sonofa *#&$&@# #!@#(#@ $(@#($#*% $#**#$*#

  • Thread starter Thread starter badassmak
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badassmak

badassmak

Herbi-Whore
GRRRRRRR!!!

I hate my computer.
It is a compaq.
I bought a delta 66 today.
I installed the hardware, then the software (drivers)
Everything seemed fine.
That was then this is now.
Since that time I turned the computer off, went and basked in the glow of finally owning a really decent piece of gear...three hours later I come back, turn my computer on, I am greeted with the COMPAQ startup screen...and...thats it.
It never boots up past there!!!...Ive tried ctrl alt del...that only works right away to reboot, and does nothing more than reboot and hangup in the same spot.
Then Im stuck holding the power button in until it reboots (im amazed that works actually), or i rip the plug out hehe.

Has anyone else ever experienced this total bigassed letdown before?...if so or not so even, how the hell do I fix it ?:D

pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase help meeeeeeeeeeeeee...before i kill my compaq...
 
now that im calmer...

heres some info on my crappy compaq...
Win 98 SE
SB16 soundcard (still installed)
PII...533Mhz.
192 mb SDRAM
...hmm also the motherboard came with onboard sound...ESS, I believe I had it disabled, or maybe rather had hardware configuration select sb16 when I installed the sb card about a year ago.
As Im typing this on my roomates computer...the screen is flickering...he has a melted power supply on this computer, discovered months ago. The fan hasnt worked for about 6 months. I hope it doesnt crater when mine's down!!! Guess what brand my roomates computer is....
 
I would start by physically removing the Delta and see if the computer will boot. If so, obviously the Delta is causing some type of conflict.

If you can get it to boot with the Delta removed, go into the BIOS and make sure the onboard sound is disabled. If it isn't, disable it, reinstall the Delta and see what you get.

If the onboard sound is already disabled, try removing the SB16 and installing the Delta and see if will boot that way.

In other words, a bit of trial and error to see if you can locate the conflict. Once you determine what is causing the conflict, you can then try and work around it.

In the meantime, were the Delta drivers that you installed WDM drivers or MME? To my knowledge the Delta WDM drivers are not designed to work with Win98 or WinME. When I installed them in my WinME machine I ended up with a conflict with my video. However, the MME drivers worked just fine. If you installed the WDM dirvers, try removing them (use the Delta uninstaller program on their web site) and installing the MME drivers.

Also (I should have thought of this earlier) will the machine boot in Safe Mode? That's something you might try before removing the Delta to see if you can find the conflict in Device Manager.
 
Once you get it running with Dach's great advice try removing the SB and make sure everything is running well. Then reinstall the SB if you really want it in there.
 
hmmm thanks for the info there, I had lost total patience with this thing last night so didnt bother with the obvious trial and error right away. it seems everytime i install something new on this machine it hangs up.
Anyway, I took the delta out, and it booted right up. Im currently downloading drivers (I dont know how to check what the ones i installed were called) from midiman, but im curious, how do i check to see if my onboard is disabled in bios?...I dont even know how to get into BIOS let alone check stuff.
I would rather like to keep the sb16 for general purpose use. Unfortunately i dont have the bucks around to have a standalone DAW, so i kinda need it for my cheesy comp speakers and cheesy mic/headphones. Gaming and stuff hehe. I suppose there is a way to utilize the 66 in this manner (obviously) but then id have to get all these adapterrs to plug into it. Not something I will rule out however.
Alrighty its done!...im gonna install and see what happens...thanks guys.
 
uhhh ive tried all that...

...and it still hangs up. I managed to get into bios, and it wont actually let me disable the onboard there. At first the sb was in there as well, and the only options it would let me have was change IRQ between 3,5,10,11...and at no time has it ever shown the delta...

I have also downloaded the newest driver from midiman, which includes an uninstaller with it. I have uninstalled everything (sb 16, delta...there is no uninstaller for the onboard, not that i could find anyway, as well im positive it was removed when i put in the sb16). And it still hangs up right at the startup (it always hangs with the delta 66 in, regardless if the sb16 is in or not), in fact it hangs up so early that it wont let me into the BIOS.

When I am in device manager, the first time around, it showed the sb, as well as it showed other audio device, with an exclamation...so i checked that the drivers were not installed, i have since come to the conclusion thru various trials and errors, that this pertains to the onboard sound, so thats why i say it isnt installed.

