Sights and Sounds: Multimedia Tips and Tricks

Keep It Down: Click once on the Taskbar volume control button to pop up this slider; check the Mute box to quiet things down in a hurry. Simple Sound: Open the Control Panel's Multimedia Properties sheet and check Show Volume Control on the Taskbar to add a clickable speaker icon to the notification area.

Total Control: Audiophile PC owners should double-click on the Taskbar speaker icon to pop up this all-purpose enhanced volume control. More Multimedia: There's more to multimedia than sound and CD-ROMs. Look in the Multimedia Properties dialog box to enable or disable other multimedia devices.

What you need to know about bus type in sound cardsComputer Shopper A new sound card must be compatible with your system bus, also called the internal bus. The computer's bus is what moves data around the motherboard, from the CPU to the hard drive to RAM to internal cards and peripheral devices. The various bus standards that have evolved over the years have allowed sound cards, hard drives and other peripherals to be interchangeable among different computers, widening buyers' choices and lowering prices. Many sound cards are Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) and will work with most of today's PCs. An ISA sound card is fine for almost any use. You'll also find higher-end sound cards that use the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) interface, the more recent Extended ISA (EISA), and VL-Bus architectures. ISA originated in IBM's AT computer and used to be called the AT bus. It provides a 16-bit data path between a PC's CPU and its internal expansion cards, and is found on 386 PCs. EISA, or Enhanced ISA, provides a 32-bit data path and is common in 486 PCs.PCI and VL-Bus, two local bus architectures, were developed for newer 486 and Pentium machines as a way of bypassing the slow 16-bit ISA bus found on 386 machines. Local bus is an alternative bus that co-exists with ISA but bypasses its bottleneck. The PCI local bus architecture is found on most Pentium and Pentium Pro PCs today, and is quickly replacing the alternative VESA Local-Bus (VL-Bus). Both local bus architectures are significantly faster than the ISA bus.Today's PowerPC Macintosh machines also use the PCI bus, and you'll find the slower 16-bit NuBus on older Macs.

Record CD Sound to Your Hard Disk

Get Modem Sounds via Speaker

By Alfred Poor, PC Magazine

I have a new system with a speakerphone modem, but I have a problem configuring it. If I plug my speakers into my sound board, I get sounds from programs, but I can't hear the person when I place a call with the Win 95 phone dialer. If I plug the speakers into the jack on the modem, I can hear the other side of the conversation without a problem, but then I don't get sound from other programs. Can't I have sound from my modem and sound card at the same time? Please help! Jim Alaimo via the Internet

PC MAGAZINE: If this is a new system, then you should be able to get the vendor to help you configure it correctly. In any case, your problem should be fixed with just one simple cable. You want to get a standard stereo patch cord with mini-jack (3.5-mm) plugs on each end. Plug one end into the speaker-output jack of your modem and the other in the line-input jack on your sound card. Open the mixer utility for your sound card (double-click on the volume control in the taskbar) and make sure that you do not have the line-in channel muted and that the levels are set appropriately. Then connect the speakers to your sound card. With this configuration, the output from the modem will be passed through the sound card and to the speakers, so you'll be able to hear the people you call on your computer and still hear the sounds from your programs.

Add New Hardware Easily in NT

I recently switched from Windows 95 to NT 4.0 Workstation, and I'm confused about how to add drivers for new hardware. Plug and Play isn't an option, is it? What's the secret?

NT users won't be able to take advantage of Plug and Play support until version 5.0 appears sometime in 1999. If you're running NT 4.0 on a workstation or a server, that means you have to set up hardware the old-fashioned way--by entering IRQs, DMAs, and other details manually. You may also need to mess with jumpers or run a setup utility to configure the device itself.

There's no NT equivalent to Windows 95's Add New Hardware Wizard (that's another feature that won't appear until NT 5.0). To set up a new device, start with the Control Panel and select the class of device:

-- Use the SCSI Adapters option to configure a new SCSI host adapter or device, such as a scanner, tape drive, or CD-ROM drive. This is also where you add drivers for IDE-based CD-ROM drives. Click on the Drivers tab, then on the Add button.

