sound driver problem

basically, i'm running vista home premium x86.

i got latest drivers for soundmax, they install and work fine.

my problem is when i reboot vista installs the hd audio drivers it has which dont work over the soundmax ones so i have to reinstall right drivers to get sound. does anyone know a way round this

Let it install the other drivers then in device manager select audio devices and choose remove, that should remove the driver and stop the .inf file taking priority over the one you install from soundmax. Vista will always do this if the driver you install isn't digitally signed but it has one in it's driver base which is. I deally you should only install signed drivers, ask soundmax if they are likely to have one in the near future.

The theory behind this according to MS is a signed driver is WHQL tested and is not going to cause any system instability, whereas an unsigned driver might, it's trying in it's own way to protect you're system but if you are getting less functionality or something with the Vista native driver then it's only reasonable you would want the later one.

i see what your saying but when i uninstall the one included with vista, it automatically installs it again almost instantly, have i got to turn off plug n play in the services of msconfig to stop this?????

i have the exact same problem. i tried uninstalling soundmax, but the uninstall-program locked up.

now i'm not able to uninstall - and when i try to reinstall i get the error message "unable to compare versions. aborting"



i'm really stuck.... trying system restore now...

You might try locating and deleting the vista driver first. Drivers are usually located under...C:\Windows\System32\drivers.

Let windows install the driver that doesn't work, then bring up Divice Manager; locate your specific hardware and right click on it. Go to properties and then the Driver tab and choose the Driver Details button. This will tell you where the driver files are located. Delete the files and then uninstall the device. When the machine reboots and finds the hardware...<U>do not let windows seach the internet for drivers</U>. Instead, install the working driver you have.

One last thing, make sure that Windows Auto Update is only installing critical updates and make sure you don't reinstall the vista driver through windows update later on down the road.

Do you have onboard sound, or a sound card. Which?



If you have onboard sound, model soundchip do you have? If you don't know, what model/version is your motherboard?



If you have a sound card, what brand/model?



If you have the correct sound drivers, you could try forcing the installation (over the HD drivers) in Device Manager/Update driver by choosing Let me pick from a list of devices, and then, have disk, then pointing to the driver files.



If the driver is an .exe file, and you run it, what happens?

ok. after a system restore. i was able to reinstall the soundmax-drivers.

but now i'm still facing the same problem as russbelluk: vista installs its own audio drivers when i reboot. I get an error message saying sound-configuration has changed, and i have to reinstall soundmax. so i run the soundmax installation to repair it...



is there a way of preventing vista from doing this?

Find the Vista drivers .inf file and delete it, it wont be able to do anything with it's native drivers then. After it's installed the Vista driver look in sysinfo it should tell you what drivers are installed and where it's .inf file is, failing that get the latest version of Belarc advisor, that will give you the information you need to track down the exact .inf file containing the driver install routine. (you might have to delete any cat file associated with it ).

HI!



Thanks for the tips - this solved my problem.

I tried using belarc, but I couldn't find my drivers listed there (am i wrong?)

Instead I used an application called DriverMax. I found my HD-audio-unit listed there and some ms-.inf files with it. I weren't able to remove them all, but when I resterted my computer, instead of automatically ionstalling the drivers over my soundmax-ones, vista prompted me to search for the drivers on the web, or simply never ask me again. I chose the latter, and the reinstalled my soundmax drivers.

I then rebooted, and since then my audio is working like a charm...

I hope ms or asus (whoever creates this trouble) will fix this bug later - it was a real pain to find a solution.

So therefore, again - thanks a bunch!

Tis an absolute pleasure squire and all the more so when peeps let you know how they got on. See you around.