Acer 6920g Vista to XP no sound/audio

I recently downgraded my Acer 6920g from Vista to XP with mixed success...the biggest problem is the sound...there isn't any. Windows XP can't/won't detect the sound card (i think it's Realtek ALC 889), I've downloaded the driver several times, but it still doesn't work. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any suggestions, please????????

 

ok first thing, go and get HWINFO32 (search for it in google) that will tell you exactly what u need it provokes the hardware id's and is very accurate. if you need any more help finding a driver post back in here and i will help you hunt it down

also this could be your driver
HERE

that should work on Vista and Windows XP 32/64

 

hi humblerob, thanks so much for responding...i installed hwinfo32 as per your suggestion, and after it analyzed my computer, it said, under the "audio" tab, "audio adapter: intel 82801HB ICH8 -High Definition Audio [B2]" and "High Definition Audio Codec: RealTek"--i then checked under "device manager" on my computer, but it still denies having a sound card...what now?

thank you for that link you sent me, i believe it is the right driver...but i've downloaded it several times and it hasn't worked...

i've been looking under google for "audio adapter: intel 82801HB ICH8 -High Definition Audio [B2]" and "High Definition Audio Codec: RealTek" with no success...can you help, please? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

 

Does it show up at all in the device manager? Or is it listed as a "Unknown Device"? If so, download and extract this (same as previously posed only on a diff mirror).

Go into the device manager and right click your laptop name at the top (the one that will open/close the entire list) and hit scan for hardware changes.

look down the list for any 'Unknown Devices'. Try to apply the drives by double clicking and selecting 'Reinstall Drivers'. Select the option to browse my computer only and look for the folder you extracted. Select the _root_ of the folder (Named: Audio Codec_Realtek_ALC268_ALC885_ALC889_v6.0.1.5582_Vistax32x64_XPx32x64) *DO NOT SELECT ANY SUBFOLDERS* and hit next.

Hopefully it will detect it.

If the above fails, a quick search on google turned up these generic drivers which list an XP version.

 

thank you all for taking time to help, thank goodness for online help forums!

the sound card isn't listed in the device manager at all...

already did the "scan for hardware changes" several times, nothing

no "unknown devices" anywhere in the list of hardware under device manager

thanks for the link to the generic drivers...but i still don't understand why my computer won't pick up the sound card...it was fine under vista, the sound card is exactly the same, and the driver that was listed under vista was labeled as being compatible with xp, too...why would it be a "generic" sound card at all?

 

Do you have devices with exclamation mark? Do you have the chipset driver installed(SMBus)?

Try the generic drivers directly from Realtek:
ftp://152.104.238.19/pc/audio/WDM_R214.exe
ftp://202.65.194.212/pc/audio/WDM_R214.exe
ftp://66.104.77.130/pc/audio/WDM_R214.exe

Caution: very slow download speed expected.

 

no devices with exclamation marks....
what's a chipset driver?
should i try to download each of the 3 drivers you suggested? or are they all links to the same driver?

 

The 3 drivers are the same, these are just mirrors. But the drivers is diffferent than the posted above, it's much more newer however it's not modified by ACER yet - it's a generic Realtek driver.

You can get the chipset driver from here, if you didn't install it already I suggest you do that first.

 

but what exactly is a chipset driver? i thought it had to do with the motherboard? not sure if my motherboard is faulty, do i still need this chipset? and are you sure the link that you pointed me to is the proper chipset driver for my laptop? or is it directly related to the sound card?

 

The Aspire 6920G has a GM965 chipset so yeah, I'm sure this is the right driver for your laptop. Normally under Vista there is no need to install the chipset, however with XP you're obligated to do so.
What is chipset driver? Don't know how to answer that because I don't know exactly . But it's related to the USBs, the audio card..basically most of the devices integrated into the motherboard.
For example, I've seen cases here in the ACER section when the USBs doesn't work because the chipset driver hasn't been installed.

 

thank you atg! i looked up "chipset driver" online, and this site gave me a good summary of what they are and what they do, in case anyone else is interested: http://www.playtool.com/pages/chipsetdrivers/chipset.html

just downloaded the chipset driver, per your suggestion, and about 10 different audio drivers (hopefully one of them will work!!! it's not a horrible thing to download too many drivers for one piece of hardware, is it? if there's a possibility that none of them will work??) and will update on my progress...

thank you for all of your help so far!

 

ok...just looked at the device manager again..there are now several things with exclamation points and question marks next to them...what does THAT mean?

"human interface devices"
! ITECIR Infrared Receiver (EC)

"? other devices"
? PCI Memory Controller
? USB Device

"system devices"
! PCI Device

any ideas?

 

Yeah.

1. IR, infrared receiver. If you won't use it I suggest you just disable this device. It will be hard(well, probably) to find a XP driver for it anyway.
2. PCI Memory controler --> Chipset driver required!
3. USB device --> Probably the webcam, your USBs are probably operating at USB 1.1 speed too. You'll need additional driver for the webcam, no idea where you can find a XP version though. Chipset driver required!

4. PCI Device --> could be the soundcard or the the modem. Do you see the modem somewhere in the Device Manager?

Just install the chipset driver as I told you an hour ago. Then try to install the Audio driver(try with the ACER version first!). Then report back.