-- To set up a new video card, open the Display option; click on the Settings tab, then on Display Type. Use the Detect button to automatically install drivers for supported cards, or click on Change to install a specific driver.

-- For sound cards, joysticks, and other multimedia or gaming devices, use the Multimedia option. Click on the Devices tab, then on the Add button. If you have multiple CD-ROM drives, click on the CD Music tab to specify which drive you prefer to use for audio CDs.

-- To configure a new network card, open Control Panel's Network option, click on the Adapters tab, and click on the Add button.

-- Use the PC Card (PCMCIA) option to set up new devices on a notebook. NT 4.0 does not support hot swapping without the assistance of third-party utilities.

Windows 98 Fix

Lissa wrote: This might fix a lot of problems. I found this tip while searching for help on the Hewlett Packard Web site for my printer. I was having a zillion problems with hardware drivers and software apps after upgrading to Win98. I was advised to check the properties of my SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files to see if either or both were checked as "read only." My WIN.INI file was! I unchecked it, removed my problem devices and shut down. Then I physically removed all but one device and started the computer. The Find New Hardware Wizard ran, found the device and installed the drivers for it. And it ran perfectly! I repeated this for the rest of my devices ... printer, mouse, scanner, modem, external hard drive (SparQ) and sound card. All are running great! I then uninstalled and reinstalled all the software apps that had been acting weird ... they all now run without a glitch! I have no idea why these files might be setup as read only ... maybe a little bug in the Win98 setup?? I dunno ... but my computer is running great and I'm not going to question that too much!! :)

Jeff's Answer Lissa, Thank you very much for sharing this information. I hadn't heard of this problem, and it certainly seems odd that either of those files ever should be marked read-only. Everyone who experiences unusual system problems with Windows 98 should follow Lissa's cue, starting with this two-minute check:

How to Tell If a File Is Marked Read-only:

-- Click Start, choose Find, and select Files or Folders....

-- When the Find dialog box appears, type system.ini (or win.ini) in the Named field and click the Find Now button.

-- You'll probably find those files in the Windows directory (although copies may exist in your Backup folder). Click once on the file (in the Windows folder) to select it.

-- Right-click on the filename, and choose Properties from the menu.

-- Look in the Attributes section for the Read-only check box. If it's checked, that file is marked as read-only. Click the check box to deactivate it. Then click OK to close the properties dialog box. If you've been having problems with a specific device, try removing and reinstalling it. Hopefully, the New Hardware Wizard will make it easy for you to get your system running smoothly again.

Many of the Windows 98 tips we publish here in the TipZone come from readers like Lissa. However, if you're looking for in-depth Windows 98 guidance, request a preview issue of ZD Journals' Inside Microsoft Windows 98. Each month, editor Greg "The Windows Wizard" Shultz delivers technical tips, tricks, and advanced techniques guaranteed to help you get the most out of Windows 98.

My computer crashed, and now I can't see my CD-ROM.

This is a fairly detailed and complex answer. We suggest you visit "Creating a "Real" Windows 95 Boot Disk," an authoritative article that walks you through the process. Just go to http://www.everythingcomputers.com/windows_boot_disk.htm and read O'Donnels article.

Creating a "Real" Windows 95 Boot Disk

Though floppy drives and floppy disks are increasingly falling out of favor, there are many occasions when a single floppy disk can make the difference between being able to use your computer or not.

I m referring specifically to a boot disk, which is a floppy disk that allows you to boot, or startup, your computer without having to access the hard drive. A boot disk contains all the necessary operating system files your computer needs to get yourself (or itself) started. Boot disks can be tremendously important for many different applications and, frankly, no computer user should be without one.

For example, you'll need to have a boot floppy disk if you ever have problems with your hard drive that prevent it from properly booting the computer. Hard drive problems like this can occur as a result of physical problems with the disk, from getting a computer virus that attack s your hard disk s master boot record (as many of them do), or from having some important operating system files get deleted or corrupted.

