Unfortunately, XP does not offer the "delete driver files" check box option when uninstalling a driver like Vista and 7 do. Occasionally, when the wrong sound driver is installed, it has to be manually removed in order to get the correct driver to install. This is how you do it.
First, make sure explorer is displaying hidden folders and files by opening any folder and then Tools -> Folder Options... -> View tab -> check "Show hidden files and folders" -> Apply -> Ok
Second, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf, then View -> Details and sort by name. Scroll down to where you see oem0.inf followed by oem0.pnf then oem1.inf, oem1.pnf and so on. You will want to open each individual inf to locate which ones are for the sound drivers. Each inf will have some text commented out at the top. The top of the sound driver inf will usually look something like this:
//
// INF file for installing Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
//
When you find what you are looking for, delete the .pnf (you can delete the .inf as well, but it is unnecessary). Be sure to check all of them if more one sound driver installation has occurred. To churn through these quickly, I like to use enter, alt-f4, down, down, repeat.
Lastly, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers, then View -> Details and sort by date. There will be a large chunk of .dll's created on 8/23/2001 as well as a smaller chunk created on 4/13/2008. These can be ignored. The rest of of the dll's can be checked by their mouse hover descriptions. Again, you are looking for something similar to "[Manufacturer] High Definition Audio Driver". When you find it, delete it. Avoid deleting anything that says both "Windows" and "Audio" in it. When you are finished, go to device manager, uninstall the sound driver and then right click the computer name at the top of the tree and click "Scan for hardware changes". You should now see yellow question mark next to your audio device which means you are good to install a new audio driver. If the second driver is also no good...rinse and repeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment