Audio drivers for Gateway?

[colossus1958]

Does anyone know what audio drivers I need? I have a Gateway E-6610D with a Sound Blaster Audigy 4 sound card (which may or may not be working). I have been to the Intel website in an attempt to download drivers designed for the on-board integrated audio, but was unsure what was what when I got there. Too little explanation of what was required and too many "pay-me" driver finder programs. This computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate Build 6.1.7600. Please help as this is driving me insane!

 

[stormy13]

colossus1958, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Your gateway has Sigmatel for its onboard audio. Not sure what if anything is available elsewhere for Sigmatel and Windows 7, but Gateway does have a Vista driver for it,

Gateway Support - Downloads & Support Documents - Desktop / E Series / E-6610D

that should work OK. Also saw your other post and that is also why your mic isn't working. From your other thread,

The playback dialog shows the correct information: High definition audio device. Default device.

Any time you see your audio device listed as the above it means that the proper driver for it hasn't been installed and it is using just the default Windows audio driver, which provides just enough functionality to get sound but not much else.

As for the Audigy 4, if it isn't defective Creative does have Windows 7 drivers for it,

Creative Worldwide Support > Audigy 4

 

[Lemur]

When selecting the Win 7 operating system for your Gateway, there are basically no drivers listed on Gateway's site:

Gateway Support - Downloads & Support Documents - Desktop / E Series / E-6610D

Here is the driver for your Audigy 4 from Creative Labs:

Creative Worldwide Support

 

[Lemur]

Stormy, u r 2 fast!

 

[colossus1958]

I took Stormy's advice and went directly to the Gateway site mentioned. I had been loathe to download drivers marked as being for Vista but that managed to get me sound from my integrated chip. I can't what the problem is with the Audigy card, but it may just not be seated properly. At any rate the jacks appear to be misaligned. However, as mentioned, I do have sound now but still no microphone activity. The microphone is being recognized now, but when I try to configure it, the computer is not "hearing" the signal. Thanks everybody!

Any further ideas will be appreciated.

 

[alphanumeric]

If you are using the onboard sound I'd remove the Audigy add-in card, if you haven't already. That will prevent any conflicts between the two. Vise versa, disable the onboard in BIOS if you want to try the Audigy again, for the same reasons. It will prevent conflict and maybe confusion over what is what in device manger etc.

 

[Lemur]

Follow alpha's advice on disabling the onboard audio (if possible).

Did you follow my advice on installing the Audigy drivers from the following URL?

Creative Worldwide Support > Audigy 4

 

[colossus1958]

Reply to Lemur: Yes but results were unsatisfactory. I got stuck with a constant reference to my SPDIF connection (which I am not using). I finally got output results from the drivers installed from the Intel website, but my input (microphone) is still not working. I have given up on this for the moment. I'm going to study the situation a little and maybe I can either come up with my own solution or finally get fed up and take it to the "geeks" LOL

 

[alphanumeric]

One thing I have noticed with Creative is they don't seem to be in any hurry to update their drivers, even if there is a problem with the current one. They will just recommend you buy a newer card, from them of course.
Also, I don't know about the Audigy series but the sound blaster live cards were a PITA to get working in Windows 7.

 

[Lemur]

... maybe I can either come up with my own solution or finally get fed up and take it to the "geeks" LOL

Wait! We ARE the geeks!

 

[alphanumeric]

I always thought we were here to help people recover from what the Geek Squad did or didn't do to their PC.

 

[Lemur]

From your earlier post, did you reseat your audio card?

 

[stormy13]

Also, I don't know about the Audigy series but the sound blaster live cards were a PITA to get working in Windows 7.

The Audigy series shouldn't be a problem as there is a Windows 7 driver for them. I have used both an Audigy ES (same as the original Audigy only without the firewire port, and since retired) and an Audigy 4 (currently in use in my kids computer) with Windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit. As far as the driver for them goes I never used the official driver for either but used this instead,

SB Audigy Series Support Pack 3.8 (04/19/2010)

with no problems. In colossus1958's case it could be the card is bad, the PCI slot has gone bad, or a lack of proper chipset drivers. The Intel 975X chipset (according to the gateway specs for that computer) should have native Windows 7 support, but it wouldn't hurt to run the Intel update utility,

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...tProduct=Intel®+975X+Express+Chipset&lang=eng

and see if that helps with getting the Audigy to work.

As far as the Live series goes the biggest problem with them is how old they are (originally came out in 1999) and no Windows 7 (or Vista vor that matter) support, and had to use (hopefully) the last XP driver.

 

[alphanumeric]

OK, I wasn't sure about the Audigy cards. At one time I was a big Creative fan but not so much these days. Mostly because there tech support sucks and they take forever updating drivers. Yeah, the SB Live cards are old. lol I've still got one or two kicking around here somewhere. At my age my onboard sound sounds OK, I probably couldn't hear the difference anyway.