If you ever want to reformat your hard disk or reinstall Windows 95 (or 98, for that matter) from the CD, you'll also need to have a boot disk. Some older DOS games also work better if you boot your computer from a boot disk.

In recognition of this importance, Microsoft made the process of creating a basic Windows 95 boot disk very easy. All you have to do is open the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel, click on the Startup Disk tab and click on Create Disk You ll be prompted to insert your Windows 95 CD into your CD-ROM drive (in most cases) and to put a floppy disk into the floppy drive. After a minute or two, you ll have a disk that includes all the critical files necessary to start your computer and be able to "see" your hard disk. The basic boot disk also includes important disk utilities such as Scandisk.exe, Fdisk.exe and Format.exe.

Unfortunately, that disk will not be able to "see" your CD-ROM, which means you won t be able re-install Windows 95 from a CD or run a CD-based DOS game or any of a number of other possible applications. If you boot with this disk and try to switch to the CD you ll get the heart-warming "Invalid Drive Specification" error message in DOS.

The "simple" answer to this problem is to just install your CD-ROM driver onto the disk and you ll be fine. If you re playing games, you ll also need a sound card driver. "Great," you say, "how the heck do I do that?" (Surprisingly, finding out exactly how to do this is pretty difficult most magazines and books just gloss over this critically important, but little described procedure.)

Before I get to the specifics, let me give just a bit more background. To get a CD-ROM drive or any other device (such as a sound card) to be "visible" in DOS, you have to tell the operating system that it's there. You do that by copying over driver files onto the floppy and then putting references to those driver files in some of the operating system startup files also found on the startup floppy. Specifically, you need to get a copy of the "real-mode" driver (sometimes called a 16-bit driver) to get them to work under DOS. ("Real mode" refers to a type of memory allocation system used by DOS.)

In the case of a CD-ROM, you re going to copy two more files onto the newly created boot floppy, make changes to an existing startup file (Config.sys) and create another startup file (Autoexec.bat). If you re also adding a sound card driver you ll copy over an additional file and then make additional changes to the existing Config.sys startup file as well as the newly created Autoexec.bat startup file.

(For the purposes of this article, I m only going to describe how to install the CD-ROM driver. The same basic principles apply to sound cards, although you may need to make some additional alterations to the startup files to get them to work properly. Check the documentation that came with your sound card or with your PC for more details.)

The first thing to do is to find a copy of the real-mode driver for your CD-ROM. Note that this is different from the 32-bit Windows 95 driver that your CD-ROM uses while running under Windows 95. Most 32-bit drivers are called virtual device drivers and have the file extension .vxd, whereas many real-mode CD-ROM drivers end with a .sys at the end of their file name. The real-mode CD-ROM driver for the Dell Computer I m currently using, which has an NEC CD-ROM, is called nec_bm.sys, for example.

On some computer systems you can find the real-mode driver on a separate floppy that came with the computer (or with the CD-ROM drive itself, if you added it separately), but in many cases, particularly with newer computers, you ll find that you don t have it. In that case, you should first check the computer manufacturer s web site, then call them if you can t find it there. If you know who made the CD-ROM drive mechanism used in your computer, then you can use the same techniques with that company.

If you don t know who made the drive you can often find out by typing in the FCC ID, which has to be on a sticker somewhere on the drive, into a special FCC Equipment Authorization database (linked here) that tracks all that information. Every company that sells a computer product has to have a unique ID, so by typing that ID in, you can find out the name of the company that sold the drive, as well as an address and a phone number.

Once you ve found out who made the drive, another possible source for drivers is one of the many driver sites here on the Web, such as The Driver Zone, WinDrivers.Com, or Frank Condron's World o' Windows.

After you copy the CD-ROM driver over to the startup floppy, you ll also need to copy over a Microsoft-supplied system-level CD-ROM driver called MSCDEX.EXE. You should find a copy of it in your Windows/Command folder on your C: drive.

