How can i reinstall my sound driver on windows xp for free

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mjw210

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Jun 2, 2010
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i have no idea what im doing, but my son has deleted my sound device some time ago and i want to install it for free - help me please?
 
Solution


Sound drivers are notoriously difficult to replace becaus ethey don't appear in the normal way in Device Manager but have a look in there anyway and check there are no items with yellow question or exclamation marks beside them. If there are, double click the entry and then click on Update driver and let the system roam the net looking for something suitable.

If that fails, click on the Details tab of the device's properties and note down the code after VEN for Vendor or manufacturer, and also for DEV for device. Go to http://www.pcidatabase.com and enter those codes into the appropriate...


Sound drivers are notoriously difficult to replace becaus ethey don't appear in the normal way in Device Manager but have a look in there anyway and check there are no items with yellow question or exclamation marks beside them. If there are, double click the entry and then click on Update driver and let the system roam the net looking for something suitable.

If that fails, click on the Details tab of the device's properties and note down the code after VEN for Vendor or manufacturer, and also for DEV for device. Go to http://www.pcidatabase.com and enter those codes into the appropriate boxes and click on Search. You'll then see some details of the device and hopefully, a link to the right driver.

When you go searching for drivers, it's best to avoid the sites that offer to scan your system - you never know what else they're looking at. It's unlikely you will ever need to pay for a driver.
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mjw210

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Jun 2, 2010
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Thu so much for that info - ive got the vendor and driver details and did what you said but after finding them its asking for chip number and chip description. Arghhh where do i find that???

Cheers
M
 


Im glad I statred by saying how awkward these drivers are but I haven't come across one that wanted that information before. You need something like Everest Home or the Belarc Adviser to get the details of the Southbridge chip. Everest is a little dated now but still available at http://www.majorgeeks.com and Belarc from their own site http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html.

Be careful at Majorgeeks and only download what you went there for and not the tempting offers.

At the end of the day on this problem, it might be better to buy a cheap PCI sound card and install that. If you do that, make sure you get one with a driver CD. In Britain I can pick one up from a store called Maplin for around £15.
 

mjw210

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Oh wow!!!!!! YOu have just made me the happiest woman ever!!! I went on to geeks site as suggested - thanks for the heads up about the tempting offers - they were everywhere. Then saw a link for intemode (aust) as im in Aust i went there and downloaded it, and ran it and IT WORKED!!!!!!!!

I did the biggest happy dance - my daughter thought it was hilarious. :)

You see my son has special needs and gets on here and does all sorts of things and whenever i take it in to get fixed- they always find other things that i have no idea what they are talking about and it costs me $400. So i was determined to do this myself.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

have a great day

M
xxx
 


Aha - Australia with the need for special upside down drivers! I see it all now. :D I'm glad you got it sorted.

Please post your future problems back here instead of paying huge amounts of money out like that - it's hardly ever necessary. I fix PCs here in the UK and the average spend of my customers over nine years is still in double figures and professionals should always look at the financial viability of a fix with costs of new machines coming down all the time.
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