Here's something else now to have to figure out... :(

Yeah, that's the fun of Windows. ;-)
I think they're part of the Nvidia drivers installer, and cannot be uninstalled on their own, but need to be unchecked in the Nvidia drivers installer package. Wouldn't be the first time it's something like that.

But, you can try to disable the hardware that the drivers use, from device manager, and then uninstall those drivers. Or just try to disable the hardware first, see if that fixes the sound (or midi) problem.

Greetings Jord,

Well, I went to nVidia's website and downloaded the latest, greatest driver version for my card. I did the custom install deselecting the audio drivers and selecting the 'Clean install' option. Installation went well enough. I looked and the previous nVidia drivers are still there. The version numbers and dates are the same as before the new installation.

They no longer show up in the Windows uninstall utility so I will attempt to uninstall by hand. I'll keep you posted... :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

Greetings,

Ok, nVidia is REALLY starting to piss me off! :( They should stick with what they frakkin do best... VIDEO!

Seems that during my 'clean install' of the nVidia graphics driver(s) yesterday, their installer decided to DOWNGRADE my Microsoft .NET code. I had to sit through about 20 minutes of updates this morning to get it back up to where I had it.

AND... I manually uninstalled the nVidia audio drivers this morning. I shut down the PC and did a cold boot. Guess frakkin what! The frakkin drivers are installed AGAIN!

This is really pissing me off now. This is making me think about switching to ATI and scrap nVidia completely. I used to like them. Now, not so much! :( I don't use the GPU for crunching anyway, so switching will be no loss.

Nothin' like quoting my own post from yesterday... ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Just a remainder, never allow the windows installer install a Nvidia driver, that is allways a headache, skip the instalation when the windows installer ask for install a new Nvidia driver. Install Nvidia driver ONLY downloaded from the oficial Nvidia Site and allways use clean instalation.

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Guess frakkin what!

So what happens when you disable the piece of hardware that those drivers need to be loaded on? You sure you don't use HDMI, no audio anything connected to your videocard? No TV-tuner in it?

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Once upon a time I installed the NVidia audio drivers with Realtek drivers installed and had a problem with my Realtek drivers. Since then I have never installed the audio again. As for those that use HDMI to connect to their monitors, I never had any problems in not using the NVidia audio drivers. I did have to re-install the Realtek drivers again - no problem. There is a program called Driver Sweeper that would most likely cure your problems with the NVidia audio drivers. I have used this program for many years with excellent results.

1) Download and install the program. There are several sites to d/l it from, this is one of them.

http://driver-sweeper.en.softonic.com/

2) Manually uninstall all NVidia components from Programs & Features. I would suggest that you uninstall the audio drivers & PhysX first. If you are using Realtek or Creative audio drivers, I would un-install them as well.

3) Open Driver Sweeper and check NVidia DISPLAY & PHYSX boxes ,also the Realtek and Creative boxes; and run in the ANALYIZE mode first and ensure that all boxes are checked. These should include the registry entries as well. Run the clean option and recycle the machine. I always run Driver Sweeper again after the recycle to ensure that every thing is gone.

4) Run the NVidia install program using the custom option and unchecking the audio drivers. If checked the PhysX component and you did not uninstall it during step 2, don't worry, the install package will check and if it is the same or new version, if fit is it will not install it, otherwise it will. I would also ensure that the clean install box is checked.

5) Install the Realtek or Creative audio drivers.

I have found through the ages that it is best to use the custom option during NVidia installation and always do a clean install. Normally this should remove the previous version. If things go south then I always have Driver Sweeper to fall back on.

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I don't buy computers, I build them!!

Guess frakkin what!

So what happens when you disable the piece of hardware that those drivers need to be loaded on? You sure you don't use HDMI, no audio anything connected to your videocard? No TV-tuner in it?

Greetings Jord,

Nope, no HDMI or TV. The card only has VGA and DVI connectors...

Hmmm... I believe I just found the problem. Not with nVidia, but with the sound. I was looking at the back of the box, tilting it up to see the video card outputs and there was a loud static noise from my speakers. I turned them off and returned the box to its flat position. I have great sound now! I'm thinking that there may be something amiss with the connection on the MoBo. The hum is gone too and I have much greater volume than when this all started. Looks like my only option is to get a dedicated sound card and disable the MoBo sound.

Thanks Jord! :) If you hadn't asked me about the connections, I would not have figured this out. Thanks! :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Guess frakkin what!

So what happens when you disable the piece of hardware that those drivers need to be loaded on? You sure you don't use HDMI, no audio anything connected to your videocard? No TV-tuner in it?

Greetings Jord,

Nope, no HDMI or TV. The card only has VGA and DVI connectors...

