[vally]

Have you made any progress with the drivers that Keith posted?

[Advertisements]

My apologies for taking so long to get back. I had a few kinks to work out with my internet connection, and I have three relentless kids who seem to constantly NEED something. LOL The drivers I got from Driver Guide are:
cwos2175.zip (wasn't the right one for WinXP)
4235_nt4a.zip (was told it might work, but didn't)
DD56161.exe (still didn't work)
I have my BIOS upgrade downloaded, but have not yet been able to install it, I am hoping that will help.
I need to find out why it is telling me that my Crystal Audio is not plug and play compatible, and find out why it has not been started? and how to start it?
I will be back alot quicker now that I fixed the problem with my internet.
None of the drivers from the Dell support will work because they have none for an OptiPlex or WinXP

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 18 July 2007 - 12:32 PM.

[CrankyCheryl]

My apologies for taking so long to get back. I had a few kinks to work out with my internet connection, and I have three relentless kids who seem to constantly NEED something. LOL The drivers I got from Driver Guide are:
cwos2175.zip (wasn't the right one for WinXP)
4235_nt4a.zip (was told it might work, but didn't)
DD56161.exe (still didn't work)
I have my BIOS upgrade downloaded, but have not yet been able to install it, I am hoping that will help.
I need to find out why it is telling me that my Crystal Audio is not plug and play compatible, and find out why it has not been started? and how to start it?
I will be back alot quicker now that I fixed the problem with my internet.
None of the drivers from the Dell support will work because they have none for an OptiPlex or WinXP

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 18 July 2007 - 12:32 PM.

[CrankyCheryl]

I installed the upgrade for my BIOS, but apparently it had already received the upgrade and didn't need it. I have finally tracked down my product key for WinXP and I've been considering restoring Windows. I'm going to have to jump to the OS forum though, because WindowsXP is not in my Add Remove Program list, so it must be the base OS. I'm not sure how to do this, my old Presario had a Compaq Factory restore CD that did everthing for you. I've never used my WinXP CD and don't know what to expect. I'm going to take a look in the How-To Guides first though and see what I can find. I'll come back here before I start incase one of you guys thinks this is a bad idea and has thought of a bettter solution.
Thanx for all your help and patience so far....

[vally]

Re installing the windows Operating system my solve the problem.

But before you start make sure that you have all the drivers for the components in the computer. It is more frustrating to discover you are missing something when you are sort of paralyzed.
Check out this link It is how to repair windows without formatting the computer. Here is a quote from the description

Don't worry; Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system!

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[CrankyCheryl]

Well that was a miserable failure! Thanks for the tip with the Windows Repair, I found that as well when I looked through the How-To Tutorials. I used the repair feature and the sound is still the same. Now it's telling me that I have a corrupt/unreadable file($MftMirr) and to run the ChkDsk Utility, but the only utilities I can find are Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup?
Someone said it might help to unplug and replug in the sound card, but I'm not sure where it is or what it looks like, I'm hoping Dell or Crystal Semiconductors have pics that I can look at before I go unpluging stuff.
Thanks for hanging in.

[Retired Tech]

Click start then run, type chkdsk /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter

Restart the PC

It will take an hour to run the check and get to the desktop, do not disturb that

[CrankyCheryl]

I think I might be close to giving up. My determination is running out on fixing this problem. I ran the ChkDsk utility and the corrupt/unreadable file was better. Since the last time I tried to do a clean install of WinXP I only ended up doing a repair, today I did a full clean install and deleted and formatted the partion, but it still didn't help. I checked inside the computer and the Crystal CS4236 is integrated right into the board, it isn't something I can try to unplug and plug back in to check for a bad connection (I took the precautions to rid myself of any static electricity before touching anything insde the case). I have tried to get some sort of assistance from the manufacturer of the Crystal CS4236, but I think they only help companies that spend alot of money on thier products? I haven't heard back from them.
So, I'm still exactly where I started, it is listed as a Disabled Device even though it is set to "Enable".
I feel like I've wasted your time and maybe it some how ended up damaged or something.
If anyone has a brain wave or something and thinks of something that still might help, let me know, I will check each time I am on-line.

[vally]

I thought of telling you to buy a sound card but you don't have any slots. So I looked up for an external sound card. The prices look reasonable. Here is a link. They connect via usb.

What do you think?