The next step is to create a simple Autoexec.bat file on the floppy by running the DOS Edit application that s installed on the boot floppy as part of the standard Create System Disk routine. Just double click on it and you ll be presented with a basic text editing program within an MS-DOS window. Type in the following line:

MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

Then go up to the File menu, select the Save As command and save the file as Autoexec.bat (capitalization doesn t matter) on the A: drive.

The next step is to open the Config.sys and add one line to it. While you re still in the Edit application, go to the File Menu and select Open Open the Config.sys file on your A: drive. Make sure you re not editing the Config.sys file on your C: drive or you could have big problems (You should be able to easily tell because the basic Config.sys on the standard boot floppy has only one line in it and it refers to Himem.sys.)

Put your cursor underneath that line and type in:

Device=A:\ /D:MSCD001

Don t actually type that needs to be replaced with the exact spelling of the driver file you previously copied onto the floppy disk. (So again, in my case it was:Device=A:\nec_bm.sys /D:MSCD001)

Save the Config.sys file and exit the Edit application.

That s it.

Now you need to try it out. To do that, insert the boot floppy (you did put a new label on it, didn t you?) into the floppy drive and restart the machine.

After the normal BIOS messages you should see some startup messages about MSCDEX and a few other things. Once you get the A:\ prompt, try switching over to the CD-ROM drive to make sure the driver worked by typing in D: and hitting return (make sure you have a CD-ROM disc of some sort in the drive it doesn t matter what).

If you get the D:\ prompt, try typing a DIR (or directory) command to make sure you can see the contents of the drive (you should see a list of all the files and directories on the root level of the CD you have in the drive). If so, you ve successfully created a bootable floppy disk with a CD-ROM driver for your system. Congratulations!

If not, well, try again. You ll get it eventually .. )1998 O'Donnell Enterprises Reproduction in any form is prohibited without permission. However, feel free to create links to this, or any other page on the site.}

How do I get Windows to recognize my new sound card and drivers?

I recently added a new sound card. Windows detected the card, but then couldn't find the drivers, so I added the drivers and restarted the computer. When Windows came up, I checked in Device Manager and saw the yellow exclamation mark next to the sound card. It said that the drivers were not installed. What did I do wrong?

Sounds like there's an unknown I/O resource conflict of some kind. Try moving the sound card to another PCI slot. With sound and network cards, it's generally good practice to avoid the slot directly adjacent to the AGP slot. In motherboards with five or more PCI slots, you may want to avoid the very last slot with these cards as well.

Troubleshooting new speakers that make no sound

No sound coming from your new speakers? While double-checking that the speakers are plugged into the appropriate jacks, see whether there's a volume wheel on the system's sound card and turn it to a middle position. If your speakers are AC-powered, make sure they're turned on and the volume controls are set halfway. If there's still silence, check that Windows' sound settings and volume controls aren't muted.

Sound Files Smart Business

On PowerPoint's Tools, Options, General tab there's a control labeled "Link sounds with a file size greater than" that lets you set a threshold amount in kilobytes. The threshold limits the size of a file; if it passes that threshold, the file is linked to the presentation rather than embedded in it. This setting helps you keep the size of your presentations more manageable. The default is 100KB. But beware: If you copy a presentation from one computer to another and you have linked sound files (rather than embedded files) you must copy the external sound files along with your presentation or your sounds will not play.

How to Use Sound Backgrounds Windows Sources

They may not sound the greatest, but because of their economical file size, MIDI files are becoming increasingly popular as background sounds. Unfortunately, Navigator and IE implement them differently. The following code lets a MIDI file play properly in the latest versions of both browsers. For Navigator, use this HTML code:

And here's the tag for Internet Explorer:

With IE's tag, you can substitute a .WAV file for a .MID file. But you can't do that with Navigator; it just won't respond. If you want to give Navigator users a stop/start control, set the HIDDEN=argument to false and insert a HEIGHT and WIDTH for the control, just as you would for an image.

