I've just installed a new audio card and am having problems! HELP!

T

themovieaddict

New Member
Okay, I previously owned a 2001 Dell Dimension 8200 desktop, and when I purchased it I also bought a 5.1 speaker system with Santa Cruz audio card. Last week I bought a new HP 300 GB hard drive PC with plenty of processing speed and wasn't very familiar with audio cards and didn't realize that in order to hook up my 5.1 system I'd need to take the card from the Dell and put it in the HP.

So I opened up the Dell and got the Santa Cruz PCI card out - but attached to it was at least one wire (can't remember - may have been two) and they were connected to the CD drive of the interior of the computer.

I left the wires because I couldn't find similar ports to plug them into on the HP and I just installed the PCI card. It worked great and the speakers are working fantastic.

BUT... today I realized that I can't record any sound through my microphone. I also tried to convert a movie from Xvid format to MPEG 2 the other day, and the result was fine video-wise but it contained no audio - and I tried numerous video converters, none of which seemed to work.

The output seems to be fine but I'm wondering if those one or two wires that were attached to the PCI card before are responsible for the problems I'm having. I am a bit confused and am not too familiar with audio cards in general - I wouldn't have even installed it in my new PC to begin with until I realized the wires from my 5.1 system had nowhere to plug into on the HP. (My Santa Cruz audio card has five colored audio jacks on its exterior.)

So...basically...anyone have any advice?
 
Converting the video should have NOTHING to do with your soundcard. The problem is probably with software or codecs. As for the mic, did you try and use some front pannel or the port actually on the sound card. Mics can be picky. You have to be sure it's selected as your record device, the volume's up, etc etc...
 
The_Other_One said:
Converting the video should have NOTHING to do with your soundcard. The problem is probably with software or codecs. As for the mic, did you try and use some front pannel or the port actually on the sound card. Mics can be picky. You have to be sure it's selected as your record device, the volume's up, etc etc...
Click to expand...

Well, initially I tried to use the mic input on the front of the PC - which DID work prior to installing my Santa Cruz sound card - but all I got was static when I did playback. So then I tried the jack on the soundcard itself, but I got the same static playback.

I've made sure the volume on the mic is turned up. As I said, prior to installing this audio card my mic initially worked on the computer. But when I go to Sound Recorder Options, under the settings for microphone I only have one option: Santa Cruz. I was hoping I would have the choice of using Santa Cruz or the PC's default but it seems the default is no longer available.

That brings me to another question -- what would be the default sound card on a new computer? Because I didn't remove anything before installing Santa Cruz. There was no audio card I'm aware of already in one of the PCI slots and I don't see any sound card software installed on the PC...but before installing a new sound card was I supposed to uninstall whatever was there originally?
 
You really need to go though the bios and disable your old card. I'm wondering if you have some sort of conflict or something... Though, if you want to continue with two sound cards, just be sure the Santa Cruz is set to be the default recording card, and also be sure it's selected under RECORDING in Volume Controls. Don't just unmute it, as it must also be the selected source.

I'm really not sure what the default soundcard would be. I suspect it would be the last one inserted(IE the Santa Cruz) but I really don't mess around with two soundcards in a machine as it's rather pointless :P
 
I just spoke with HP and they told me the PC's default audio card is AC 97. I am contemplating uninstalling the Santa Cruz soundcard and just attaching the 5.1 speakers using the default audio card's ports on the back (they told me you replace the mic output, etc. with the 5.1 cables in this case and they become the output for the speakers).

I gather the AC 97 is pretty basic and is integrated - would the quality of the sound be less than that of the Santa Cruz?

Also, I don't understand why on the description for my ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Series graphics chipset it says "Supports 5.1 or 7.1 audio" - why does a graphics card need to support audio?

So many questions...I'm sorry.
 
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If you want to use the front audio or MIC ports on your PC, then you have to open up your case, and find the cords that plug into your motherboard for then(maunal comes in handy here) and plug them into the sound card instead.
 
Arm_Pit2 said:
If you want to use the front audio or MIC ports on your PC, then you have to open up your case, and find the cords that plug into your motherboard for then(maunal comes in handy here) and plug them into the sound card instead.
Click to expand...

If I keep the Santa Cruz soundcard installed I will try that, thanks for telling me how to do it - however, I'm concerned it may still not work because this evening I hooked the microphone into the mic jack on the Santa Cruz soundcard and I still got the same static as I received when I had it plugged into the front panel.
 
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