P7801u XP Sound Drivers & Rancid's Fix

I can't seem to PM Rancid so I'm starting a new thread to hopefully resolve my issue.

I have XP x86 installed on a partition.

The first update rancid asks to install tells me that the service pack is newer than the update, so that doesn't install. I have XP SP3.

I then disable/enable or uninstall the UAA device and the 3 other devices pop up.

One is a modem, one is the conexant audio, the other seems to be nvidia hd audio. I have drivers for all 3.

I run the provided setup.exe file to install the conexant audio and all goes well (or I can simply tell it to install automatically since the drivers are already installed).

I then TRY to point the other hd audio device to the conexant drivers but it will not accept them.

Rancid says "for the extra HD Audio Device you will want to manually install the wisvhe5.inf file in the XP32 directory from the installer package. This will cause the device to appear as an extra Conexant HD-Audio device but it will not start. After you get the warning message the device could not be started DISABLE IT"

The conexant drivers won't work, and as soon as I point to the nvidia hd audio drivers, it installs just fine and I get no errors (BUT I lose my audio).

I never install a 2nd conexant audio device, I never get the message it cannot start. I simply disable it instead of installing the drivers.

I go into C:\DevCon and made an audiostart.bat file, the contents say "devcon restart PCI\cc_0403".

I send a shortcut to the desktop, and put it in my startup folder.

On boot, the file opens. I originally had it set to minimize, but could never see it, so to be sure it opens on boot I just have it opening in a normal window so I can be sure it's running.

Now here's the problem, the 3 devices (Modem, Conexant Audio, and Nvidia Audio) are gone. I can go through the same process I went through before to get sound, but as soon as I restart I lose the devices, and the DevCon audiostart.bat file does not seem to be helping me on startup.

Id really like to get this fixed so I don't have to reinstall drivers every time I start xp, any/all help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Craig

 

Cmon I know somebody here knows how to fix this.

 

Bump.... this should be a pretty simple fix.

Im guessing the audiostart.bat entry was meant for a different pci device (It would be a different number on the P7801u/P7805u)...

But I don't know where to go from here, someone please help...

 

It worked fine on my P7805u. I'll try and give you how I did it and see if this works for you. After getting all the "normal" devices set up I disabled the Microsoft UAA high definition audio bus in the system devices tree. Then 3 new devices show up, one is the conextant modem which you can get on windows update or install manually. Another is the conextant 221 audio which you have to install the modified INF driver that is posted to. The last is the Nvidia HDMI audio which you can install using any of the available NVidia driver sets or manually if you've already installed the Nvidia drivers and still have the install files on your C drive. After I did all that the audiostart.bat just disables the UAA high def audio bus each time the laptop is started which allows the other devices to show up, since you've already installed their drivers they should work as soon as devcon has restarted the UAA bus. It's possible the 7801u is different, what you should do is open up the UAA audio bus in system devices and check the details tab to make sure it uses the same device ID as it does on the 7811 and 7805, maybe its different and you need to alter the audiostart.bat, this is the device you need to restart on each boot.

 

The hardware Id at the bottom says PCI/VEN_8086&DEV293E&CC_0403, audiostart.bat says "devcon restart PCI\cc_0403"

When I open the audiostart.bat it doesn't seem to restart the device. I can open it while looking in device manager and nothing seems to happen in device manager. The other 3 devices don't pop up. The audiostart.bat window opens for a split second and closes, it doesn't seem to be doing anything..

 

Nevermind remind me to learn to read. If its popping up for only a split second its not working right, mine stays open for a good 45 seconds before the sound all comes up working. When you set up audiostart.bat did you create it in the same directory as devcon, and did you then shortcut it into the startup folder under C:\documents and settings\user name\start menu\programs\startup\ ?

 

No it only opens for a split second and then closes.

 

Check my post above I edited it after I re-read yours, also have you tried just running devcon from the command prompt so you can see what its doing or not doing? If the window is popping up and disappearing instantly its probably dropping an error or not running devcon at all.

 

Fixed...

Thanks for motivating me to try cmd prompt, didnt think of that.

After a bit of testing I found the audiostart.bat file needs to be in the i386 folder (Since I'm 32 bit). I thought the directions were to put the file in C:\DevCon.........

 

Yeah, I seemed to remember there was something kinda ambiguous in the directions that I figured out but could make it not work. So the audio is up and running for you now?

 

Yep that audiostart.bat file location was the problem, thank you!

 

I think you can put the batch file anywhere you like, as long as you fully qualify the path to the appropriate devcon executable. My .bat is in c:\devcon, but it calls c:\devcon\i386\devcon ...

 

I got it working, but there is still 3 disabled unknown devices, and 1 other ? devices such as;

Audio Device On High Def Audio Bus

Anyone figure them out yet?

 

The three unknown devices are the hotstart buttons, I posted a link somewhere to a "ACPI button driver" that will install a driver, but they don't actually do anything. (it's the DVD, music note and play buttons that will turn the computer on from being off in Vista, they don't work in XP as XP lacks hotstart technology). The audio device on high def audio bus is the HDMI audio for the hdmi port if I remember correctly, it's part of the nvidia drivers.

 

Big Mike, do you have the volume control in the task tray when you start XP? I seem to have to re-enable the icon everytime I start up by going into the control panel.

 

I don't have it in front of me but as I remember the volume icon doesn't appear, I always use the little slider bar on the media bar to adjust volume though so it doesn't really make much difference to me?

 

Yep I also made a shortcut to mmsys.cpl in my start menu so I can quickly adjust the sound and then the icon will appear. I also noticed that if you insert flash media and then safely remove the device, the volume icon will appear.

Ive already tried to find the cmd to "Place volume icon in taskbar" but searching yields tons of results with solutions to OTHER problems. If I can find the command then it can simply be added to run after the sound has started.

 

Thx for the tip to get to the sound properties. That shortened the steps I had to take..

 

Im getting the sound icon in the system tray to pop up on startup now..

The only thing I did that's different is I simply put devcon.exe in C:\ and my s.bat file says devcon restart PCI\cc_0403, also located in C:\. Created a shortcut, cut and pasted it into the startup folder, changed it to run minimized. Now on startup the icon appears, then goes away (as the device restarts), and then comes back and stays.

I don't know if it's related but I also have to press FN+F4 twice now to switch to external monitor. Pressing it once the laptop screen just flashes, twice goes to external output. I've always had to press it once before this setup. I'm not sure if it's because nvcpl isn't on startup, I don't remember how my last installation was setup or if this is related at all.

Just thought I'd share in case someone else wants to try and see if it works for them. It's much nicer having the sound icon there automatically.