After you install Windows 7 Beta 1, you may start to have some problems with your audio especially if you are on SoundMAX hardware.
I got it working after taking care of two minor problems -
ASUS P5B motherboard needed a BIOS update. You can update it easily by going to the ASUS website and downloading the ASUS BIOS UPDATE utility. It’s safe and easy.
The second thing I did was to re-install the updated beta drivers for SoundMAX hardware. You can also download the SoundMAX drivers from the ASUS website.
The windows audio drivers for SoundMAX that ship with Windows 7 Beta 1 have some serious problems.
There are a lot of drivers out there and a lot of sites trying to offer them. I advise going straight to the source. It’s free, easy and most importantly…safe.
This will resolve both the front panel microphone AC97 mode problems and the intermittent SoundMAX driver problem with Windows 7 Beta 1
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January 17th, 2009 at 9:41 am
So quick question…I’m having the same problems…I downloaded the next bios version for my Asus A8V-XE Motherboard, but I’ve never updated my bios before so do I need to burn the .bin (image file) to a cd and then insert that when I boot into my bios?
Thanks,
Nathan
January 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Doing it on the CD is the old way. You should be looking for the ASUS BIOS tools that work under windows. First, backup your BIOS using the tool, then tell the tool which file contains your new BIOS. If the file is not compatible, then it won’t let you load it. If it is, then for god sake don’t run anything at all for a few minutes and close all other processes on your system. Then let it update the bios. It will take a reboot of course, but you won’t have to go burning any cd’s or anything like that.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
HI
I have dell Dimension 4600 I installed the windows but sound drivers not found form any website… even from
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=DIM_P4_4600&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
can any one help me ……
thanks
January 19th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hello - Thanks for the challenge.
It turns out there are four different drivers for that model depending on which audio system you have in it.
Analalog Devices 1988
Creative Labs Audigy
Soundblaster Live 16bit
Soundblaster Live 24bit
Download this FREE TRIAL and you’ll know everything that’s in your computer. Then you can get the drive from Dell or anyone else that’s got a compatible one.
http://www.lavalys.com:8081/everestultimate460.exe
January 24th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Hello there.
I have a P5B and am currently running windows 7 x64
But my problem is, when i download the BIOS update tool it says that it is not compatable with my current OS.
HELP plz!
January 24th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Hello,
Happy to help. Love those questions.
First go get the free eval copy of the Everest Ultimate Edition
Make sure you’ve got the right motherboard model by checking the motherboard section within this tool.
I’ve got a straight up P5B, it’s not deluxe, extra, special, no fries, no nothing, just a plain old P5B.
On the ASUS website under the downloads section you choose “motherboards” and then “Socket 775″. I’ve got BIOS version 2001 running. I had some problems and no benefits from the two newer ones and it overclocks really nice too.
Step 1- Make absolutely sure you’ve got the correct P5B model# in hand.
Step 2- Skip the two newer updates (unless you want to try them for some reason) and go for v2001
You should be all set.
I hope that can help some people and THANKS AGAIN for the question.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I have a compaq laptop with a conexant audio chip in it and when i installed windows 7 beta, the driver disappeared and now i can’t hear any audio. i tried to fix it by finding the drivers on websites, but they didn’t work. please help!!!
January 26th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I’d need to know exactly which laptop model you’ve got there, but here’s the best way to get to what you need.
Go to this top secret site and click on the file allfiles.txt ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/
Next use the search function in your windows notepad (ctrl-f) and enter the laptop model. You could also search “conexant”.
You’ll see all the download links for all the official files that Compaq owns. You’ll be able to use the URLS in the allfiles.txt to find your download.
Let me know how it works out and some more specifics.
THANK YOU for the question!
January 29th, 2009 at 3:28 am
I have the P5P800 SE motherboard, with soundmax audio, windows media player won`t even open any media files, i`ve updated bios with a floppy and installed a newer audio driver, but it didn`t help? the wmp says “Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file” what can i do?
January 30th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Hi!
My motherboard is ASUS P5PE-VM
I’m having problems with audio drivers.
Can you help-me with links to the right Bios Update Utility and Drivers?
Thanks!
January 30th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Hello,
Thanks for the question - always happy to help out.
You want to go to the motherboard page for your motherboard and probably bookmark it - ASUS
The download page at ASUS for your mother board is HERE
Select your operating system (select vista if you’re trying to get something going on windows 7).
Download your drivers.
Best of luck and thanks for stopping by.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Hey,
I installed Windows 7 on a partition last night. I have a Compaq Presario v5000 Notebook, and it has a 64 bit processor. Does anyone know of a suitable 3rd party audio driver that may work with Windows 7 on my laptop? I looked for drivers on the HP/Compaq website, but they only have audio drivers for 32 bit operating systems.
January 31st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Thanks for the answer!
I’ve thinking about my problem and your solution. Looking the utilities at asus website for my motherboard I can find a lot of bios updates that just updates for more cpu support. I have to apply all these updates one by one and then try to install the drivers?
