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Typically, sound cards and drivers are included with computers. Check to see if you have any. If you don’t or want to upgrade what you do have, you’ll have to purchase a sound card or check for updates on your existing sound card. The following information should help you with what you need to know.

Sound Cards

Sound cards are also referred to as audio cards on occasion. They are expansion cards for computers that ease the transfer of audio signals to and from a computer. They facilitate audio input and output. Sound cards are auxiliary items or accessories that you need to purchase and install on computers. You cannot download them from the Internet. However, once you have installed a sound card, you can download updated drivers for it from the Internet.

Are Audio Drivers Installed

Check your computer system to see if you have an audio device installed on it. Navigate to “Start” and open the “Control Panel.” Next, select “Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices” and select “Sound and Audio Devices.” Select “Hardware” and find out what sound card you have and look through the troubleshooting tips if your device isn’t working properly.

Installing Sound Card Drivers

In order to obtain or update sound drivers for your audio device, you need to visit the website for the manufacturer of your sound card. You should have this information from the previous directions. Alternatively, if you have just purchased a sound card, the drivers should be included with it.

Locating Hard to Find Sound Card Drivers

Sometimes, especially with older machines, it is difficult to find the sound card drivers that you need. If this is the case, you can visit the website for any of the following in order to search for the sound card drivers that you need: Driver Files, Free Driver Download, or Driver Zone. If you prefer software that automatically finds drivers, we recommend DriverCure and DriverGenuis.

Purchasing Sound Cards

Sound cards are sold at most electronic stores as well as stores that specialize in computers. You can also obtain them online at any number of websites. Before doing so, check into the system requirements for the sound card so that it is compatible with your computer.

This is an all-in-one scanner, printer and copier - are the rest of the functions working okay? Does the Lexmark connect to your printer okay? Does the copier work well? If the other functions work, then we can narrow it down to a problem with the scanner itself.

USB Cable

If you are finding that you are having a problem with the connection to the computer, then you should check your USB cable. A malfunctioning USB cable can cause the printer to have problems communicating with the computer. If your USB cable is working fine and the computer is printing, but not scanning, the problem is likely the driver associated with that function.

Device Driver

You can try downloading the driver for the scanner from the Lexmark website. A driver is the piece of the program that allows the data to be converted to the specific program that the printer or scanner is using. If you don’t have the driver installed properly then you may get this kind of load error on your scanner. You can see if you have your device drivers installed by going to Start and then My Computer. Under System Properties go to View System Properties and click on Hardware. You will see the Device Manager and you can go in and see if you have the drivers installed for the scanner.

If you need to get a new driver for your Lexmark printer, you can go to Lexmark driver downloads, put in your computer information and it will allow you to download and install the driver for that printer/scanner.
Install Disk

There is one instance I found of someone fixing a scanning problem using the install disk. Put the install disk back in your computer and go to the OCR (optical character recognition) folder. Find the ABBYY FineReader and choose to reinstall it. For several users, this has solved their scanning issues.

Reinstall the Printer

If none of these suggestions helps you using the scanner, you might want to uninstall and reinstall the printer. While you might be able to reinstall without first doing an uninstall, it can’t hurt. Go to Start and then All Programs and then Printers and Faxes. Uninstall the printer in this folder and then use the CD that came with the printer to reinstall it completely.

If you still can’t use your scanner, you might want to contact Lexmark directly. They have technical support available on the Lexmark Website.

Typically, reinstalling your operating system, in this case Windows XP, it is necessary to reinstall some of the drivers. When you reinstall the operating system, you lose custom changes and drivers for a variety of devices. It sounds like that is the problem. If it is, then it is simple to fix. The message that you receive stating that the C97 audio will not start is indicative of missing drivers. It’s only natural to think that the device will still work after a reinstallation of the OS simply because it worked prior to the change.

Checking to See if the Audio Drivers are Installed

In order to check whether or not the drivers for your audio device are installed on your computer, you can use the following strategy. Click “Start” and open up the “Control Panel.” Select “Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices” and click on “Sound and Audio Devices.” Next, click on hardware and read through the information to see what you can find out. In particular, you will need the name of the manufacturer so that you can download and install the necessary drivers.

If the drivers are not installed, then you need to install them. If you encounter a faulty installation of the drivers, you can uninstall them and try again.

Where to Locate Audio Drivers: Manufacturer’s Website

Visit the website of the manufacturer for your audio device in order to obtain the latest drivers. Once the drivers have been installed, you should be able to get sound. If you aren’t sure what the URL for the manufacturer’s website is, simple search online for it.

Where to Locate Audio Drivers: Other Websites

Alternatively, you can also obtain drivers from a variety of different websites. Quite often, the downloads for drivers are free, but you should check on this before downloading the drivers. The following websites are available: Driver Zone, Driver Files, and Free Driver Download.

You may either have a problem with the BIOS, the device drivers, or both. I’m going to give you a few things to try. Before you do anything, make sure that your modem is connected and turned on before you power up the PC. With Windows XP, often external modems won’t be detected if you turn it on after the PC is running.