Hmmm... I believe I just found the problem. Not with nVidia, but with the sound. I was looking at the back of the box, tilting it up to see the video card outputs and there was a loud static noise from my speakers. I turned them off and returned the box to its flat position. I have great sound now! I'm thinking that there may be something amiss with the connection on the MoBo. The hum is gone too and I have much greater volume than when this all started. Looks like my only option is to get a dedicated sound card and disable the MoBo sound.

Thanks Jord! :) If you hadn't asked me about the connections, I would not have figured this out. Thanks! :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

Greetings Jord,

Ok, I went and got a Sound Blaster Audigy card, installed it, Win7 decided to install drivers for it on it's own, I installed from the CD also and re-booted. Everything small worked just fine. What I mean by small is what's on the PC and small games online running in Flash player.

I play a MMO online game and that's where things went south. I was in the game for maybe 5 minutes and I lost video and got a little hum from the speakers. Don't ask me why I just lost video, I don't know, unless it is because the online game is graphically intensive.

The sound card is PCI and the video card is PCIE. I disabled the VIA and nVidia (devices) through device manager and tried again. Same thing happened.

Have you had anything like this happen and if so what did you do to remedy it? The cards driver settings are default except for the speakers which is set to 2.1, default was 7.1. I don't have the EAX enabled... yet.

Oh, I went into my BIOS to see about disabling the onboard sound, there is no setting for that. That was why I used device manager to disable the VIA and nVidia.

Other than not being able to play the MMO game, everything works fine. :|

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Oh, I went into my BIOS to see about disabling the onboard sound, there is no setting for that.

Yes, there is. BIOS->Advanced->Onboard Devices Configuration->HDA controller->disabled.

At least, according to your motherboard manual English PDF. ;-)

Try that first, please.
What's the game?

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Oh, I went into my BIOS to see about disabling the onboard sound, there is no setting for that.

Yes, there is. BIOS->Advanced->Onboard Devices Configuration->HDA controller->disabled.

At least, according to your motherboard manual English PDF. ;-)

Try that first, please.
What's the game?

Greetings Jord,

I never even thought about the HDA. I saw front panel audio and thought that was all there was. It had no Enable/Disable option.

HDA is now disabled. I looked in Device manager and the VIA driver is no longer there. The nVidia drivers still are, but they are disabled.

The online game we play is Star Trek Online. I haven't had a chance to try the game after disabling the onboard HDA. Will try it today. I also thought about looking in the game settings to see if there was a selection for a sound device.

Thanks for letting me know about the HDA option. :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

The online game we play is Star Trek Online.

You meet the minimum requirements. So if any problems, do check if the game writes an error file to its directory, or to the Windows Event Viewer (Start->Control Panel->System & Security->Administrative Tools->Event viewer, check the Windows->Applications and System logs).

Looking at the STO forums, there's plenty of reasons why you can have a crashing game, or no sound.

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The online game we play is Star Trek Online.

You meet the minimum requirements. So if any problems, do check if the game writes an error file to its directory, or to the Windows Event Viewer (Start->Control Panel->System & Security->Administrative Tools->Event viewer, check the Windows->Applications and System logs).

Looking at the STO forums, there's plenty of reasons why you can have a crashing game, or no sound.

Greetings Jord,

Ok, now I'm really getting pissed!

With everything set as I mentioned in my last post, I ran the game again just under an hour ago. About 5 minutes into it, BAM! No video and a hum coming from the speakers. I re-booted and grabbed the bull by the horns.

I uninstalled the nVidia drivers and proceeded to reinstall v320.18 nVidia graphics drivers. I did the custom install. The selection for HD Audio was not there as it was the other day when I installed. I thought, 'cool, I got this thing licked finally.'

Not so much!!!! I looked at Device manager and the frakkin drivers have been installed AGAIN! I HATE NVIDIA!!! With the frakkin onboard HDA disabled, WHY the frak would nVidia think I want their audio drivers installed? There's NOTHING for the drivers to DRIVE!!!

Oh, I looked in the Event viewer and there is nothing about the crash. The only entries I can find are for my re-boot. Nothing before that anywhere. Nothing in the game directory, at least nothing pertinent. There is an error log, but nothing about a crash.

I'm going to cool off now. :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

All right, apparently you can enable and disable the Nvidia HDMI Audio through the Nvidia Control Panel. See this EVGA FAQ. (it has a picture)

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All right, apparently you can enable and disable the Nvidia HDMI Audio through the Nvidia Control Panel. See this EVGA FAQ. (it has a picture)

Greetings Jord,

My card does not support HDMI Audio. No HDMI anything.

I'm thinking I will just have to figure out how to get the graphics drivers installed without the HD Audio drivers. The onboard is disabled. They should not install yet they do.