The really interesting part i found is that in the release notes that come with the drivers i downloaded, it says to run the uninstaller, then remove the delta in the device list. However, with the card not physically in the computer, it doesnt even show the 66. As well, the release notes also state to remove a file (windows>system32>drivers>Ma_delta.drv. Not only couldnt I find this file but it doesnt exist anywhere,
except of course in the new set of drivers downloaded (which of course havnt been installed at this point).

I still havnt been able to determine which drivers have been installed...WDM or MME...but from what Ive read they dont even have WDM drivers for 98 se.

Also to note, when i first chucked it in there, the delta was placed in a slot that originally had a 56k modem in it. I never used the modem as I have cable 'net, but it came witth the comp when I bought it. So another thing I did after a while was to remove the modem from the device list too. As far as I know there is no software installed for the modem, for me too uninstall.

Well I hope my ramblings here are clear enough ye can understand them. I pretty much am really new to the whole fancy soundcards, I had originally planned to purchase a 24/96, but I saw this thing on the shelf for a couple hundred more, figured it was a deal and grabbed it up. So I guess you can say previous to this I didnt do a helluva lot of research on this, but then again I didnt think a ton of it would be required to simply install a soundcard

Ok Im done :D hehe thanks for your help, more would be appreciated soon!!! Im dying here...
 
Do you have another PCI slot that you can put the Delta in? For ex., did you try removing the SB16 and putting the Delta into the same slot that you removed the SB from?

I'm guessing there is some type of IRQ conflict - maybe with your video card. Usually changing PCI slots will cause it to load on a different IRQ, which might clear up the conflict. Since the SB16 apparently was working for you, I would start with that slot.

The fact that you have a device in device manager with an exclamation point means that Windows is recognizing something in your system, but either doesn't know what it is or doesn't have drivers for it. I'm guessing it's your onboard sound card. The fact that Windows sees it indicates it isn't disabled in the BIOS.

Bottom line the Delta 66 is a decent sound card. It's the Compaq that's a piecie of s---t. However, you should be able to get it work. And you should also be able to get it to work with your SB16. It might take some work and some patience on your part. Hang in there and we'll help you all we can.

BTW, go into Device Manager and highlight Computer and hit the Properties button. That should give you a listing of your IRQ's and what's on them. Let us know what it says.

I would also like to know what it says when the Delta is installed, but you can't boot so that could be a problem. :) You never told us whether you could boot in Safe Mode. If you can, that might help out.
 
The exclamation as mentioned means generally that the drivers are not installed properly. If you downloaded the drivers from the website for WIN98, put them where you know where to find it. Manually install the drivers from that location. If you want to check for a conflict, go to system tools, system info, components, problem devices. This will give a detailed description of the problem or conflict. By the way, Compaq SUCKS !!
 
IRQ's

My Computer>System Properties>Computer Properties;
00 - System Timer
01 - Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
02 - Programmable interrupt controller
03 - 3Com EtherLink XL TPO 10 mb Ethernet NIC (3c900b TPO)
03 - Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA)
03 - ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
04 - Communications Port (COM1)
05 - Sound Blaster AudioPCI
05 - ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI Irq Steering
06 - Standard Floppy Disk Controller
07 - ECP Printer Port (LPT1)
08 - System CMOS/real time clock
09 - SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
11 - VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
11 - VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
11 - ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
12 - PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
13 - Numeric data processor
14 - VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
14 - Primary IDE contrller (dual fifo)
15 - VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller
15 - Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)

Ok thats it.
I never could boot in safe mode, with the Delta installed.
As well in actual fact, I had 2 devices with exclamation marks on them. One was the onboard sound, (which I have since removed, its no longer in the device list), and the other, the onboard video :D, because I installed a better video card a few months ago.

Basically before I installed the Delta, the device manager always had two exclammatory devices, onboard video and sound. I figured this is normal.

And yes you are right the onboard isnt totally disabled. In fact, inside the BIOS when adjusting either the onboard sound or SB IRQ settings, each adjustment of one soundcard/chip would change the other one at the same time. As stated before the only settings were 3, 5, 10, 11, there was not disable setting for either. And the settings for both cards when I get into BIOS initially is 5.

Im going to go try swapping cards for a while in different slots, and see what happens again.

Thanks again I appreciate the help.
 
no such luck yet

Well I tried a few different swaps. So far the result is always the same. I put the card in, and the first time yes, it does boot up. But after I install the drivers, and reboot, it hangs there again. No matter which PCI slot.

