Getting an M-Audio 2496 to work in a Dell Computer

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PhilihP

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I have a Dell 4550 computer with Windows XP home and 512 Ram. It’s been one big pain in the butt. Even the Lexmark X85 Dell sent wasn’t compatible with it and had to go back. I’ve done songs for 8 years using an old Mac computer and a 4 track recorder but with this new computer I feel like a newbie. The OEM Soundblaster sound card that came with the computer doesn’t load Soundfonts, so I ordered an Audigy from Creative that should be here this week. For now I tried installing an M-Audio 2496 that I wasn’t able to get to work the first time I tried it when the computer was new. I know the card is good. The first time it only worked partially. One of the speakers and the sub-woofer worked but the other speaker had almost no sound coming from it. So now 4 ½ months later I try it again and it doesn’t work at all. At first I couldn’t even get the computer to recognize that the card was there. I got it to install, but now I get the message: “This Device Could Not Start (Code 10). The girl from Dell tech support was no help and couldn’t even tell me what Code 10 means. And a guy there told me a few days ago that the card was incompatible and that the new Soundblaster I ordered from Creative would also be incompatible. He told me I should order it from Dell. I’m pissed off at Dell and I don’t think they know what their talking about half the time. I do not want to give them any more business. Is there any way to get this M-Audio 2496 to work? Do any of you people make your music on a regular commercial type computer like Dell or Gateway? Do you encounter problems like this?
 
i've got a 1010lt runnning on a dell 933mhz- well not totally a dell- but the mo-board and chip is from dell- (intel)- no prob- wish i could help- sorry
 
I can’t figure out why I’m having so much trouble with all of this. I had a Gateway computer that went back to Gateway. With that computer one of the speakers and the sub-woofer also worked but the other speaker had almost no sound coming from it. This is the second card, the first card did the same thing. I’m beginning to think that this thing about recording music with the computer is more of an illusion than anything else. If the new Soundblaster doesn’t work properly then I’ll have to put the old soundblaster back in and settle for something much less. The best I’ll be able to do is settle for the DX instruments in Home Studio XL, and I’m not too happy about that. The horns sound ok, but I need good strings for the song I’m doing. I can’t tell you how crazy and frustrating this whole thing has been.
Phil
 
i wouldnt expect much from a soundblaster if your tryin to record music with it- ive had zero trouble with the delta stuff
 
I have a Dell thats not even a year old and my Audiophile works perfectly.

Im guessing your problem is that you didnt download the Windows XP drivers off the m-audio website.

If you already installed the drivers that came with the Audiophile, uninstall them and install the updated ones.
 
Kremitmusic: "i wouldnt expect much from a soundblaster if your tryin to record music with it- ive had zero trouble with the delta stuff"

I don’t expect much of anything anymore. I’m so disappointed at this point that I don’t know what to do. Getting a new computer and music software seemed like a really great idea at first, and I was really excited about it, but not no more. This stuff is far from being perfected. Maybe in 5 years it’ll be safe to buy this stuff and it’ll be a joy to work with.
But not yet.
Phil
 
Clockwork:
“ Im guessing your problem is that you didnt download the Windows XP drivers off the m-audio website.”

Yes I did, no luck.
Phil
 
WTH?

I can tell you right now I have a Dell Dimension 4550 (P4 2.4) which I got earlier this year, with an Audiophile 2496, running driver version 5.10.00.0029x12 for use with Sonar 2 XL, Gigastudio, Sibelius, and Sound Forge 5 is working perfectly. As close to plug and play as I could get. Works perfectly, zero problems.

I'm not sure what to say. :\
 
I can assure you that recording with a computer is far from impossible and in most case its perfectly easy- how much expereince to you have with computers? (read: do you know what your doing) its ok if you dont- i mean, your here for help right? what are the spec on your machine- mobo, chip, etc.
if the stuff it came with doesnt even work then maybe it the whole computer should have gone back to dell
 
Welcome to SoundBlaster and their never ending stream of bugs and problems. The drivers on their web site are always incomplete, require the original CD, or some other lame-ass kluge to install them. They install a ton of Creative software toys which adds further to system instability.

I own a computer consulting business, and I REFUSE to use SB cards in any of my machines for the reasons you state above. I put Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound cards in all my machines, because they play well with others and tie their own shoes. I don't have problems with TBSC cards at all.