I'm thinking that once I get that far I can try the game again and if it still crashes my video and sound then there must be a defect with the sound card. If not, then I'm good to go... :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

My card does not support HDMI Audio. No HDMI anything.

*scratches head* ... the GT 430 ? pretty sure it should...

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-430/specifications

This one ?

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

All right, apparently you can enable and disable the Nvidia HDMI Audio through the Nvidia Control Panel. See this EVGA FAQ. (it has a picture)

Greetings Jord,

My card does not support HDMI Audio. No HDMI anything.

I'm thinking I will just have to figure out how to get the graphics drivers installed without the HD Audio drivers. The onboard is disabled. They should not install yet they do.

I'm thinking that once I get that far I can try the game again and if it still crashes my video and sound then there must be a defect with the sound card. If not, then I'm good to go... :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

As a test, remove sound card & enable onboard & see if that resolves the issue.

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Both my Asus and Zotac GT430s have HDMI.

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please look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection - HDCP

the nvidia-audio driver is only used as a more or less routing of audio to DVI/HDMI/Displayport connector afaik

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- Performance is not a simple linear function of the number of CPUs you throw at the problem. -

Greetings all,

Ok. Yes, my card does have a HDMI connector. I had to put on a different pair of glasses to see the card clearly. My monitor only supports DVI and RGB (I think that's what the old D connector was called). My monitor does not have sound capability.

NVIDIA Control Panel is not giving me any way to change HDMI settings. Not that I would have to anyway.

I wish NVIDIA would just keep its nose out of my computer components and ONLY install what I want, when I want. I DON'T want HDMI sound drivers. I do not know how to NOT have the drivers installed. If I uninstall them in Device manager and re-boot the PC, the drivers get re-installed. WITHOUT my consent! This is akin to Microsoft wanting my computer to do what they want instead of what I want.

I want nothing HDMI-wise on this PC so I can see if my new sound card is defective or not.

@ Sirius B: If I run on the onboard sound, without the card, the game does not crash my video and sound. It is only after I installed the SB card that the online game started crashing my video and sound. Actually, I'm not sure the game is doing it or what. I just had a idea: I shall try to watch something on Hulu to see if I get the same thing happening. If it happens while watching a video, perhaps the cause is the card...

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

---

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Remove sound card & use an eraser to lightly clean the contacts. Then ensure that the slot itself is free of dust. Try again & if that still cause issues, try updating the card's drivers.

I've had an Audigy2 for several years which worked brilliantly until I upgraded to Win 7, then had no end of problems until Creative provided a Win 7 driver & that 1st driver they did was problematic itself.

If after doing all that, then, I'd say it was the sound card.

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I wish NVIDIA would just keep its nose out of my computer components and ONLY install what I want, when I want. I DON'T want HDMI sound drivers. I do not know how to NOT have the drivers installed. If I uninstall them in Device manager and re-boot the PC, the drivers get re-installed. WITHOUT my consent! This is akin to Microsoft wanting my computer to do what they want instead of what I want.

I want nothing HDMI-wise on this PC so I can see if my new sound card is defective or not.

Ive used the Nvidia installer in advanced mode, and doing a clean install in which Ive not selected the HDMI audio drivers, neither the 3D options and physX, worked as intended and they were not installed even after a reboot... (on Vista and 7)
If you uninstall any driver from the device manager it is not deleted and is kept in the "driver's DB" of the OS, so it will be reinstalled as soon as windows detects the associated hardware.

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It's possible that when you have a blu-ray drive, that the Nvidia drivers need to stay installed as playing something in the drive may use the HDMI codec to decode how the music/sounds must sound. I read something about that someplace, that I can't find at this time, of course. ;-)

Anyway, it is possible that the hardware on the videocard requires that the drivers are installed all the time, but that you can enable and disable the hardware in the Nvidia control panel. Akin to BOINC asking for work for your GPU from all projects, even those that don't have a GPU application. You can't tell BOINC to stop asking these projects either, not unless you disable the whole GPU, or uninstall its drivers.

As for the Soundblaster, check in your motherboard manual that the PCI slot you plugged it into doesn't share resources with something else in your PC.
You may also want to check if the drivers you use are up-to-date. See [url=http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&subCatID=205&prodID=4847&prodName=Sound Blaster Audigy&subCatName=Audigy&CatName=Sound+Blaster&VARSET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_4847,VARSET=CategoryID:1]the SB Audigy support site[/url] for drivers. Check that I chose the correct Audigy. You may have to load in Internet Explorer, as parts of this site don't load in e.g. Pale Moon half the time.

Not saying it can't be a bad card. Also not saying it can't be a bad motherboard (connection). |-)

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