I concur with figadiablo about your course of action, and I think it fairly likely that your sound chipset has gone bad. You might be interested in a little background about IRQs however.

Originally, PC's only had 8 IRQs (IRQs 0 - 7, up to XT class machines). These were lines to the CPU that basically "rang a bell" to tell it there was activity on a device that needed processing. Each IRQ could only be used for one device, and several of them were used by integrated devices, such as the clock, the keyboard, etc. At this point, there were not very many peripheral hardware devices to use with a PC, so 8 seemed to be enough.

By the time AT class machines were developed (286 and higher), it was realized that 8 interrupts were not enough, and a redesign of the IRQ subsystem was warranted. In an effort to make sure that there would be plenty of IRQs for future expansion the CPU and motherboard chipset were given nearly twice past capacity and were able to process 15 IRQs. This was done by branching 8 new IRQs (8 - 15) off of IRQ 2, effectively replacing one IRQ with 8.

Unfortunately as people started using their PCs for more and more, this "plenty" turned out not to be so much after all. So, not long after the PCI bus came into use, a new version of the specification came out, 2.1 (I don't think 2.0 was ever actually used in production). This new spec gave the PCI bus the ability to process interrupts before they were sent to the CPU, so it could branch one IRQ for several devices. This is known as IRQ sharing or PCI Steering (sometimes IRQ Steering). This is only available if both the bus and the device meet the PCI 2.1 spec (so of course, no sharing with ISA devices). This is a great idea, but it can cause problems if it is used for two devices that have heavy processing requirements. For example, a single IRQ used for both video and sound can cause heavy performance hits, or even a crash or lockup; a single IRQ shared for network and sound can cause poor audio performance during network activity, including audio cutting out, pops, or crackles (these are the reasons I didn't expect to see audio together with network or video).

Another relatively recent approach to solving IRQ woes is what is know as an APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller - I had to read up on this a little). This involved a redesign of both the CPU (starting with the Pentium Pro processor) and the interrupt contoller of the chipset. It allows the computer to access 9 additional IRQs for a total of 24 (not 30 like I was thinking before, sorry). The extra capacity was really necessary for multiprocessor systems so that the chips would be able to work together. This can be used in uniprocessor systems, but the interrupt controller is still mainly used only in multiprocessor systems (I didn't realize that its use was still so rare on uniprocessor systems), so your computer is unlikely to have support for this unless it is a multiprocessor board.

So what you are likely to find on your modern board is a configuration like this:
IRQ 0 - system timer - fixed
IRQ 1 - keyboard - fixed
IRQ 2 - second IRQ controller - fixed
IRQ 3 - COM2 (Serial B) if it exists, otherwise available - flexible
IRQ 4 - COM1 (Serial A) - flexible
IRQ 5 - available, commonly used for sound card (rarely, LPT2) - flexible
IRQ 6 - floppy controller - fixed
IRQ 7 - LPT1 (printer) - flexible
IRQ 8 - RTC (clock) - fixed
IRQ 9 - available, often used for network, PCI steering - flexible
IRQ 10 - available, often used for SCSI, USB, sound card - flexible
IRQ 11 - available, often used for video, PCI steering - flexible
IRQ 12 - PS/2 mouse - flexible
IRQ 13 - math processor - fixed
IRQ 14 - IDE 0 - fixed
IRQ 15 - IDE 1 - fixed

One of the slots marked available is also often used for power management features. Power management is not a high demand process, so the interrupt it is on will usually be available for PCI Steering.

I did a little research on new motherboard specs and discovered it was fairly common for boards with integrated audio to put it on the same IRQ as the AGP slot. This amazed me, and I consider it a very bad design flaw, considering the problems it can cause (especially with games). However, since it is so common, I doubt it is the root cause of Shellcode's problem, considering his sound worked at one time (although the addition of the network card could have pushed capacity over the edge, I suppose, I would expect intermittent problems rather than completely nonfunctioning audio if that were the case).

my sound did work WITH the network card, i think you mean the addition of the ATA controller.

ok im gonna do the idea where i remove the gfx, and the network card and add them in one by one (its friday so i have some time) Cannot remove the ATA controller because then i cannot boot into my computer.

Now, in the case that the chipset has somehow "gone bad", why would this happen. Hardware doesnt just break...does it?


ps. thx alot for that info. Those are very helpful posts.

Just to clarify, I meant the addition of the network card to IRQ 11. This would be assuming that the addition to the computer of the ATA card caused Plug and Play on the BIOS to reconfigure settings and give the ATA card the IRQ that had belonged to the network card, so that it then had to put the network card on an IRQ that was using PCI steering, which in your case was IRQ 11.