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Sound SensationSmart Business Add sound files to your message by typing your text, then right-clicking to access the Insert Sound function. Visit www.ichat.com for downloadable sounds to play in your messages.Get downloadable sounds to play in your messages by visiting Ichat

Sound Devices: What's WhatBy David Harvey, Help & How-To Control sound on your PC with Part II of this four part guide.Before we talk about mixing sounds to perfection, let's review what each type of sound source relates to in the real world:

Sound Device/Type

Where it comes from

What you hear

Where you connect it

Wave Audio

Digital audio files on your PC or CD-ROM (.WAV); including streaming media and digital sound files, with the notable exception of CD or DVD Audio. Sound effects, such as Windows or games (door slams, gun shots); and streaming media (MP3, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime sound).

Automatically connected -this is a part of your sound card and doesn't require an external connection.

Wave Table or MIDI Special files that contain a sequence of instruction for the synthesizer on your PC. Specific MIDI files (.MID); music composition software (Band In A Box, Voyetra Sequencer); keyboard emulators and instruments connected to your PC; and games' scores (background music).

Automatically connected - add extra MIDI instruments (synthesizers) by adding another card. Connect MIDI controllers (piano-like keyboards and other musical instruments) to the joystick port on your sound card. Line-In or Aux Any device connected to your computer via an analog sound cable (CD-ROM, DVD drives) that can be connected internally or externally.

Sound from the source. Connect a tape player or any other device with an analog output to your sound card; plus CD-Audio and DVD-ROM discs. Inputs on the card itself, inside the computer designed for CD or DVD drives; connectors on the back of the sound card labeled Line-In or Aux.

Microphone (Mic) Sound from a microphone connected to your computer. Often used for input with speech recognition, with voice modems, and the like. Mic jack on the back of the sound card.

Now that you know what makes which sounds, it's a snap to customize your sonic environment to your heart's content.

Super Sound Superguide·

Part I: Sound Basics

Part II: Sound Devices: What's What

Part III: Controlling Volume

Part IV: Listening With Your Headphones

Best Resources Super Sound Superguide

Tips: Sound tips, FAQs

Help: Sound Cards Guide

Help: Windows Guide

Downloads: Sound enhancements

Glossary: Sound terms

Forum: Get Your Questions Answered Here

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Sound Glossary

Sound on your PC can be a very tricky thing. Luckily you can learn PC sound basics, including how to adjust volume control for every sound-source on your computer and how to hook up headphones, in our Super Sound Superguide. For help with sound terms, see the definitions list below:

Mixer: Also called the volume control application. A device that lets you mix or combine different sounds by controlling the volume of each. Device: In Windows parlance, something that controls or creates sound.

MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Properly refers to the interface between a computer and an instrument. Popularly refers to the MIDI sequencer or synthesizer that can play virtual scores by imitating the sounds of real-world instruments.

Wave audio: Digital audio. From Waveform Audio, a term describing the shape of a sound when viewed on an oscilloscope.

Wave File: A digital audio file. Ends with the extension .WAV. Used for all Windows sound effects.

Streaming audio: Audio that is streamed in real time across the Internet to your computer. This is digital, or wave audio. Examples include live RealPlayer and Windows MediaPlayer programs.

MP3: A popular format for storing music recorded from an audio CD on a computer.

Wave Table: A type of MIDI synthesizer that uses samples of real instruments that have been recorded and digitized and are manipulated to produce any note at any volume, along with special effects like reverb.

Synthesizer: A device that is capable of synthesizing music by responding to a set of instructions in a file or from a keyboard.

MIDI Instrument: An entire synthesizer.

MIDI controller: A device that lets you "play" the MIDI sounds in your MIDI instrument.

Sound Basics

Control sound on your PC with Part I of this four part guide.