[CrankyCheryl]

Sometimes I surprise even myself!! I found the reason for my problem and eventually found the solution (although I haven't been able to test the solution yet). I had been searching through forums at Dell.com and Microsoft.com because I had noticed I wasn't the only one having this problem with WinXP and the scratchy sound, and I came across an article that explained that Crystal Audio integrated sound chips are ISA 16 bit and Windows XP no longer supports it. It disables something by default that allows it to be recognized and used. So, I did a clean install of Windows ME and got my sound back. I just searched again and found this:

With 2000 or XP with service packs ISA IRQs are not enabled and ISA cards are not supported.
Crystal Audio is an ISA card.

To resolve this behavior, enable the ISA-to-PCI routing feature to allow these ISA Cards to function in the computers:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Locate and click to select the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\PCMCIA\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, click New, click DWORD Value, type DisableIsaToPciRouting in the NewValue box, and then press ENTER.
4. Click to select DisableIsaToPciRouting, click Edit, and then click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK. Thats a ZERO not an Oh
6. Quit Registry Editor.
This procedure enables PCI routing for 16-bit PC Cards aka ISA cards.

Legacy crystal Audio is ISA not PCI sound.

PC99 spec from microsoft indicates that ISA slots and therefore ISA cards are no longer supported.
Microsoft did not like dealing with older Items so it started "dropping support" for things like
SERIAL Mice, ISA cards, Parallel Ports that are ISA, Bus Mouse ports that are ISA, non plug and play
as well as Plug and play NIC, Sound, and other things ISA.

Some others have said that another parameter is needed for Orinoco ISA Wireless cards.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pcmcia\Parameters]
"IrqRouteToPciController"=dword:00000006

This I found in a Dell forum, I was planning on upgrading back to WinXP and trying it.
I will come back and let you know how it worked.
I hope this will be helpful if you come across someone else with the same\similar problem.
(To find this info, I typed "Crystal Audio ISA 16 bit, Windows XP" into the search support at dell.com and it was in the list of results...incase you need to know where the info came from before you can use it to help someone else.)
I will be back a.s.a.p. to let you know how it worked after upgrading back to XP.

[Retired Tech]

Well done

Thanks for posting it

[CrankyCheryl]

The problem is definately with WinXP, I upgraded (WinME really stinks if you're used to XP), but the registry edit info I found didn't fix the problem. I am off to search again for the right "fix-it". Now that I know the reason I'm determined once again to find the right way to fix it. I'll let you know when I find something.
Thanx to everyone so far for all the help......

[CrankyCheryl]

vally: thanx for the tip on the external sound card, I had actually thought of that if I couldn't fix the problem, I am on the hunt for an external USB Dial-up Modem (my husband just got me a Dell OptiPlex SX260 Mini-Tower w\Pentium 4 that I can't really use until I have a dial-up modem), I figured they must make other external things for a pc, but I wasn't possitive if they made an external sound card, atleast if I'm desperate enough to keep my WinXP and can't get past this, I have that option.
This PC will be for my kids when I get the new one hooked to the internet and I'm sure they'd like to have sound when they play games etc.
Thanx.

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 23 July 2007 - 02:58 PM.

[vally]

When you updated did you upgrade or reinstall xp from scratch?

From experiance if you upgrade by putting the xp disk in the computer while you are in win me. At this point you choose to upgrade DO NOT FORMAT. This way you can upgrade the windows and it will keep the drivers for isa cards. I know this from upgradeing a isa network card.

[CrankyCheryl]

Sorry for taking so long to get back, my family formed an intervention and forced me to spend some time away from the PC, LOL, who needs sunshine!! LOL
I did an upgrade from ME, it saved all my settings and I didn't have to reinstall programs, etc. I really thought it would work, but still, no sound.
Dell emailed me back, but said I'd get better assistance if I called thier support line, I want to find out if I'm going to be charged for the call before I call it though.
I have to go check my email and see id Microsoft got back to me at all. There has to be a way to fix this, I know I'm not the only person to have this problem. You'd think that since the Windows Update scans your computer to give you the latest updates that they would recognize the problem and have a fix for it that is installed with other critical updates.
I'm going to check my email and see if I've got anything from Microsoft, I'll keep you posted if I find the right fix. I'll also check back to see if anyones else had any luck.

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 29 July 2007 - 05:22 PM.