You mentioned that you had a power surge (you said outage, but it would actually be a surge that happened either just before the power went out or when it first came back on that caused the problem) that fried other parts of your computer. This could be responsible for your audio chipset going, even some time after it happened. It is also possible for chips that have defects in them to work correctly for a period of time, and then suddenly fail even with normal use. That is why some people burn in new boards with constant activity for a couple of days to make sure something like this won't happen. Of course no electronic part is perfect, and they would all fail eventually. The question is after how long.

Rodrin,
You know your stuff!! Pretty good.
Was all that info from strait out of your head, or did you do a little research?

Figa

check these out:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82820 820 (Camino) Chipset Host Bridge (MCH) (rev 03)
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Region 0: Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<none>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82820 820 (Camino) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: ff800000-ff8fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f4900000-f49fffff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=64
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: ff900000-ff9fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f4a00000-f6afffff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE (rev 02) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Region 4: I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 9
Region 4: I/O ports at ef80 [size=32]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801AA SMBus (rev 02)
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA SMBus
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at efa0 [size=16]

02:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Intel Corp. ES1371, ES1373 AudioPCI On Motherboard Vancouver
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort+ <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (3000ns min, 32000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 9
Region 0: I/O ports at de80 [size=64]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

02:08.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20267 (rev 02)
Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc. Ultra100
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at dff0 [size=8]
Region 1: I/O ports at dfe4 [size=4]
Region 2: I/O ports at dfa8 [size=8]
Region 3: I/O ports at dfe0 [size=4]
Region 4: I/O ports at df00 [size=64]
Region 5: Memory at ff9a0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Expansion ROM at ff9e0000 [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [58] Power Management version 1
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

02:0a.0 Network controller: Netgear 802.11b Wireless Adapter (MA301) (rev 02)
Subsystem: Netgear 802.11b Wireless Adapter (MA301)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 1: I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
Region 2: Memory at ff9fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Region 3: I/O ports at dd80 [size=64]

02:0c.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro (rev 5c) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Pro AIW
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (2000ns min), cache line size 08
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: Memory at f5000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M]
Region 1: I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at ff9ff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Expansion ROM at ff9c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]

notice the gfx, the net, and the ATA controller are all on IRQ 10 whearas the sound (es1371) is on IRQ 9. no sound. i think we can safely rule out the possibilty of an IRQ conflict causing the problem.

lsmod:
Module Size Used by Not tainted
i810_rng 2624 0 (unused)
uhci 24560 0 (unused)
usbcore 58144 1 [uhci]
prism2_plx 63936 1
p80211 17612 1 [prism2_plx]
pcmcia_core 38112 0
ide-scsi 8048 0
es1371 26824 0
gameport 1452 0 [es1371]
ac97_codec 9512 0 [es1371]
soundcore 3332 4 [es1371]