To properly delve into controlling sound, it's important to understand a few basics. The sounds you hear on your computer are all digital sounds, even when they originate from a compact disc. These sounds originate from several key sources. In Windows parlance, anything that produces or controls a sound is called a device. With the exception of CD-ROM or DVD players, all the major devices on your system are built into your sound card, including:

· Mixer device: The component that controls the levels of sound produced by your devices, as well as the overall level of sound.

· MIDI device: MIDI, or Multiple Instrument Digital Interface, is exactly like having a full library of different instruments inside your PC. The soundtracks to most games are MIDI files. You can feed a score to this virtual orchestra, and it will play it back just as if a group of musicians were standing in your room. The quality of MIDI varies greatly between sound cards. It is MIDI that allows you to use the joystick port of most sound cards, with an adapter, as an interface. Here you can hook up a keyboard, or other instrument, and "play" your computer.

· Audio Device: Wave audio is the most common sound device on your PC. Simply put, it is like a mini-tape recorder built into your system. Each Wave file (.WAV) is a digital recording of a sound, or group of sounds. Wave audio is responsible for all sound, except DVD and CD-ROM, which is stored digitally on your computer. Whether your listen to an MP3, RealAudio, or a bundled Windows sound, it is all being treated as a Wave audio sound. Yes, all of these last examples are different file types, and different methods for storing sound. However, ultimately they are all treated as Wave audio.

· Line Audio Device: Even though a CD or DVD is treated as a separate Media Control Device, the only way that sound gets into your computer and out through your speakers, is through a Line Audio Device. Line audio is simply a connection that lets you take the output of your CD or DVD and connect to the input on your sound card. Your sound card can then control the volume of the CD or DVD.

What's That Sound?

Controlling sound means understanding that everything that comes out of your speakers is regulated by two different applets. You can find them at Settings | Control Panels | Sounds, and Settings | Control Panels | Multimedia.

The Sounds applet handles which sounds play when different things happen within Windows and your applications. The Multimedia Properties applet controls which device plays what and how it plays it. You probably won't have to spend much time with this applet, but there are a few key landmarks that are worth recognizing.

The Multimedia Tabs on the Sound applet in control panel

Audio

The main Audio tab is crucial. It controls what's making the waveforms, or digital audio sounds on your computer, and how those sounds are being processed. Here, you can also access their volume.

The Audio tab is subdivided into Playback and Recording. The loudspeaker or microphone icons represent links to the Volume Control or Recording Control mixers respectively. For more information, see our Controlling Volume article. The dropdown lists show the name of the preferred device for recording and playback on your machine. If you only have one sound-device, that's what you'll see in this box. Clicking on the down arrow will give you a list of all the sound-devices in your computer, such as: separate sound cards, voice-capable modems, and voice recognition hardware.

The Advanced Properties buttons are important only if you're having problems with audio playback or recording. Here you can adjust how many resources your computer dedicates to these functions, and what quality of sound should be produced. These buttons will vary depending on your specific piece of hardware, and may include card-specific options, such as types of speakers attached to your system.

At the bottom of the Audio tab are two checkboxes. If you are having problems, such as sound not playing back, or inability to record, check the Use only preferred devices box, to make sure your sound card is being used. Be careful. Some hardware and software, for instance voice recognition, will change the preferred recording device so that they will function properly. The other checkbox is important. Show volume control on the taskbar, controls whether the icon for volume control is placed in the system tray on your windows desktop. You must check this box if you want one-click access to all your multimedia settings.

MIDI

The MIDI tab delves into the complexities of MIDI instrumentation and voicing. We won't go into the details of MIDI here - you can experiment on your own with the custom configuration. The only important point to note is that the default for this tab is Single instrument, and for most users the name of sound card's MIDI output is highlighted.

Music

On the CD Music tab there are a couple of useful controls. Most notable is the volume slider that lets you set the default volume for all CD playback. You'll also find a dropdown list that lets you select the default CD drive for audio playback, and a control that will enable digital CD playback for capable drives.

Devices

The Devices tab is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that this is where you can tune hardware-specific settings, so be very careful if you decide to start spelunking in this tab.