Dell will not support anything that doesn't come with the machine from Dell.
 
That should actually say "Dell will not attempt to support anything that does not come from Dell". They will attempt to suport their own stuff, but really can't, since all of their support people are idiots.

I still rue the day my company started buying from Dell. Thank God we do not use any sort of custom hardware. We used to buy generic clones which worked well. And yes, we bought a pile of Sound Blaster Live cards for the clones, and never had a problem with any of them.

In theory, the hardware you have should be suported by your Dell. In practice, unless you have a lot of computer knowledge or know someone who does, you can probably kiss off getting it to work in a Dell. Sorry to be blunt, but that's my take on it.
 
kremitmusic
”I can assure you that recording with a computer is far from impossible and in most case its perfectly easy- how much expereince to you have with computers? (read: do you know what your doing) its ok if you dont- i mean, your here for help right? what are the spec on your machine- mobo, chip, etc.
if the stuff it came with doesnt even work then maybe it the whole computer should have gone back to dell”

The computer has Windows XP Home, Pentium 4, 2.4GHZ, 512MB Ram, 80 Gig.
I have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing. I’ve made 10 songs on an old used MacII ci computer over the past 7 years using Musicshop MIDI software, a MIDI keyboard and a couple of tape recorders. Everything worked fine, I made my own tapes with labels and the worse problem I ever had was fixed with a restart (or two). No tech support people to call about anything. That old 1989 Mac runs 100 times better than this Dell. I’ve been in and out of this computer about 15-20 times, I’ve learned about clearing the System Event Log, The Task Manager with it’s CPU chart, Stuff playing in the background in Start>Run>Msconfig, the 4 green lights in back of the computer… I learn something new about it every time I call tech support. I have a song done on this computer right now but it needs better sounds than my MIDI keyboard or Home Studio DX instruments. I don’t have confidence in anything working right, so I rather not spend too much money and start with a soundblaster with soundfonts. I don’t know what else to do.
Phil
 
if youre dell is still under warranty id send it back and tell em forget it- why didnt you go for another mac?- just curious- i dont like macs but go with what ya know right? dell has obviously been less than helpful and it isnt doin some if its most fundamental tasks- playing media- come on!- so ship it back and try another maker- or build your own
 
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I took the soundcard out of the computer. Uninstalled the software. Restarted the computer. Turned it off. Opened up the computer and put the card back in and installed the software Delta_wmd_510027. But, the computer wanted the disc to complete the installation. So I put in the disc to finish the installation. It looked like it might just work! But, NO SOUND! Maybe I have a thing or two to learn about the computers of today. I’ll have to call tech support, not Dell, they don’t want anything to do with this soundcard. And by the way, I’ve had the computer 4 1/2 months and I’m not so sure it can be returned now. Maybe I should look into it.
Phil
 
I just installed the card with the help of tech support from M-Audio. Everything seems to be ok now but I’m not sure why one of the speakers is louder than the other. The guy said that it’s the way 5.1 surround sound speakers work. My computer won’t let me control these settings for some reason. Start>control panel>sounds and audio devices>speaker settings are greyed out??? I’ll have to look into this later. The guy was in a hurry and impatient, but he still did the best of any tech people I’ve spoken to there.

Well anyway, this is the story: The computer speakers are connected to one of the “analog outs” on the card. The microphone is connected to a behringer 602 and both the L & R “main outs” of the Behringer go into the two “analog ins” on the soundcard.

Start>control panel>double-click M Audio Delta icon to bring up the “M Audio Delta
Control Panel” click “Monitor Mixer” tab:
Turn the volumes all the way up.
Uncheck all the “mutes.”
Click “Patchbay/Router” tab and put a dot next to “Monitor Mixer”

Start>Control Panel>Sounds & Audio Devices>Audio tab:
Set the “Sound Playback” to “M Audio Delta AP Multichannel” and click on
“Volume” and see if the controls are ok. Click on “Advanced” and choose the
“Speaker Setup” which is 5.1 (This made a noticeable difference in the sound). Click
“Apply” and click “ok”
Set the “Sound Recording” to “M Audio Delta AP Multichannel”
Check the “Use only default settings” box.
Click “Apply” and click “ok” and restart the computer.