dmesg:
Linux version 2.4.20 (root@midas) (gcc version 3.2.2) #2 Mon Mar 17 22:02:15 PST 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000007fc0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 0000000007fc0000 - 0000000007ff8000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 0000000007ff8000 - 0000000008000000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 00000000ffc00000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fff00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
127MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 32704
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 28608 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=2104
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 398.943 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 796.26 BogoMIPS
Memory: 126332k/130816k available (1733k kernel code, 4096k reserved, 568k data, 112k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After generic, caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel Pentium II (Deschutes) stepping 03
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfda95, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Transparent bridge - Intel Corp. 82801AA PCI Bridge
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/2410] at 00:1f.0
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
VFS: Diskquotas version dquot_6.4.0 initialized
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xf5000000, mapped to 0xc880d000, size 8192k
vesafb: mode is 800x600x8, linelength=800, pages=15
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:47ad
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 100x37
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 512 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev f9
ICH: chipset revision 2
ICH: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
PDC20267: IDE controller on PCI bus 02 dev 40
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 02:08.0
PDC20267: chipset revision 2
PDC20267: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
PDC20267: ROM enabled at 0xff9e0000
PDC20267: (U)DMA Burst Bit ENABLED Primary PCI Mode Secondary PCI Mode.
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xdf00-0xdf07, BIOS settings: hdeio, hdfio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xdf08-0xdf0f, BIOS settings: hdgio, hdhio
hda: LITE-ON LTR-32123S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdb: Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 8100, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hde: Maxtor 5T030H3, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide2 at 0xdff0-0xdff7,0xdfe6 on irq 10
blk: queue c0388e0c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hde: 60030432 sectors (30736 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=59554/16/63, UDMA(100)
hda: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
hdb: ATAPI 24X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 1024kB Cache, DMA
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hde: [PTBL] [3736/255/63] hde1 hde2 hde3 hde4
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 7777K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
md: linear personality registered as nr 1
md: raid0 personality registered as nr 2
md: raid1 personality registered as nr 3
md: raid5 personality registered as nr 4
raid5: measuring checksumming speed
8regs : 660.000 MB/sec
32regs : 396.000 MB/sec
pII_mmx : 895.200 MB/sec
p5_mmx : 919.200 MB/sec
raid5: using function: p5_mmx (919.200 MB/sec)
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
LVM version 1.0.5+(22/07/2002)
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 16384)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 112k freed
Adding Swap: 1020116k swap-space (priority -1)
es1371: version v0.30 time 15:37:57 Mar 11 2003
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 02:07.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:1f.2
es1371: found chip, vendor id 0x1274 device id 0x1371 revision 0x09
es1371: found es1371 rev 9 at io 0xde80 irq 9
es1371: features: joystick 0x0
ac97_codec: AC97 codec, id: 0x0000:0x0000 (Unknown)
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Intel PCIC probe: not found.
Databook TCIC-2 PCMCIA probe: not found.
ds: no socket drivers loaded!
init_module: prism2_plx.o: 0.2.0 Loaded
init_module: dev_info is: prism2_plx
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 02:0a.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 02:0c.0
A PLX PCI/PCMCIA interface device found, phymem:0xff9fe000, phyio=0xdd80, irq:10, mem: 0xc90c1000
A PCMCIA WLAN adapter was found.
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:1f.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 02:07.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.2 to 64
uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xef80, IRQ 9
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
i810_rng hardware driver 0.9.8 loaded
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 15:38:38 Mar 11 2003
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
ident: nic h/w: id=0x800c 1.0.0
ident: pri f/w: id=0x15 1.0.7
ident: sta f/w: id=0x1f 1.3.6
MFI:SUP:role=0x00:id=0x01:var=0x01:b/t=1/1
CFI:SUP:role=0x00:id=0x02:var=0x02:b/t=1/1
PRI:SUP:role=0x00:id=0x03:var=0x01:b/t=4/4
STA:SUP:role=0x00:id=0x04:var=0x01:b/t=1/9
PRI-CFI:ACT:role=0x01:id=0x02:var=0x02:b/t=1/1
STA-CFI:ACT:role=0x01:id=0x02:var=0x02:b/t=1/1
STA-MFI:ACT:role=0x01:id=0x01:var=0x01:b/t=1/1
Prism2 card SN: 99SA01000000
linkstatus=CONNECTED

also:
crw-rw--w- 1 root sys 14, 3 Jul 18 1994 /dev/dsp
crw-rw--w- 1 root sys 14, 19 Jul 18 1994 /dev/dsp1
crw-rw--w- 1 root sys 14, 4 Jul 18 1994 /dev/audio
crw-rw--w- 1 root sys 14, 20 Jul 18 1994 /dev/audio1
from ls -la


kscd will play an audio cd (the time will move, etc..) but there is no sound

amp and mpg123 will play an mp3 but there is no sound

is there anything else i can try, any file i can post, anything i can change, etc..??? im not one to buy a sound card before being sure that the sound is completely broken. getting kinda desperate here.


thx for your help people

I don't really think there is anything else you could try with any real hope of success. This basically rules out BIOS configuration problems, especially if the sound worked before. If you feel like risking your NT installation you could double check it by trying it again there, but I wouldn't recommend it because I think it would probably lead to a reinstall. If it is not broken, it would have to be a software problem of some sort, and you pretty much had checked all those out before I started replying.

figadiablo: The first two paragraphs of history are out of my head (thanks to the author Mark Minasi's way of making all PC history seem fascinating). For the third paragraph, I had to look up the revision number of the PCI bus that they added PCI Steering with. The paragraph about APIC I basically had to research everything for since I didn't even remember how many IRQs they added (remember, I was thinking 30 total while it was only 24). As for the IRQ table, although I knew several of them, I could never have remembered them all without looking it up again. Thanks.

explain software problem. amp and mpg123 play the mp3 but no sound. kscd plays cd but no sound. several mixers.

well, ok...i mean. that about does it for everything that i can check. i guess ill look for an sb16 or something.

but first: im still a bit unclear about what could have happened. the power surge couldt really have burned the chip. why just the sound chip and not my motherboard. it is integrated after all. interesting situation here.

thx for replies

sound blaster 16 pci: $29.99
good sound.
works like a charm with linux too, didnt even have to modprobe anything.


thx for your help everyone.

hehehehehehe

Good!!