Sound card lost after Flashing BIOS

sleepyturtle1 · Tue May 20, 2003 10:03 am

For some reason after flashing my BIOS, my sound card became an "unknown device". After several attempts to get it working, it has settled into the "Other Devices" folder in system properties as an unknown device. The error meassage is, and I quote, "This device is not working properly because the BIOS in the device is reporting the resources for the device incorrectly(Code 9.) Contact the device manufacturer to get an updated BIOS for your device."

I had the BIOS flashed because I needed the motherboard to recognize a 40 GB Hard Drive. Everything else is working just as it had before the flash with no conflicts anywhere for any other installed devices.

My sound card is an <ahem> Yamaha OPL3-Sax. There is NO support available from Yamaha for this card any more. I have the drivers and they are not being accepted for the device. They were accepted before the flash though. I have no listing in system properties for sound or audio.

My question is, How do I get the sound card to be recognized?

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Tue May 20, 2003 10:29 am

Have you cleared CMOS/loaded setup defaults after flashing? Try setting PnP OS Installed to YES.

sleepyturtle1 · Tue May 20, 2003 1:13 pm

Both have already been tried. But thanks for the reply.

Tue May 20, 2003 2:08 pm

Did you try re-flashing in the old BIOS version to see if the problem goes away?

What OS?

sleepyturtle1 · Tue May 20, 2003 2:48 pm

I can't do that. My old HD (5.1GB) was giving up the ghost quickly and the smallest HD I could find was 40 GB, which the old BIOS would not recognize at all. Now I'm kinda stuck with it. If I go back, the new 40 GB HD wouldn't be recognized and the old HD is toast. I kinda got it all done just in the nick of time. I was able to slave the old one and move files to the new one.

I'm running WinMe. Nothing in the Microsft Knowledge Database is of any help. I've tried newsgroups too. But since I got the info I needed to flash the BIOS here, I'm hoping someone can help.

Is there any way to manually assign resources to the "unknown device"? Since the BIOS is telling WinMe the wrong info, I'm hoping I can tell WinMe where it is.

Tue May 20, 2003 4:30 pm

sleepyturtle1 wrote:I can't do that. My old HD (5.1GB) was giving up the ghost quickly and the smallest HD I could find was 40 GB, which the old BIOS would not recognize at all. Now I'm kinda stuck with it. If I go back, the new 40 GB HD wouldn't be recognized

Aha! But maybe we could fix that for you, if you have no other solution.

Tue May 20, 2003 7:25 pm

What board do you have?

Tue May 20, 2003 10:15 pm

I meant as a test...

If you still have the old HD, you'd have to put that back in, unless it is so corrupt that you can't boot off it anymore.

At this point, assuming your files on the 40GB are intact and there were no errors in the ghost (or did you reload from scratch?), all I was trying to see if it was in fact the BIOS upgrade that is causing your problem.

Do you have the original driver disk for the sound card, etc...??

sleepyturtle1 · Wed May 21, 2003 2:27 am

Rainbow:It's a Chaintech motherboard.

KachiWachi: The old HD is toast. It makes these very troubling noises (bzzt-bzzt)and it won't load anything anymore. I used it as a slave for less than a week before I finally removed it for good.

The new HD was a completely fresh install. Ran FDisk and formatted it.

I never had a "disk" from Yamaha. The sound card came with the computer and all drivers were loaded at the factory. They never included any driver disk for any hardware. I do however have the drivers for it. Downloaded from Yamaha years ago, as well newer ones. I try to keep drivers for as much hardware as I can.

NickS: I truly have no other options. I can get by without the sound card, if I have to (been without one for a 1.5 months now) but I'd really like to get it back. Especially if I decide to upgrade it. I won't feel comfortable laying out money for a new one if the BIOS won't recognize the old one.

I really appreciate all the trouble you guys are going to to get the heart of this problem.

Wed May 21, 2003 10:39 am

If you would like your old BIOS patched, you can save, zip and email it to one of the moderators e.g. me. Can you be specific about which model Chaintech board you have ?

Wed May 21, 2003 3:06 pm

Please specify the Chaintech model number of your board

Chaintech should have some drivers available - tried to use them ?

sleepyturtle1 · Thu May 22, 2003 9:30 am

Denniss: If i remember correctly I got the BIOS by using the following Award BIOS string: i440EX-8671-2A69JC39C-00. As to exact model, I have no idea.

As to drivers, I didn't know a motherboard had drivers. I thought that was what the BIOS was for. What I know about BIOS could fill a thimble, I swear to God. I'll go to Chaintech and look for drivers and such
The ONLY reason I had it done in the first place was that the motherboard couldn't recognize the smallest HD I could find to replace the old one. (Old HD=4.7GB and the new one=40GB). It's an old system but it does what I need. I plan on getting a new computer in a couple of months but I'd like to keep this comp going for surfing and email. That's all my wife does with it and it would keep her happy (as long as she could also listen to the mp3s she likes). Once the prices come down a little more, I'd like to use a new computer to burn DVDs. I don't think this system could handle a DVD burner on it's own (PII-266 w/64MB RAM).

Thanks.

Thu May 22, 2003 3:04 pm

Might be a 6ESA series mainboard - have a look at your board !

Either the model number is printed onto your board or onto a small sticker on the flashrom chip

sleepyturtle1 · Thu May 22, 2003 5:16 pm

Denniss: 6ESA2. Does the 2 at the end matter?

Thu May 22, 2003 5:32 pm

How come you aren't using the on-board sound???

See here. CAUTION - The page will refresh on you after about 15-20 seconds...

Maybe that's what the Device Manager is marking with a