What difference it makes if I just update the bios to support more cpus?
Thanks for your patience and time!
February 1st, 2009 at 10:06 am
I have a P4C800 Deluxe.
First the SoundMAX-Driver from Windows 7 seemed ok, but there was no sound on speakers.
I tried 1985WDM_3630 from Asus-Homepage - this is a XP-Driver, so got Error-Message.
Installed it in Compatibility-Mode and still did not work.
Went to Device-Manager and made actualisation on above 1985WDM_3630-Driver on Harddisk.
After reboot I have Stereo-sound now.
Hope this will help anybody out there with older Asus-Boards.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:40 am
The release notes from Asus and my experience do not match. Shortly after my update, many small problems simply vanished with my installation.
Your mileage may vary, but at least get the v2001 - I do not advise the beta. I had some problems with that one.
I used to write hardware driver code for routers, I know that we always had a zillion little bug fixes in things that we never had time to document. In short, newer software tends to be better software (non-beta that is).
The big updates you’ll probably want are the sound card drivers. Try the windows 7 natives first, then update IF you need to.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:43 am
I have a msi ms-7191 motherboard, also exeriencing no sound!
I tried to install the driver here: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=215 but it cant install it.
I hope someone knows whats wrong and what I should do
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:27 am
Hello,
Thanks for the question!
That motherboard was shipped in two versions. So there’s three different sound chips you might need to support. I’d download that EVEREST System Analyzer to tell you exactly which one you’ve got inside. It’s a free trial, just use my site search on the top of this page and search ‘Everest’ and you can get the download and know for sure.
Sound Chip #1
ATI Sb450 hda audio
Sound Chip #2
Creative labs Sb live! emu10k1
Sound Chip #3
Creative labs Sb audigy
So you can download from MSI, but you don’t know which one you really need until you check it out with Everest.
You can always just try the two you haven’t tried yet.
I just hate it when companies switch components around like that and don’t change the model#. It can make life pretty tough down the road when you go to update.
February 4th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Hi! Thanks for the post D. Williams! Looks very helpful to many people! I’m experiencing the same problems, but on a Asus A8S-X board. I have the latest bios (1001) and it still isn’t working. Additionally on the ASUS website for the A8S-X i can’t see any audio drivers?
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
February 25th, 2009 at 8:58 am
i need windows 7 sound drivers any idea?
February 25th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Please tell me exactly what motherboard you are using and or the sound card. I’ll get you the correct drivers. If you have problems finding that out, please use search at the top right and find my post on Everest from Lavalsys. That will sort it out real quick and it’s a free trial.
Sound drivers on Windows 7 seem to be the biggest problem. Fortunately we can almost always find them.
Thanks!
February 26th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Hey!
I’m having the same problems with my msi K9N Diamond motherboard. I tried to download the Creative labs Sb audigy driver from http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1028&maincat_no=1 , but still dosent work:s
any idea?
Thnks!
February 26th, 2009 at 3:50 am
The Chipset for that has been discontinued by the way. Not that it wasn’t good, but your support is going to be more limited in the future. Just a heads up.
My Friends at MSI say you should: Download MSI K9N Diamon CA0106 Audigy Driver For Windows 7
February 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am
thanks!
works fine now;)
March 6th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Hi there all….looks some promising suggestions have been made with regard to Win 7 audio drivers and problems. Thanks to D. Williams for the great advice. Unfortunately, however, I am still at a loss as regards a working Win 7 driver on my Asus P5PE-VM board. No Soundmax driver seems to work. The OS says that the driver is installed, but not a peep comes through. Any help from others with a similar board will be much appreciated.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Hi I have an ASUS P4P800 SE moatherboard and i just downloaded a P4P800 SE Release BIOS 1011 from the http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us I did not updated my bios yet! I just want to know that will this work? Cuz my everest says that The typ of my BIOS is AMI System BIOS date 09/01/04 and the Video BIOS date is 10/20/03.
So I also got the Afudos BIOS update tool V2.26 !!!!
Now how do i get my bios updated? pls answer me asap cuz this audio problem freeks me out!
(”Ohh i have tha problem that is installed the W7 RC1 7048 or some like that and if i use tha default driver for my integrated card Soundmax my mic works just fine, but if i want to listen to music or watch movies i have to update it and reistall it to an old AC97′ codec but if i do so than my mic does not work just have sound)
PLS write me if bios update will solve this problem!
March 15th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I was having the same problem. i just went to control panel - devices and audio… etc then got it to search for my audio card driver from my vista partition. it prompted me to restart my system and it all worked perfectly.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:18 am
i have asus m2n-mx mobo and installed window 7 ver.7057
i have no sound at all
tried all previous drivers from vista but nothing works….
help!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:27 am
hey, i got the Foxconn 760GXK8MC motherboard and my sound wont work.
the setup.exe which worked on vista and xp wont work on windows 7.
any ideas?