Use two PCI soundcards on W7

[brreaker]

Hey! I ran into a problem, I need to be able to install a second PCI sound card, when I already have one. (I am saying I already have one because there is one integrated in the PCI-E GPU). The problem is that W7 seems to only accept the first one (GPU one) even if I uninstall the drivers for the sound on it (It has an HDMI connector for the audio).
Is there any patch or any way to make it work so that it can see both of the boards?
Note: the second sound card does not show up in device manager
Note2: on winXP both get detected (ran it with a virtual machine, both show up in device manager)
Thank you for your time!
Best regards,
BreaKer.

 

[Computer0304]

The GPU does not have a sound chip in it. It is on the motherboard.The gpu is using the motherboard chip for the sound. Have you tried installing the drivers for the sound card?

 

[brreaker]

No, this GPU seems to have its own soundcard. It comes with drivers for it and it shows up as 4 devices under device manager->sound, with the vendor ID of nVidia.
I am unable to uninstall the drivers of my soundcard, because, as said, it is not recognized by windows, it does not show up in device manager, so, when I try to install it, it tells me that no supported hardware was found on the PC and it quits the installation.
Thank you for your time!

 

[Computer0304]

You can try separately connecting the video and audio. Also, there is no reason to have two sound cards running. It may just cause slowdowns. Try installing the drivers for the sound card. Here is the driver for the card in your specs. Creative Worldwide Support > Sound Blaster Audigy SE Install the first one under drivers. If you already have it, please uninstall all components that were installed with the driver and reinstall it.

 

[brreaker]

If I may repeat myself, I am unable to install the soundcard drivers, as Windows DOES NOT recognize the physical card and it DOES NOT show up under Device Manager. I do not want to use both, I just want the SB Audigy, as it is a 5.1 soundcard. If I format and install the audigy first, then w7 does not see my GPU and I am unable to install it. I want to disable the onboard audio (I am not using the HDMI from the GPU) and use the Audigy. As under windows XP I am able to install it (it shows under Device Manager) and in w7 it does not, I can be pretty sure there is no physical problem.

I'm sorry if the text is weirdly formatted, I posted this from my phone.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Computer0304]

Can you post a picture of your full device manager?

 

[brreaker]

Of course!

I opened each of them on the Hardware IDs tab, so you can see the vendor ID and device ID.
According to pcidatabase, 10EC -> Realtek (onboard audio) and 10DE -> nVidia (so the GPU ones) and the last of them is the webcam one. I have also opened the only one appearing under Other Devices, which is the ATK0110 (Asus AI Booster)
Disabling/uninstalling the drivers for the GPU sound card does not make the Audigy appear, it just makes those High Definition Audio appear as uninstalled(Exclamation mark) / disabled

Edit: added a snapshot from a virtual machine running windows XP:

As you can see, the Creative is detected there.

Also, AIDA is unable to see it either:

Thank you for your time!

 

[ComputerGeek]

From what i found online, SB Audigy is AC97 (not High Definition) sound.

In your AIDA snapshot, what's that Windows Audio device?

/* EDIT */
And just to be clear, you're saying the XP VM was running on the same computer as Win7 we are looking at here?

 

[brreaker]

Yes, it was the same PC. And I know it should be shown like that, it just doesn't show up.
Under Windows Audio I get this:

Thank you for your time!

 

[ComputerGeek]

Don't know if it will help, but let's go on a fishing expedition and see if anything interesting shows up.

1) Tool Tip: You can use Device Manager to see how devices connect to one another. Let's see how the SB sound card connects under XP and what Windows 7 shows.

Start XP Virtual, open Device manager on the menu bar click View->Devices by Connection. Click to expand each ACPI device till you see the PCI bus. Now expand the PCI bus and devices underneath till you see the sound cards. Take a snapshot so i can interpret the sound card connections.

Do the same for Win 7. Expand the same devices that have the sound cards attached in XP. Let's see what it shows connected in Win 7 to those same devices. Take a snapshot.

2) While in windows 7, run 32- or 64- bit version of DevManView depending on if you run a 32 or 64 bit Windows OS. In DevManView, click Options
> select Show Non-Plug and Play Drivers
> Select Show Header Line
Now click Ctl-A to select all, Ctl-S to save. BEFORE saving you MUST change the file Save As type pull down menu (towards bottom of the window) to: Tab Delimited Text. Save the file and upload to your next post

/* EDIT */
p.s. 1) One thing you can do first: reinstall the chipset drivers
2) Don't make any changes but tell me: what version of BIOS are your running?

