in all the way). While you are in there, get all the dust out. (air duster)
I am assuming that this is a desktop computer, not a laptop. If everything is seated properly, inspect the motherboard for blown capacitors, scorching, etc.

If you don't see anything like this, try updating your bios through the dell website. It does seem like a software error to me. Have a geek friend look at it.

Jesus, what did you do, blow torch it?

 

[Tater Mane]

Plugged headphones into the mobo, works fine.

It just bothers me having a sound card that I know works and I'm unable to use it.