No Sound from ESS AudioDrive ISA
Thomas Hildebrandt
no sound comes out of the speaker jack. If I amplify it greatly, I can
hear the sound very faintly.
There are no conflicts and the drivers seem to be fine.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
--
Thomas Hildebrandt / thomash@cc
Jesse Martin
Dear Thomas....
Hopefully, you will come back and check your submission of beef with your
(faulty?) sound card and see this response.
Don't fret, you are not alone in the world. I happen to have an ESS1868
chipset card as well, and I am suffering from exactly the same symptoms
you have described above. After having picked at the problem for several
days (and losing a lot of quality SLEEP time, I might add...), I have
determined the following...
A) This problem is not caused by a resource conflict. I have re-mapped my
Windows resouces (Win98 2nd ed.) 9 million different ways with no luck.
Have also tried every combination of config settings on the card itself.
(I even hacked the Registry looking for bugs...)
B) It's not just Windows, either, as I have a PnP aware Bios and I seem to
have the same problem when I am running in DOS as well.
C) (My Biggest Beef) The reason you just barely hear sound when you turn
it all the way up? Try this simple experiment if you have the Audiodrive
DOS drivers installed on your machine.
Boot your system.
Confirm there are no conflicts in your ControL Panel/System/Device Manager
window.
(You might even hear your speakers pop like I do when Windows starts...)
...But still no sound...
From the Start button, open programs, and then MS-DOS Propmt.
Go to the directory where you Audiodrive configuration files were
installed to. (Find the ESSCFG.exe file)
Execute the ESSCFG file and verify that the real-time dos settings are the
same as your automatic settings in the Windows device manager.
Still no sound.
Here's the kicker. Execute the ESSVOL.exe file (should be in the same
place you found the ESSCFG file) with no switch to display the current
card volume settings. If you are seeing the same thing I am, you will
notice that the master volume indicator reads '0'. That's not right, is it?
Go ahead. Try typing ESSVOL /v:8 to set the master volume to something
higher than NOTHING. Doesn't work, does it? But it doesn't return an error
message either. Windows somehow takes control of the volume setting here,
but even the Audiodrive mixer (under Windows) cannot seem to raise the
volume!! What a piece of crap! And Bill Gates wonders why most of us
computer savvy types hate his guts and would like to see him in a comotose
veggie state. This 'limited compatibility' crap has just about driven me
up a wall. Screw Windows and Screw ESS as well. Do yourself a big favor
and switch to a REAL o.s., like Linux. With a little bit of willingness to
learn on your part, and a dab of aptitude, you can create your OWN ideal
o.s. that will do much more than the old WinVirus. And Creative Labs still
makes kick ass sound cards that are relatively inexpensive...
Happy computing!
P.S. If anyone from Microsoft, Inc. or ESS Technologies should read this,
I would like to issue a personal challenge to you all: how about
overlooking the F*ing profit margin now and again, and start HELPING these
people.Microsoft could have come up with a patch for this problem a LONG
time ago, but obviously if they do, someone loses a couple extra bucks at
the end of the month; so I guess us consumers will just have to suffer,
huh? And ESS is just as much to blame! They have had an official web site
now for some time, and although this particular problem has been mentioned
ALL OVER the web, there is not one single friggin comment on their site
addressing it. How's that for a grand display of Capitalism? Guess you
guys are above helping out your customers, huh? Just remember; no matter
how many third party companies you sell your piece of crap chipset to,
those companies cannot pay you if you piss off all of their customers.
Long Live C-Net.
Ciao.
--
Posted via CNET Help.com
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