Well That Was an Ordeal

[simer4]

Alright, so, I had a rather unfortunate day today, but what the hay, I thought I would share it with you, in a short story of course, my specialty. Anyway, may the disappointment commence.

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      So, I finally get my $200 ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card on the weekend. Gripping it firmly in my hands while I rode in the car home from Memory Express, I thoroughly and excitedly read through the specifications and features, with little or no understanding from the two other occupants sitting around me. This was the day I had been waiting for my entire life.
      Bounding from the car in one stride, I ran into the house and quickly opened up the computer case. I installed it at a feverish, yet careful pace. I didn't want anything to happen to my baby, my two hundred dollar baby.
      Taking one final gander at the beautifully crafted masterpiece that found it's new home inside my rig, I kicked back in my chair, and started her up.
      "I would be happy if this would work first try," I exclaimed to my intent friend sitting next to me, waving a hand to my old card, "this one took at least three attempts."
      I watched intently as the screen flashed showing the post screen, and then the, "Loading Operating System," screen. And then, [i]bam[/i], right before my eyes, nothing, just the post screen yet again.
      "Whatever, this was bound to happen," I said with a bit of disappointment. I saw it coming at least. A few check-overs of the wiring and the settings in the BIOS, I retried the daring feat of first start with a new component. It happened again - okay, this is weird. This time, I took out the sound card - maybe that will work. And it did.
      "Crap in a hat," I breathed bending down once again to put the piece of hardware back in it's slot. Again, it crashed.
      But that was just the beginning of it. After this little ordeal, I made my way into the BIOS to check if there was something going awry. I reset the BIOS to the default settings, putting certain options to my tastes. Highlighting "Save & Exit Setup," pressing Enter, Y, and finally Enter a second time, I expected more this time.
      You know how the meme goes, "Nope, Chuck Testa." Only this time, without the card in, the OS crashed on the start-up. No way. No way this could be happening now.
      After a little more rummaging around under the motherboards hood, I had the go over to my friends for the night, disappointed that I may have fried the motherboard.
      Sunday, my dad's friend who owned an IT company came over the make his diagnosis. Software - thank goodness. A re-install of Windows 7 Ultimate was in order. No problem.
      From that point on, there were no more problems. Everything was going superb. The computer was, and still is faster than ever, and it sounds great. But it sounded better earlier today. Ordeal number two, that's your cue.
      Trying to figure out how to get the digital out to do 5.1 surround sound, a few issues were run into. First, it was only working in stereo, even though we were using a TOSLINK cable, and the audio manager was set to six channels. That wasn't that much, really, it wasn't because what happened next was the most devastating thing to have happened to me in the past few years.
      Whilst performing test tones to the right rear speaker, my twelve-hundred dollar Pioneer VSX-33TX reciever turned off. And it wouldn't turn back on. Freaking out, my dad and I tried many methods to get it working again, but to no avail - it was fried.
      Being the calm person I am, I slowly turned around and walked up stairs to my room to lie it off for a while. Shut-up, I wasn't crying. Jeez, why would you think of such a thing? I'm an adult.
      All kidding aside, side affects of the receiver's processor being a bit off were seen when we bought it back off my Aunt after selling it to them. It's days had ended.
      So, now here I am now, writing a very short story, listening to Hey Ocean! while I write; with my older receiver, of course. I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my misfortune, maybe even learned something. I learned that some technology can be a royal pain in the butt. But hey, what's new?

[arizonachris]

A day in the life. I fix these things every day, and half the time, they get returned. Most times it's either a faulty component, or a faulty user. (I don't suspect of the latter, dude)

$1,200 for a reciever? Holy crap! I have a $100 set of Logitech 5.1 speakers that work fine, along with my Realtech 7.1 sound. Eh, it's a small room, and it pumps.

Heck, last week, I got a bad, brand new, video card sent to me. another bad sound card, bad RAM, and a bad motherboard.

Just gotta take it as it comes and try not to stress out. Use the onboard, return that card, it's bad! Hope it didn't damage the motherboard. As for the Pioneer, well, there's always E Bay for another one, or a repair shop.

