How To Find The Audio Controller In A Motherboard Without Seeing The Audio Chip?
July 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Audio Video
I tried to install the audio driver given in the motherboard CD. But it is not installed. Is there any device manager to find out the controller chips in the motherboard?
Audio cards talk to the processor normally through the PCI bus (outboard) and through the I/O Controller. There is no destinct processor to device controller, such as with Video that might have an “Intel 82865GPEP Processor tp AGP Controller” (in the case of a Dell Intel laptop). An audio device driver for an onboard audio card is normally easily installed (as you would think). An “Audio controller” is a device that is viewable on an audio device driver once installed. Simply find the audio device (go to device manager, then expand the “Sound, video and game controllers” tree list. You will find a unique brand audio device there. For example, on my laptop “SigmaTel C-Major Audio”. (you can ignore the standard “Audio/Video Codecs”, or “Legacy” Drivers and devices.)
If your device is not properly installed or is disabled it will have a red “x” through its icon. Double click the icon. You can click the “Properties” tab and view its “Audio devices”, which will include the Audio controller.
Other than the standard device manager (that you find throug the “Hardware” tab of the System Properties applet– accessed through the Control panel or by right-mousing the “My Computer” icon) there is no other device manager for accessing “controller chips” on the motherboard.
If you find your device has been disabled, you may be able to re-enable it and then cause it to work. If none of this works, you may consider booting to SAFE MODE, removing the audio device from the device manager and reinstalling it completely. That often cleans up partial installs or failed installs of device drivers.
hope that helps