So I turn the computer off and take the card out. Reboot. after the windows startup screen, without fail, the Add New Hardware Wizard pops up. PCI Multimedia Audio Device. Even though there is none, (except for the onboard).

So if then I decide to actually let it look for drivers via windows update for the phantom card (or maybe its looking for drivers for the onboard card), at which point it crashes nicely. I suspect it is looking for the onboard sound, because if I browse for the drivers, and select the directories where either the drivers for SB16 or the Delta exist, it wont find the right driver.

More and more to me it looks like a problem with the onboard ESS. I have even changed the IRQ setting in the BIOS on the onboard down to 3, to no effect. So I put it back and didn't mess with it again :D.

Maybe it wont find a driver because I removed it improperly in the device list? I have no clue really. And honestly after all this messing around am I not better off removing everything and starting rfom scratch?

I found the driver file to be the first of its kind extracted the way it does that I've ever used, and to address what stealthtech had said, there is no file to 'double-click' or open manually, as far as drivers are concerned. It extracts the files everywhere, including text files and DLL files. Then you go through the motions of running the uninstaller, search for a file that doesnt exist the first time but exists thereafter from in a different directory than it says itll be.

Im not sure what to do next, but I think I'll be looking to see if I can find drivers for the original onboard sound, at the very least.
 
OK, interesting. It boots when you first install the Delta. When it gets to Windows, do you get the found new hardware message? Is that when you install the drivers?

I'm pretty sure that when you remove the Delta and Windows tells you it found new hardware, it is finding your onboard sound card (as you guessed). The drivers for it were probably on a CD that came with your computer. Most likely you can also get them from the Compaq web site. If you can get the drivers installed properly, great. But either way, you should disable this device. If you can't do it in the BIOS, than at least diasable it in Windows (highlight it in the Device Manager and click properties, there should be a check box for something like "disable device in this profile"). Do this regardless of whether you can locate drivers for it.

OK, next question, what version drivers are you using for the Delta? I would suggest that you try other versions (they are available on the M-Audio web site). If the versions that you have are the newest, try going backwards. If they are older versions, try using the newer ones. Make sure when you go to their driver locator that you tell it you are using Win98. That way you should only be directed to their MME drivers.

Also, make sure that everytime you change a Delta driver, you use the Delta uninstall program first. Otherwise the old drivers will stay on your system and Windows will find them and reinstall.

One other thing you might try is to remove your PCI graphics card and use the onboard graphics (assuming you have the drivers for it and it is installed). This is just for diagnositic purposes to see if the Delta is conflicting with that card. As I said earlier, right now you're primarily trying to detemine where the conflict is. Once you get that, you can work on ways to fix it. It seems to me the likely candidates are the onboard sound card, or one of the graphics cards.

Good luck.
 
also tried disabling your network card.

i had problems with my usb audio on my laptop until i disabled the onboard lan and modem connections.

i had problems on my desktop with my wavecenter audio card and my 10/100 NIC until I switched to setting the IR/Q in the BIOS instead of letting windows set the interrupts for me.

i sure hope that you can get this fixed. there's nothing worse than having to return a piece of gear that you really like because your system burps it.
 
disabling onboard...

well I spent a good deal of yesterday sleeping cause i was up fort too much time tryna figure this out !!! So I havent done much since obviously. However as far as the onboard I was able to reinstall the old drivers so it wasnt wiggin out (everytime it was adding the new hardware, more on that in a moment). And in BIOS there is absolutely no setting to disable it. Its either 3, 5, 10, or 11.

So I went into the device manager again, and checked the box 'disable this in alll hardware profiles' thingy. Im not sure about other soundcards but with the ESS (onboard) there is four things to pick from to disable, disabling two things doesnt disable everything, but eventually if you click the right oe ot disables them all. Anyhow, it is disabled in the device manger then.

Reboot, whammo, it finds a new device, every freakin time i boot up. Arent we aloud to have no sound at all ?:D. Im wondering if this is gonna happen if i get the Delta running.

Anyhow sorry for the late reply, I havnt had a chance to get on anything else here, i willl today tho, as far as networking card i dont have one that i can remove as far as I know.

Thanks for the help as always.
 
What IRQ is the ESS card showing up on? I see that SB was on IRQ5, but now that you installed drivers for the ESS, what IRQ is it using?

Also, if you installed the ESS drivers properly Windows should be showing a message that "This device is working properly." If so, then the find new hardware message is probably not associated with your ESS card. I assume you are getting this without the Delta being installed. Maybe it's finding your onboard video? You might try finding drivers for that and doing the same thing you did with the ESS (i.e., install the drivers and disable the card in Windows Device Manager).

