Problem with Compaq onboard sound

I know that from the title of this thread most of you are breaking out the silver crosses and exorcism leaflets, but bear with me. My roommate had to reformat his Compaq Presario 5000 5BW250 and install windows 98. This was a downgrade from his original OS, which was WinME. He now cannot get his onboard sound card to work at all. We have tried downloading the original drivers from the Compaq website, but they refuse to install, saying that it cannot find a specific file on the win98 disk. Any input on what we could try next, short of buying a new sound card? Thanks

Skybolt_1

What file? Have you tried the System File Checker to reinstall the file from the Win 98 cd? Also try redownloading the file incase its bad. Or look in the folder where you put the drivers and look for the .inf file and right click it and select Install.

Can you access the BIOS ok? I'm just checking because Compaq used to screw with the BIOS configuration software by putting it on a diagnostics partition on the harddrive rather than having it be firmware on the motherboard. If you can't access BIOS (usually by hitting the F10 key while the Compaq screen is still up), then you may have to use the recovery disc and go with win Me.

Beyond that, I would recommend looking at the motherboard and finding the sound chip. You should be able to get the brand or at least the model of the chip and a product number. Then you can find its driver either at the manufacturer's website, or at DriverGuide.

If you're still having trouble, don't hesitate to come back and let us all know.