Asus M50vm Sound Issues

I finally got fed up with my pre-installed vista (been using it for about three months now, in case anyone doubted that I sincerely tried it) so I switched back to XP32.

I had some issues with the drivers, but all of them except one seemed to resolve itself (many thanks to some previous posts here).

My problem is that I've got no sound device on the system, and the two "Other Devices" in the Device Manager (marked with a yellow quetionmark), "PCI Device" and "Unknown Device" don't seem to accept the drivers I'm almost positive are the correct ones.

I've downloaded and installed the Realtek High Definition Sound Driver 2.08 but with no avail. It lets itself install (indicating that it has found compatible hardware). It complet's the installation, but after the reboot, no change has been made in the Device Manager, and no Realtek app has been started. The software seems to have installed correctly as it is listed in the add&remove, however no items are added in the start menu.

The sound worked fine in both Vista and Fedora, so I can't understand why it refuses to accept the drivers.

Under vista, the device manager listed:
-NVIDIA HDMI Audio
-Realtek High Definition Audio
-Unimodem Full-Duplex Audio Device

Neither of these three are present in my current xp.
Any idea what could be the problem?
I'll follow up any sensible suggestion, and provide any information or clarification.

 

I snagged this from Ken's review thread, might be helpful:

 

Hi Will.
Thank's but I had already read that post (it was in fact very helpful, helped me fix most driver issues). I've tried installing the nVidia HDMI Audio Driver as well, but the same thing happend there (that is, nothing happened then either).
If there is something else I'm missing please let me know.

That is, in my Device Manager -> sound, ive got:
Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy Capture Devices, Media Control Devices and Video Codecs.
No NVIDIA HDMI Audio or Realtek High Definition Audio though, and that's the thing, I can't get them to work.

 

This is driving me crazy. I'm so sure that I have the right drivers, but for some reason it just dosen't work!
One strange thing is that I get an error when trying to unistall the Realtek HD Audio Driver: hxxp://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uninsterroraf2.jpg (sorry for lack of link, I don't have the required 15 posts to upload links) after the error it goes on to unistall as if nothing was wrong.

For the "PCI Device" the Device Instance ID is:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_18931043&REV_03\3&11583659&0&D8

Hardware Id's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_18931043&REV_03
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_18931043
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&CC_040300
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&CC_0403

Compatible Id's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&REV_03
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_040300
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_0403
PCI\VEN_8086
PCI\CC_040300
PCI\CC_0403

I've seen a listing matching "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_18931043&REV_03" with the realtek driver. This however didn't work, and when I try to install the driver trough "Have Disk..." it always results in the same "The Specified Location does not contain information about your hardware".

How come fedora can identify and play music without any special driver torment, and I can't make XP accept the driver Im basically pushing down it's throat (mmm... yes, the throat seems to be the sensible choice of orifice...). Please, anyone share some wisdom!

 

Small update:
I've tried reinstalling XP. Same result. No responce from the sound card. Does anyone know of a good way to test if the harware is malfunctioning?

 

Maybe a good way to reassure if your sound card is working is if you reinstall vista onto your laptop to check if sound still doesnt register.

 

I considered doing that, but since it worked on vista and on linux just the day before I didn't do it. Good news though! After formatting and reinstalling xp windows another two times it worked just as it should! The sound of xp shutting down never was sweeter.
(Some may guess what's written between the lines here )