Realtek AC'97 Audio

[YoshiDan]

Hi. I've spent the last day and a half trying to get Windows 7 to play with my onboard Realtek card but I haven't had any luck at all. I've tried the latest drivers from windows update, the latest from Realtek's site and several older versions. In device manager the card shows, but with an exclamation point and error code 39 ("Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing."). From the system event log I get this:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP
Date:          2/01/2010 2:07:13 PM
Event ID:      219
Task Category: (212)
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Windows-Pc
Description:
The driver \Driver\ALCXWDM failed to load for the device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24D5&SUBSYS_00311025&REV_02\3&13c0b0c5&0&FD.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP" Guid="{9C205A39-1250-487D-ABD7-E831C6290539}" />
    <EventID>219</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>212</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-01-02T03:37:13.500000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>3204</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="64" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Windows-Pc</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="DriverNameLength">60</Data>
    <Data Name="DriverName">PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24D5&SUBSYS_00311025&REV_02\3&13c0b0c5&0&FD</Data>
    <Data Name="Status">3221226092</Data>
    <Data Name="FailureNameLength">15</Data>
    <Data Name="FailureName">\Driver\ALCXWDM</Data>
    <Data Name="Version">0</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Anyone have any suggestions for me before I take to it with a hammer? I've been reading through the forums and I've seen that some people have resolved the problem with updated drivers and I'm all out of ideas

 

[Crispy]

Try this Windows Vista Help: What are error codes and how can I use them? and are you sure that the Audio is enabled in the bios?

 

[YoshiDan]

Yeah the sound was working fine in XP and FreeBSD yesterday. It just doesn't want to play nice with Win 7...

 

[aem]

You said from Realtek, what about what is on offered from Acer?

The device ID 24D5, is that of Soundmax so after installing the driver, your device should say this.

http://global-download.acer.com/GDF...889&Step1=Desktop&Step2=Veriton&Step3=Veriton 5600G&OS=X01&LC=en&BC=Acer&SC=AAP_10

 

[YoshiDan]

I've already tried the drivers that Acer has available for my model on their site. Same problem with those ones. Under XP it is listed in device manager as just "Realtek AC'97 Audio"

 

[aem]

Well from "VEN_8086&DEV_24D5" 8086=Intel, 24D4=Soundmax.

Can you run the tool on Intel site. Middle bottom box with "Automatically identify and find drivers".

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx

This could tell you what u need to download.

 

[YoshiDan]

Thanks, but the intel utility wasn't a lot of help. It didn't detect my sound board, probably because it's not intel

 

[aem]

Can you screenshot your device manager for me?

 

[YoshiDan]

Ignore the PCI Simple Communications Controller, it's just a dial up modem that I haven't bothered trying to hunt down a driver for... If I uninstall the realtek ac'97 driver and delete it from my system the sound card just shows under other devices as "Multimedia Audio Controller" (obviously doesn't recognise it). If I run windows update it finds a realtek driver and installs it but that's useless as well...

 

[aem]

Ok can you confirm the hardware Id as seen in Details tab. Find it in Proptery drop down.

 

[YoshiDan]

 

[aem]

Ok with the driver you tried above (from my link). Can you unzip the download as to extract it, then search for all the .inf files that exists. Show me your result of the search.

 

[YoshiDan]

ok :s

 

[aem]

Should have do it the other way. In the Driver tab of the device in question, click "Drivers Details". Can you see the .sys files mentioned?. Do a search in the unzipped folder of the first one on the list.

 

[YoshiDan]

The .sys files in the driver details tab don't exist in the unzipped dir.. I don't have the acer driver installed right now though. I did earlier but I removed it after another failure... The one I have installed at the moment is the windows update one

 

[aem]

Well the sys file naturally wouldnt be in the acer driver folder, cos it's two different set of drivers right?

What happen when u installed the acer driver, and then do the search of the .sys files after you know what it is, after installing the acer driver? See if it show up.

 

[YoshiDan]

I just installed the acer driver again, and the driver files listed do exist in the original folder

 

[aem]

After you located that .sys file. Open the folder location, and in there should be a .inf file.

Can you do a search of "VEN_8086&DEV_24D5" in that .inf file. Screenshot the finding.

 

[YoshiDan]

 

[aem]

Nice. So this driver (with this .inf file) you said isn't correct? or is not working ??