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Dumb Shit Tech Thread '04

Started by Rev, February 07, 2004, 01:19:22 AM

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Rev

You all knew there'd be a thread like this sooner or later, so I'll bite the bullet and become the first whining bastard who doesn't know one end of a computer from the other of the new board.  Feel free to add new questions, but please, please, someone put me out of my misery here.

Probably relatively simple, but here it is:  I've just moved a sound card from my old computer to my new one, and everything appears to be fine and dandy...  Windows salutes it, drivers are installed, etc.  There is, however, a small, constant, wave input (inaudible, but visible in the volume control) which ties up the card so it's reported as being 'in use by another program' whenever I try to use it.  

Any ideas, kids?

Funky Gibbon

Check that the CD audio cable isn't plugged into somewhere it shouldn't be firstly. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is that it could be interference from something in the new machine like one of the fans.

Rats

In the volume control gizmo, if you click on options, then properties, then choose adjust volume for recording and click ok. Then uncheck the checkbox for wave/mp3. I think that might sort it out. Uncheck any boxes that are checked and you don't like the smell of.

Incredible Monkey Doctor

Quote from: "Rev"
Probably relatively simple, but here it is:  I've just moved a sound card from my old computer to my new one, and everything appears to be fine and dandy...  Windows salutes it, drivers are installed, etc.  There is, however, a small, constant, wave input (inaudible, but visible in the volume control) which ties up the card so it's reported as being 'in use by another program' whenever I try to use it.  

Any ideas, kids?

Are you on Win2k SP4? Because that fucks up DirectX and Soundcards for some programs. SP3 is fine, but you can't seem to roll back and undo this particular bit of damage.

Rev

No, I'm on '98, luddite that I am.  Ta for the suggestions, but the fucker is still being a fucker.  I suppose it could be interference from the fan, as this new computer has an extra fan near to to the PCI slots, but surely such things would have occurred to the sweating lackey who put the unit together?  Bollocks to it.  Computers are rubbish.

blue jammer

A few suggestions:

Try sticking it in a new PCI slot.

Also double check the internet for newer drivers.

What make/model is the soundcard, as I seem to remember some versions of the Soundblaster 128 range having problems not showing up, that was under Windows ME (God awful bloody operating system) so it might be the same for 98, I dunno.

XP Pro has most of the drivers already built in, might be an idea to install that?

Rev

Ta Jammer...  in my desperation, I've tried it in all of the available slots, but the results are the same.  It is a Soundblaster 128, but Windows seems to be completely fine with it, it's just that there's this unidentifiable 'noise' coming through.  I'm 'purchasing' a copy of XP as we speak...  hopefully it's got a magic wand up its sleeve that will fix the problem.

Thanks again to y'all.

Bill Oddie

Have you turn off any on-board sound in the bios?

fanny splendid

Thread hijack...

My PC turns itself off after about ten minutes. I turn it back on, and it turn itself off after about five minutes. And so it goes, each time turning itself off sooner and sooner.

Also, the hard drive connector is a slightly different size to the one in my other PC, so I can't stick the hard drive in there. Is it possible to get some kind of adapter?

Yes, I know, I should stick to Macs.

Incredible Monkey Doctor

Quote from: "fanny splendid"My PC turns itself off after about ten minutes. I turn it back on, and it turn itself off after about five minutes. And so it goes, each time turning itself off sooner and sooner.

Also, the hard drive connector is a slightly different size to the one in my other PC, so I can't stick the hard drive in there. Is it possible to get some kind of adapter?

To answer the 1st, sounds like your motherboard is shutting down to prevent CPU overheating - check your cooling fan is working ok, and get a utility if you can to monitor your CPU temperature (most motherboards have these) - if you see your CPU temperature climb, then your pc shuts off, you've got a cooling problem and need a beefier fan.

The 2nd - all IDE connections are bog standard for HDD & Floppies - are you sure you are not being a muppet?

fanny splendid

Quote from: "Incredible Monkey Doctor"The 2nd - all IDE connections are bog standard for HDD & Floppies - are you sure you are not being a muppet?

Could well be, but it seems to have extra pins either end. I'll have another look tomorrow. I suspected it might be a overheating problem. Would the fan deteriorate after a while? It still spins, and I run the computer with the case off. How easy would it be to fit another fan, as that's the best motherboard/CPU of the three PCs I have?

Incredible Monkey Doctor

Quote from: "fanny splendid"Could well be, but it seems to have extra pins either end. I'll have another look tomorrow. I suspected it might be a overheating problem. Would the fan deteriorate after a while? It still spins, and I run the computer with the case off. How easy would it be to fit another fan, as that's the best motherboard/CPU of the three PCs I have?

Make sure you don't have your IDE cables confused, theres one for the floppy drive and a separate one for HDD's, they look very similar.

Fans can go downhill, or if you've overclocked it it may just be the standard one isn't enough. Fitting a new fan is fairly easy - just make sure you get a fan that will fit over the CPU socket (there's only a few types of socket so it's not hard - PM me if you need help). Do some research on noise though - I recently built a machine and didn't check out fan noise levels first and the one I bought made a racket like my PC was a hoover. Did my research and got one waaaaaaaaay quieter.

gazzyk1ns

Re: the thread starter's problem:

Firstly, not got anything like a microphone or radio/TV card connected to your soundcard, have you? I suppose not.

Go into device manager (control panel-system-hardware tab, device manager button) and expand all trees there. if there are any black question marks on yellow backgrounds, right click and go 'properties'. You can work with several things from there, you might get some clues in the "device status" window and there are options to install/uninstall/update drivers. Even if there aren't question marks over devices then it might be worth playing about if there's stil a problem.

I would oppose Jammer's decision to move to XP, the six months I was using that were six months of being unhappy with my PC setup. If you've got problems with any devices then it'll remind you (and take action without asking) every time you start your PC so in any case I'd suggest trying to sort this out first even if you're going over to XP anyway.

Last-ditch solution might be to have an old sounblaster AWE32/64 from the local 'pooter shop for not much at all, if you just want to listen to CDs and play audio in Winamp/games then they're excellent.

Bill Oddie

Quote from: "fanny splendid"Thread hijack...

My PC turns itself off after about ten minutes. I turn it back on, and it turn itself off after about five minutes. And so it goes, each time turning itself off sooner and sooner.

What IMD said is the most likely cause, check you fan's connected / working. Failing that, the Blaster worm from a while back caused machines to shut down, try running the fix from here:

Clicky