Dc7800 Audio Driver

[Autumn Pitz]

Ibought an old school HP Compaq DC7800, and decided to chuck Windows XP on it, simply for the joy of playing old school (1990s-2000s) games on it. Now, I cannot for the LIFE of me, find drivers for the video card. Windows shows it as "generic VGA adapter" which of course, it is not. I've tried downloading and installing all 4 video drivers on this site for my parameters, and each time, the install fails, saying "the hardware specified is not found".

This package contains version 1.0a of the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) high-definition audio class driver for the supported desktop models running the supported Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.For more information about this issue, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 88811, "Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver version 1.0a available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000."NOTE: This SoftPaq supersedes SoftPaq Number SP30301. However, users who did not have any installation issues with SoftPaq SP30301 do not need to install this SoftPaq (the Microsoft deliverables are the same in both SP30301 and SP32395).

This package contains the driver for the ADI High-Definition (HD) Audio CODEC in the supported desktop models and operating systems. NOTE: For important information regarding the installation of this driver, see the Prerequisites section. Users creating their own disk images must first install the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) driver before installing the ADI driver. The Microsoft UAA driver provides the necessary support for the HD audio bus used by the ADI HD audio CODEC. Users who are upgrading to this newer driver on an existing system, should ensure that the UAA driver is already installed on your system.

There is also one other quirk...that video card you have in there...if it has an HDMI port, if the previous owner didn't re-enable the onboard audio, then that would be why you don't see any audio devices needing drivers.

Yes, what happens on those old PC's is that when someone installs a video card with a HDMI port, the PC thinks not only did you install a video card, but it also thinks that you installed an audio card because of the hdmi audio chip on the video card.

Thank you VERY much. So, the HDMI was mudding things up, I enabled onboard audio again (although will remember that I have HDMI as an option in the future, in case I want to use it), installed the first driver pack you linked, rebooted, installed the second, rebooted, and lo and behold, the glorious WindowsXP startup noise almost deafened me.

After you install the driver, go to the windows control panel, Hardware and Sound>Sound>find the Soundmax control and check the box to enable multi-streaming. Restart the PC and go to the windows control panel>hardware and sound>sound>manage audio devices, and set the PC speakers as the default. You will find the sound quality to be much clearer.

Click on the driver tab. Click on Update Driver. Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, and then at the bottom of that window, select the Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.

Click on Have Disk and browse to the unzipped driver folder>iaAHCI (setup information file)>select the Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller from the list, click Next, and the driver will install.

I wanted to improve graphics performance as it was slow when using Adobe Photoshop, and did not support OpenGL. My monitor resolution (1920 x 1200) also seemed to challenge the on board graphics chip.

Fitting the FX380 was easy, but there is only one PCI-Express slot in the DC 7800, so I had to remove the original graphics adaptor, (a Silicon Image AD02-N dual pad x 16 card). As far as I can see, there is no audio function on this card.

When I rebooted the new graphics card was recognized correctly, and I was able to install the video drivers without any problem. Graphics performance was also much improved, whilst system memory was released, and I have enabled OpenGL support in Photoshop. So far so good!

I have tried to reinstall the SoundMax software from various sources, including the recovery partition, but I always receive the message "The audio driver files do not support your computer hardware".

Looking in Windows XP Device Manager and selecting Sound, Video and Game controllers, the only audio functions I can see are several "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" drivers. There are no yellow asterisks.

I have spent several hours online to an HP Chat agent, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. I even allowed the agent to take control of the machine for a while, but we still have no sound! I have also updated the system BIOS to v 1.28.

The obvious answer seems to be that I don't have the correct sound card drivers, but nobody knows what these should be. I don't even know whether I have a sound card any more, or whether the NVIDIA card has somehow taken over from the system sound card?

I can tell that your new video card has an HDMI out port because of the new nVidia HD audio that is now taking the place of your onboard audio. That is why you have no sound (unless you hook up to a TV or something).

Anyway, the fix is simple (I hope). As you know the dc7800 is a business PC and is not intended for use as a home theater and at the time of its manufacture there were no video cards with HDMI out supported in these business class desktops.

I had wondered whether the NVIDIA card provided sould output, but there was nothing. I am using a DVI cable with my iiyama monitor, which has speakers, but there ws nothing from that, and of course the headphone socket on the PC didn't work.

Given the number of PC's with onboard sound cards it might be worth making this advice more avaialble, as we have spent at least a day trying to resolve the problem, and the HP Chat people didn't know about it.

I'm sure it is hard for HP to keep up with all the changes in technology, and what happens when folks add new hardware devices to machines where that hardware was not supported (or even existed) at the time.

Out of interest, which devices would support HDMI audio? My iiyama E2607WS monitor has built in speakers, with both DVI and HDMI inputs, but I think the audio is purely analogue, so it cannot play sound from the NIVIDIA card.

For what its worth, I am a great fan of HP Compaq SFF machines. Expansion potential may be limited, but I have found them very good and reliable over ten years or more. I am currently running the DC7800 (2.66 GHZ), and have just bought a new DECADE with 3.0 GHz CPU, which is fairly quick. Now I have solved the problem with sound on the 7800 the 7900 will be getting a new graphics card very soon!

That being said, if you had an HDMI out jack on your current video card you would be able to plug it into an HDMI port on a TV or your iiyama E2607WS monitor and get digital audio,and HD video out of the HDMI port. You should be getting HD video anyway from your DVI cable. DVI is digital or HD depending on your monitor's capability. It just doesn't carry audio.

I have the exact opposite opinion of you. I am a great fan of the HP CMT versions and have had quite a few different models since the d510. I've had a d510, d530, dc7100, dc7600, and now just treated myself to an 8200 Elite CMT. I like them because they are easily expandible, and I don't have to fret too much about video cards being low profile or too much for my power supply, or the heat dissipation issues with a SFF case.

The nice thing about a SFF is you can keep it on your desk and it won't suck up as much dust off the carpet like a CMT does. But I clean out my cases twice a year and that never becomes an issue for me.

No heat issues, dead quiet needless to say, and it runs great. It also has HDMI, and I was ready to have to go into the BIOS and change the setting but I guess these new models have updated BIOS, which automatically recognize the HDMI, and I had no lost onboard audio after I installed the card. In the sound manager it showed both the Realtek onboard audio and the ATI HD audio that indicated NO HDMI cable was plugged in.

You may have to go into your control panel and select the Audio device to use and I heard there is a protocol for plugging in an HDMI cable--like you have to make sure one of the two devices are turned off and one is on, or both have to be on at the same time...I don't know. Or you plug the HDMI cable in a certain device first...At least that is what I have read. I forgot what I read.

If the driver listed is not the right version or operating system, search our driver archive for the correct version. Enter HP Compaq dc7800 into the search box above and then submit. In the results, choose the best match for your PC and operating system.

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