Sean
Okay, I've had the pc so long that various components are giving up the ghost ( I replaced the hard drive about a year ago BEFORE anything happened there ) Anyway, in the last week both the dvd writer and sound card packed up. I bought new ones and changed the dvd writer no problem, however, the sound card is giving me a headache.
The pc has an on board sound card so I was told I can just ignore it ( only that on starting up the pc I should go into the Bios and disable it ) Now when installing it, I plugged it into an open PCI slot, and then according to the instructions I'm supposed to connect an audio cable to the DVD drive. Now I was told this is only necessary if I want to listen to stuff from the dvd drive. Since I only want the sound card for the pc itself, like audio files, videos etc, I have not connected anything ( even if I wanted to, I have no cable, one was not supplied, and there is no existing one because the previous sound card is not external )
So, the problem is, when I try install the new sound card drivers, I get a message "Please plug in PCI audio Device device " . I thought of trying to plug it into another PCI slot, but good grief, I'm afraid of the force that is required to pull the thing out again.
So, any of the above make sense? Am I missing something?
AlanRatcliffe
Don't worry about the cable - that's only needed with really old PCs and ancient versions of Windows. First uninstall any software the old soundcard installed, reboot, disable the onboard audio and reboot. Then shut down again and install the new card. Not really necessary, but I follow the "safe than sorry" school of thought with PCs. In this case, the error message you got might be from software looking for the old soundcard.
UNPLUG FROM THE MAINS FIRST. </don't_sue_me_disclaimer>
You should always plug a PCI soundcard into your first PCI slot - it gets priority there. Make sure to clean out the slot and the contacts on the card (at least with compressed air, ideally with an isopropyl spray). Make sure the card seats properly when you put it in.
If the drivers are not happy installing and ask for the audio device - you probably have the wrong drivers. Get the right ones from the card manufacturer's web site, not the chip manufacturer's one.
Hope that helps. Otherwise shout... ?