Also, you might try sending a message to Compaq support to see if they can tell you how to disable in BIOS. I wouldn't have high hopes of getting an answer though, except something like, "we don't recommend doing that."
 
5

the irq is 5, same as before, and i can change it to 3, 5, 10, or 11. Im going to try and remove everything, cept my etherlink (cause that ones a pain to reinstall as well) and start with the delta first, with everything installed onboard of course. Ill post later what happens.
 
11 - VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
11 - VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
11 - ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering

I never use USB devices and have them Disabled on my computers.
Whats the story on the double 11 - VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller? Is there a reason for this?
:cool:
 
well this computer has 4 USB ports, two in the front two in the back. The two in the back are connected directly to the mobo, and the two in the front are connected via wire to the mobo. However it looks to me like this computer came stock with all 4 USB's so Im guessing that isnt to unordinary. Anyhow thats my explanation of the USB ports, sorry I have no clue beyond that lol.

...back to card swapping...
 
A few things I'd try:

- Remove the Delta
- Remove the SB
- Download the drivers for the onboard sound - It doesn't sound like it wants to be disabled. I've run into this 'found new hardware' loop with ESS before. Make sure you have the latest and correct drivers for your delta, unzipped and in a folder you can find.
- In BIOS, disable anything to do with power management. Disable serial ports and printer ports and USB. This may not be possible in Compaq BIOS. Set the IRQ's back to auto.
- Boot to safe mode, repeatedly hit F8 just before the 'starting windows 98' and select option 3, or repeatedly hit F5 before 'starting windows 98'
- Remove all entries under 'sound video and game devices' There may be duplicates. Remove all entries under 'other devices' as well.
- Boot to windows normally and install the drivers for the onboard sound. Reboot a few times to make sure you got it right.
- Install the Delta in PCI #2 or #4 if the compaq has more than 1!
- Boot up and install the drivers for the Delta.
- Reboot and see if all is well, if so, install the SB and carry on.

If not, well let us know what happens.
 
christmas has come early...I hope :D

Well after much hoopla and grief (not to mention at least one sleepless night), I seem to have finally managed to install the Delta card without lockup.

And what I did was basically simple, I guess in hindsight I just wanted to stick it in and go, doing the least neccesary.

I removed all cards except for my ethernet card.

I downloaded all drivers neccesary, putting them nicely accesible on my desktop.

I reinstalled the video driver, then updated the video driver for the onboard sound. (leaving me with a crappy resolution but who cares this is about sound :D)

Rebooted to BIOS, tried to turn off any sound, or anything, for that matter. The only options I have ever been given was 3, 5, 10, or 11, with no options to disable, enable, or put to auto.

It was a bit tricky selecting drivers from compaq, because their autodetect didnt work. After much trial and error I guess I figured it out.

Rebooted in safe mode, removed EVERYTHING in the sound and other PCI device sections. I left the video devices as they were.

Rebooted to normal mode, installed the onboard sound drivers and updates for the sound drivers. (Yes upon rebooting after the first removal and every consecutive removal of soundrivers, the detect hardware wizard would AUTOMATICALLY detect AND install ESS software drivers)

Rebooted again.

Rebooted again. (x3 or 4)

No lockup so far.

I will attempt to install the other cards from here on out. Hopefully all goes well, otherwise I will rip some hairs out.

A couple of things to note I suppose. I left the USB devices alone as they came stock on this machine. I never noticed any double entries in safe mode either, altho in the sound devices there was at least 15 items to remove rather than the usual 4. As well I installed the Delta in slot 2 of 4 possible (counting from the top down).

All I can say is, now that I have it going, Im looking into building a standalone DAW to go with my Delta, this compaq has caused more grief than I though humanly possible. Everytime Ive installed something its gone nutty. Of course I didn't know hardly anything about digital audio before I bought it (about a year ago), and in fact I asked another salesman about my new purchase a week afterwards. He said and I quote; "Compaq? Oh yeah those are great!!!...for opening emails..."...so ya ever since then Ive kinda known.

But IT appears to work!!! Great bunch of help guys :D...thanks for your patience and imformative replies. Im taking off for holidays soon, so if I dont see yas around Merry Xmas, Happy New year all that stuff......*gets choked up, breaking into racking sobs of thankfulness*...


:rolleyes:

:D
 
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