Oh, it's OK for a grown man to cry. I seem to do it a lot these days. (seems I listen to too much emotional music)

Did you make sure, in your frantic pace, that all the other wires didn't come loose? It sometimes happens on the motherboard, and one loose connection will mess everything up.

[simer4]

Oh yeah, don't worry, everything is back up and running again, with the sound card and all my overclocks and all, just, minus the receiver. The thing was troubled before, thus the reason we bought it back from my Aunt. All the programming that had been input into the settings mysteriously was lost, so my dad bought it back and gave it to me. Right off the bat I knew something was up seeing as I couldn't get 4.1 to be out put to my $2400 worth of four speakers and a cheap all in one subwoofer.
Luckily, I am getting a new Pioneer VSX-815 receiver and a good sub today as an early birthday present. Yay!

[jmslakings]

Sorry to hear that. I have to ask though. What the heck kind of hardware are you folks in Canada using? Installing new PC hardware nowdays is easier than ever! You should be able to take your new hardware, install it. Turn the computer on and your PC should configure everything for you. You shouldnt have to set any jumpers or mess with anything in the Bios. Thats all old school stuff. Glad to hear you got it all worked out.

[GaryG]

Turn it off, install hardware and turn it back on... Might not be good advice, especially for memory.

I'm pretty sure today's ATX motherboards/power supplies still supply limited power to some devices even though the computer might be turned "off". I always turn off the switch on the power supply and wait for all motherboard LEDs to turn off before adding or removing any hardware. I do leave the computer power plugged in to assure the computer is still grounded.

If you have no visible LEDs on the motherboard, wait a couple minutes to allow power discharge.

One more test I also do; after I've turned off the power supply switch and the LEDs are all dark ... I press the power switch and if all is well the computer will not try to start. I then know it's safe to tinker with the hardware. I also make certain that I touch bare metal on the case (with the hand not holding the expensive new whatever) before I allow the whatever being added to make physical contact; I may get a static zap but the card/memory won't.

That's the way I do it, your mileage may vary (but I hope not).

GaryG

[peterhayes]

Simer
I sympathise with you. About 3 months ago I purchased (on special) a SB X-Fi Surround 5.1 pro USB sound addon. Using Win 7 Ult 64-bit.
Installed the software and attached the module to a USB port on the mobo.
Started Windows BSOD.
Reset the BIOS still BSOD on booting.
BSOD fixed when I unplugged the sound module.
Googled the issue and there was a long convulated 'Fix" tried that - BSOD.
Not even an OS clean install fixed the issue.
But fortunately it didn't fry my amp/tuner but I still can't get this to work.
Regards
PeterH

[arizonachris]

@ Gary, you got the procedure right.

@ Peter, you have a bad card. If the board boots with out it, done deal. Either that or the PSU is not strong enough. I still say, a nice set of Logitech 5.1's and onboard rocks!

[peterhayes]

Chris - its a driver/software issue the X-Fi works fine on my old XP machine but not with Win+7.
Apparently there are some new drivers on the creative web site so I'll try them and see if the issue reoccurrs.
See http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5ec65d3675 and from Creative: http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArti ... sid=107107
Thanks for your input appreciate it.
PeterH

[arizonachris]

When Win 7 came out, Creative did this on purpose. It's well documented. They wanted every one to buy new cards. There was one guy that hacked the drivers and made them work. Creative issued a "cease and desist" order. Now, I don't know if this is a legacy card you have, or one that is "supposed" to be Win 7 compatable. At this point, either revert to onboard, or grab another card. Not sure what else to suggest.

[peterhayes]

Chris
Thanks its a usb addon module not a card and supposedly is compatible with Win 7.
Regards
pH

[arizonachris]

Ph, if the board boots without the USB card, the card is bad. Can you even get into BIOS? Make sure the USB ports are all enabled? If you can get into Windows with out the card, and you have the Windows disk, do a repair. Is there a driver disk with that USB sound drive?

[peterhayes]

Hi Chris
This is not a sound card per se it is a USB dongle - Creative have been making them for eons and they work well.
Its a "sound card" attached to your pc via USB there is no internal PCIe card.
Its their software that causes the BSOD not the USB add-on. Its easy to remove the software in safe mode.
I've just run with the new software/drivers and all is fixed no BSOD and great sound.
Thanks for the input.
PeterH