 

[brreaker]

Already reinstalled the chipset drivers, didn't help, unfortunately.
I am running, according to AIDA, BIOS AMI 1101, which appears to be about 2 years old, shouldn't I flash a new one ? (even though I doubt it will help this problem I have)

Okay, let's go and see step by step the things you asked me for ^^

1. First of all, thank you for that tip, I was not aware you could do that!
Here we go:
XP:

Windows 7:

What strikes me as rather unusual is that under XP there are more PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI bridge drivers, while under 7 there is only one. Also, the Location of said PCI Standard bridge is different on 7 than on XP.

2. I attached the txt file.

Thank you for your time!

 

[ComputerGeek]

I've only skimmed your data once so far. But went looking for one thing i was curious to find out....

Run DevManView again. Scroll down through the Device Names column until you see a line item for...... SB Audigy!

That means the SB Audigy card was detected at some earlier point in time. (Not surprising, the data shows its NOT being detected now.) The SB Audigy's driver was also installed back when it was detected. I'm not 100% how to interpret the Registry Time in DevManView's report, but, maybe, the last time Win 7 detected the SB Audigy card was back in Sept, 2013? Would that make sense? Or ring any bells? (i.e. bring back any memory of seeing it before? Or what you may have done or changed around then?)

In any case, update the BIOS next step. After update, look in DevManView again for SB Audigy. Note the column "Connected". Does it still show Connected=No? (Our goal is Connected=YES!)

 

[brreaker]

I am going to update BIOS tonight, as I am not at home atm, then update the post ^^
Yes, I do remember, this one time, I booted up my PC and w7 saw the card and asked for the drivers, I installed them, all seemed alright, it asked for the restart after the drivers were installed, I restarted, and it was gone.
Removing the drivers for it didn't seem to work.
Note: I managed to use it for a while on w7, about 1.5 years ago, and then it suddenly disappeared after a restart. I thought the card had broke, however, when I saw it on XP, I realized it was not the case.
As you see, the nVidia card shows up as active, even thought no HDMI cable is plugged in, thus not allowing w7 to find the next card (in this case, the SB) -At least from what I got till now-. I talked to the guys from Creative, they told me to talk to nVidia. I talked to nVidia, they said they are aware that a whole range of GPUs have this problem (--however, they do not even think about releasing a patch or anything--) and told me to talk to Creative. When I told them I did, they told me that the only thing they can do is change my GPU for another one, with only one condition: that it would be the exact same model. (So why the hell would they offer it, I have no idea)

Thank you for your time!

 

[brreaker]

I am terribly sorry for doubleposting, I am not sure if updating a post makes it as Unread again.
The BIOS Update did nothing..

 

[ComputerGeek]

Darn! I was hoping it would be an easy BIOS fix (I bet you did too! )

What strikes me as rather unusual is that under XP there are more PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI bridge drivers, while under 7 there is only one. Also, the Location of said PCI Standard bridge is different on 7 than on XP.

That's a good question. (p.s. just a nit: There are 2 PCI-PCI bridges listed for Win 7) But that's still a significant difference in number

There's a procedure called "Plug and Play device enumeration" (implemented via Windows + BIOS + chipset and drivers and the connected device). Don't know if any subtle difference between Windows and chip set drivers might cause the difference between XP and Win7? That's just a wild a** guess.

In any case, I have have 2 things in mind still to try. First, re-seat the card. (skimmed through the thread. Not sure if you tried before) Remove the card, then re-insert with a good push to make sure connections are tight.

If that doesn't work, give me a DevManView file from XP. Then I'll take you what i also have in mind.

 

[brreaker]

Reseating it doesn't help, unfortunately
It might be because of said differences, I honestly have no idea.
Here you got the DevManView file from xp ^^
Thank you for your time!

 

[ComputerGeek]

Ooops! I just downloaded the XP DevManView. Looks like you forgot to select all (only one device is listed in the report).

No prob (done that myself, before!). Run again and Ctl-A to select All before saving. Thanks!

 

[brreaker]

You are right! I'm sorry! It slipped my mind! Here you go! sorry once again!
Thank you for your time!

 

[ComputerGeek]

Hmmmm, new thought.... Go into BIOS. Check setting options for Integrated or Onboard Audio. What are the options? How do you have it set? Let's also make sure it's not a BIOS settings issue

 

[brreaker]

The settings I have for the onboard Audio are Enabled and Disabled. If I disable it, I get into windows with no sound at all, the pci one is still not detected...
Thank you for your time!