 

sorry, i forgot to mention that i already did install the chipset driver, and those exclamation points and question marks are still there...

when i first restarted the computer after downloading the chipset driver, the installshield thing didn't show up to say that it had successfully installed anything, but then i looked at the sound device listing in device manager, and the sound card was there! it still wasn't working, i guess because the driver for the sound card itself hadn't installed yet, but at least it was found...but the yellow "!"'s and "?"'s were there, too...

so i restarted again, after downloading and installing the sound card driver from acer, and WOO-HOO!! SOUND!!! [MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS, ATG!]...but, those annoying yellow punctuation points were still there on those same devices i listed above, in addition to one that i forgot to mention earlier, "modem device on high definition audio bus"...

what do i do now?

 

Hmm...try to uninstall all the ! and ? devices(in the Device Manager rightclick on the device and select "Uninstall". Then restart and let windows reinstall them. Tell me what happened and if you have more of these ! and ? list em here. And please specify which device has the ? and which has !, these symbols mean different errors.

 

Hi, try installing this first http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SO...AA-Bus-Driver-for-High-Definition-Audio.shtml To be honest you made a rod for your own back and should have left Vista on there as it is much more superior to XP, and more fun...
Chris

 

MODEM DEVICE ON HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO BUS

The modem device is probably you modem. Also do you have a card reader on the machine, if so have you installed drivers for them.

 

to ATG: I uninstalled all of the devices that were marked with yellow exclamation points and question marks and restarted the computer and nothing happened, the device manager still looks exactly the same, with the same devices having the same yellow punctuation points:

"human interface devices"
! ITECIR Infrared Receiver (EC)

"? other devices"
? PCI Memory Controller
? USB Device
? modem device on high definition audio bus

"system devices"
! PCI Device

to chriscatt: thank you for that link...what is that download supposed to do? i already installed it, and it looks like nothing has chaged...i'm glad you like vista better than xp, and have the patience and technological knowledge to deal with it, but i don't and can't, vista has failed on me ever since i got it, and believe me, i've tried to deal with it because, exactly like you said, i didn't want to make a rod for my own back by uninstalling windows and reinstalling another version...i would not have gone down this route if i could have helped it...and i am not the only person that would rather go through all this "downgrading" from vista to xp than to stick with vista, there's a reason the "vista to xp help" thread on these online forums are always so full..i'd like to believe in the power of vista, but it just hasn't materialized for me...

to bangert: my modem? i have wifi on this computer, is that the modem? and yes, i have a card reader on here, and it's working fine, so i suppose i did install the driver for it (although i don't remember specifically doing that...but i must've, right?...

 

just encountered another problem...i just put the computer to sleep last night, instead of turning it off, and this morning, when i woke it up, the screen wouldn't turn on...it was making sounds, and the fan was spinning, and the lights on the keyboard lit up, and it sounded like the programs that i left up last night were running on the computer, but the screen remained black, so i had to manually turn off the computer by pushing the power button and then turn it back on...what up with that?

 

Hi, so what failed you, vista is as stable as XP, if not more, it has more useful tools and driver database then XP, as you have found out. All you need to do was tweak the power settings, turn off UAC, and it would been just as fast as XP. I know as I supply laptops that have vista on them for my school. Just sent out three 5920's with vista on them and all the teachers are saying they are faster than their home PC's with XP. It is known fact that Vista, since SP1, has been better than XP, especially on a high spec laptop such as yours, and has had no compatility isues with standard commercially available software. Sorry but in my opinion you are wasting your time with XP, it will soon be a dead duck

You also seem to forget that there were many people that said exactly the same thing about XP when it first came out, used it for 5 mins, didn't bother to research it and gave up too quickly, just like they seem to have done with Vista. They also didn't know, or give any time, towards setting it up correctly
Oh and win7, well we shall see it is early days yet...
Chris

 

chris, again, congratulations on getting vista to work for you, i think it's fantastic that you like it so much and have so much faith in it...i HAVE tried and tried to work with vista, i've tried to stand up for vista on this computer against the rants of my xp-loving boyfriend (and since i hate to be proven wrong by him, i held out on putting xp on here for as long as i could stand it), and it just hasn't worked for me...i don't feel like justifying my decision to downgrade, just as i'm sure you don't want to keep telling people who have switched from vista to xp that they were fools for doing it...it wasn't an easy decision, at least for me, (i tried troubleshooting all the problems i had on vista on these online forums, but the problems just kept happening anyway) but now that i've taken it, i want to move past explaining why i did it to getting it to work...sure i have xp problems now, but i had much more vista problems before, so i think i'm better off at this point...

now, instead of telling me what a bad mistake i made, maybe you can help me fix my computer? still seeing question marks and exclamation points on devices under device manager..

 

Hi, well Vista just works for me didn't have to do anthing aside from tweak it a little, I've also have put together dozens of PC's/laptops, all running Vista and I've had no complaints so far, quite the contary. You've also not said what issue you had, aside from your boyfriend ;-)

To start with, did you create a drivers and application DVD before you embarked upon your odyssey. It might be useful as some of the drivers on are compatible with XP. Let me know and maybe we can go on from there..
Chris