Reset BIOS

Sometimes resetting the BIOS (the Basic Input/Output System) can help a newly reconfigured computer recognize devices. It’s worth a try, particularly if this is a new system for you. To reset the BIOS, follow these instructions:

1. Turn off the power. If there is one, check for a rocker switch on the back of the PC and turn it from On (l) to Off (O).
2. Open the computer and find the motherboard. There will be a small watch-type battery on it. Disconnect this battery and the power cable.
3. Press Power to discharge the energy from the system.
4. Wait five minutes, then replace the battery and the power cable.
5. Power it up, and the BIOS should be reset.

If this doesn’t work, try this method to reset the BIOS:

1. Turn off the power and the rocker switch if there is one.
2. Near the watch battery on the motherboard, there is a 3 pin jumper. It should be labeled “clear cmos” or “reset bios”. Remove the jumper from the original configuration - it will probably be connecting the first and second pins. Replace it in a different configuration, such as connecting the second and third pins. Push power on PC, wait a minute or two, then power off. Reconnect the jumper to the original configuration and power up the PC once again. This should reset the BIOS.

Check Device Drivers

Go to Start, then Control Panel, Hardware and Device Manager. Check any devices that have yellow exclamation marks - these are devices that are missing drivers or are having other problems connecting. Click on Modems and then under Action see if you can get an updated driver for it. I’m guessing that you are missing drivers for your speakers, which you can easily download from the manufacturer’s website. Find the device manufacturer, go to the website and download the proper driver. Of course, this assumes that your modem is recognized and you can access the Internet.

If none of this works, are you sure that your modem is working? Can you connect it to another computer or try another modem on your computer? Let us know if you need further assistance and include information relating to your computer seeing the modem in Device Manager.

ParetoLogic DriverCure

ParetoLogic DriverCure is a relative newcomer to the driver update utility market, and it’s an awesome product to boot! Like the other ParetoLogic products, DriverCure features an extremely user-friendly graphical interface and makes a complex technical task a simple matter of clicking a few buttons.

Why DriverCure Disappeared after Recovering your Computer

Depending on the nature of the recovery, it’s not unusual to lose some of your programs. For example, when recovering a computer using the computer’s recovery CD and restoring it to the factory default, you’ll lose everything including data and programs added once you started using your computer.

Similarly, performing a Windows System Restore based on a restore point created before your installation of the DriverCure program will have this same effect. System Restore doesn’t generally affect programs, unless they were added after the restore point. I’m guessing this is what happened to you.

Restoring ParetoLogic DriverCure

Fortunately, you can re-download DriverCure quickly and easily. Go to the ParetoLogic.com Web site and download DriverCure. The free download offers limited functionality, so if had previously purchased the full featured version, you will most likely want to restore your license and enjoy all of the benefits offered by this terrific driver updating application.

If you had lost the DriverCure application due to a System Restore point, chances are that you probably still have the original e-mail with the license keys in your inbox. If so, search your inbox for this information. If not, there’s another easy way to do retrieve your license information for DriverCure. ParetoLogic offers a license lookup tool in the Support section. Simply enter your Order ID or e-mail address that you signed up for DriverCure with and ParetoLogic will e-mail you your license information. Once you have the key, simply go to the About button and enter it into the Registration field.

It shouldn’t take too long to re-download DriverCure, obtain your registration, and begin enjoying automatic driver updates once again. You will have lost any settings made earlier as this will be a fresh installation. Fortunately, DriverCure is so easy to setup that this should not be a problem.

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 and Pixel Shaders

Unfortunately, the MX series offered by NVIDIA does not support pixel shaders v1.1. This means that in order to play the particular game that is generating this message, you need to purchase and install a graphics card that does support pixel shaders v1.1.

Updating NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440

If you want to get an update for the NVIDIA GEFORCE MX440, you can visit the NVIDIA website and use the NVIDIA Smart Scan to locate and update the drivers for your card. While this won’t help you to play this particular game, it could improve performance with other games. Moreover, the NVIDIA Smart Scan is a useful tool that might come in handy if you purchase a different NVIDIA graphics card.

Upgrade NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 to a Pixel Shaders Supporting Graphics Card

If you want to go to the expense of upgrading your NVIDIA GEFORCE MX440 with a graphics card that supports v1.1 pixel shaders, you have several options available to you. The following NVIDIA graphics cards should be functional with a game requiring v1.1 pixel shaders: GeForce 3, the Quadro FX Series, and the 4 Ti Series. Please verify that the graphics card supports v1.1 pixel shaders before you purchase it just to make sure.

NVIDIA Cards That Do Not Support v1.1 Pixel Shaders

The following NVIDIA Graphics Cards Do Not Support v1.1 Pixel Shaders and cannot be used for game play that requires them:

• NVIDIA Riva Series including 128, TNT, TNT2, TNT2 M64, TNT2 Pro, and TNT2 Ultra
• NVIDIA Vanta
• NVIDIA GeForce256 DDR/SDR
• NVIDIA GeForce2 Series including GTS/Pro/Ultra/Ti200,

MX/MX100/MX200/MX400, and Go

• NVIDIA GeForce4 Series including MX/MX4000 and Go

• NVIDIA Quadro and Quadro NVS
• NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro and Go
• NVIDIA Quadro 4 Series including 500 Go, 280XGL, 380XGL, and 550XGL

NVIDIA Smart Scan

To use the features provided in NVIDIA Smart Scan, click the following link to arrive at the proper page: NVIDIA Smart Scan. NVIDIA Smart Scan will determine which of your drivers are current as well as which ones aren’t. Then, it will update the necessary drivers.