And that’s how we did it....One speaker’s louder than the other….ok…. I guess.
Phil
 
i guess im a little unclear how you have surround sound connected to the (2) analog outs of an audiophile card- what speaker set up- obvisously not pro monitors? just puter speakers right? in the deltas mixer panel is it showing the levels right- with them both at relatively similar levels?- is it one of those setup where you connect your sound card to the subwoofer and the 5 speakers connect from there? maybe theres a balance knob on it somewhere- fyi- if you hook 2 mics to the behri pan one hard left and one hard right and pull the 2 main outs in to the sound card, then set up your recording software to do 2 tracks, one from the card left in and one from the cards right in- you got to totally seperate mono tracks- maybe you knew that- if so take no offense
 
Kremitmusic: i guess im a little unclear how you have surround sound connected to the (2) analog outs of an audiophile card- what speaker set up- obvisously not pro monitors? just puter speakers right? in the deltas mixer panel is it showing the levels right- with them both at relatively similar levels?- is it one of those setup where you connect your sound card to the subwoofer and the 5 speakers connect from there? maybe theres a balance knob on it somewhere- fyi- if you hook 2 mics to the behri pan one hard left and one hard right and pull the 2 main outs in to the sound card, then set up your recording software to do 2 tracks, one from the card left in and one from the cards right in- you got to totally seperate mono tracks- maybe you knew that- if so take no offense


No offense taken. Well anyway, I just have the regular “Harman/Kardon speakers that came with the computer. There are two speakers and a sub-woofer. They are connected to the soundcard with only one line going from the soundcard to the back of the sub-woofer. From the sub-woofer, another line goes to a speaker, and another line from speaker to speaker. One of the speakers has a volume control, and the sub-woofer has it’s own volume control and a treble control. I don’t see any balance knob. In Delta’s mixer panel I have two active meters and both sides of both meters respond evenly when I tap on the mic. The tech guy told me to connect the L&R “main outs” of the behringer to the two “ins” on the soundcard. If I disconnect one, then only one side of the two meters in the delta monitor mixer responds when I tap the mic. And that’s where it stands for now.
Thanks,
Phil
 
what type of connector is going from the sound card to the sub woofer?- we may be on to somethin here
 
kremitmusic “what type of connector is going from the sound card to the sub woofer?- we may be on to somethin here”


I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “what kind of connector”, but yes we might be on to something here. I spoke to a guy from cakewalk tech support today. Unlike the guy from M Audio tech support he didn’t think that one of the speakers should be louder than the other. There’s too much of a difference between the volumes of the speakers. We went through the Home Studio settings he told me to choose M Audio Delta AP 1/2, anything other than the M Audio AP Multichannel setting. The M Audio tech guy told me to do the opposite.

Well anyway, the Cakewalk guy told me to try panning an audio track and it didn’t work. Instead of panning left and right, it just kept playing the same way. I have only ONE connection from the soundcard to the speakers (2 speakers and a sub-woofer). But I’m 90% sure I was able to pan back and forth with the soundblaster card and this one connection. He thinks I need either new speakers or an adapter to connect to BOTH of the OUTS of the card in order to get the correct sound from the speakers. All I can say is that the speaker connection to the soundcard is through an RCA adaptor plug I bought at Radio Shack. The plug going into the adaptor is a stereo plug. Could it be that the RCA adaptor is not a stereo plug?
 
I did something stupid. I was using the wrong Pan control. If I pan all the way left, the sound shuts down completely. If I pan anywhere in the center or to the right the sound returns again like before with one speakers not loud enough. I have a couple of 20 year old speakers that I was able to hook up to both "outs" of the sound card. There’s no volume controls for these so I have to put my ear to the speakers to hear any sound. It’s hard for me to tell, but it appears that the sound is coming equally from both speakers. And the pan control works correctly with the two speakers. If I pan all the way left, one speaker shuts down and the other one plays, and if I go all the way right, it reverses. This may very well be the solution to the problem. I can’t tell for sure because the volume is so low. One question before I call M-Audio tech support:

Can anyone recommend some pretty good speakers that I can hook-up to BOTH of the soundcard “outs” that aren’t too expensive and give me a good bang for my buck?

Thanks in advance,
Phil
 
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