The Day the Music Died: 7 Sound Card Solutions

If all your sound card plays is silence, troubleshoot your system with these easy checks.

Sound cards are essential, but virtually neglected, hardware components that can add beautiful audio effects to your games, videos, or general mood. As you can see from Figure A, sound cards are more about function than form. Most of us don't even consider our sound cards until that moment when it suddenly occurs to us that everything has become really, really quiet. When your PC suddenly only plays the sounds of silence, what do you do?

The good news is that unless your audio card has utterly self-destructed at the board level, you can probably bring the music back with a little logical thinking and some "sound" investigation. That's also the bad news because there's nothing on the card itself that you can repair on your own without a reasonable knowledge of electronics and a steady soldering hand. With any luck, however, you won't even need to think about that. Let's start with the basic steps you can take to troubleshoot your sound card.

Upgrading Your Sound Card

Follow these step-by-step instructions to upgrade to the latest in sound technology.

If you think Sound Blaster compatibility is all you need for good-sounding audio from your PC, think again. Sound-card features have changed so dramatically in the last few years that if you're stuck at the basic standard—which includes only FM synthesis, a MIDI/joystick input port, and an integrated audio amplifier—you haven't heard the half of it.

Most of today's games still use FM synthesis for sound generation—at least when they're not playing prerecorded audio from their installation CDs. When they do that, or when you play an audio CD, you're using only the amplifier section of the card.

Budding musicians with a bent for the digital age, on the other hand, also need MIDI support. For the best possible MIDI effect, your sound card should include wavetable synthesis—a stored collection of actual instrument sounds rather than synthesized noises that try to re-create the sound of a particular instrument. Not only do the latest cards have better and larger wavetable collections, they have download capabilities that let you add new sounds to the instrument library.

Upgrade Advantages

Thanks to sophisticated audio-processing chips, newer sound cards, such as Aureal's Vortex2 SQ2500 and Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live, are capable of amazing 3D and environmental sound effects. They can "move" audio from side to side, front to back, or top to bottom, providing the auditory illusion that sound is emanating from directions other than just from wherever your speakers happen to be located. Environmental sound shapes audio so that sounds can imitate any of several predetermined "room" types, such as a concert hall, a gymnasium, or a concrete bunker.

These technologies will work with your present speaker system, but headphones are best if your speakers lack a subwoofer. A decent set of speakers is just as much a part of the audio experience as the sound card—check out this month's roundup on three-piece speaker systems for some speaker upgrade ideas. If you don't mind investing in an even better set of speakers, get a sound card that's capable of Dolby Digital.

Getting Started

With a five-year-old Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 sound card in our system, we decided it was time for a change of tune. We settled on a new Aureal Vortex2 SQ2500 card, with an estimated price of $100. Before you buy your new sound card, be sure your computer's configuration is suitable. With the Vortex2 sound card, Windows 95 or 98 is required, as is a PCI slot and a CD-ROM drive to install the software. You'll also need a Philips-head screwdriver. Everything else required was included with our new audio card—but double-check the one you buy, as you might not be so lucky. Figure A: Getting started.

You might also need a new internal cable to connect the analog audio output from your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive to the sound card, if the audio-connector type on the new sound card is different than the one on the older card. These days, this analog audio-connector type is pretty much standard, but the same can't be said for cards from the days of yore.

Opening The CPU Box

If you're replacing an existing card, uninstall its software drivers before you remove the old card. Click Start/Settings/Control Panel and select System. Click on the Device Manager tab, then on the plus symbol to the left of Sound, Video and Game Controllers to expand the listing of the system's installed audio devices. Delete all the entries that correspond to the sound card you are about to remove. If you are unsure of any entries, leave them alone—it's better to be safe than sorry. If at any point you're asked if you want to remove any shared files, select No.

Shut down the system and unplug the AC power cord. Pop open the system's case to gain access to the expansion bus. Getting inside our Gateway tower system was as simple as removing two thumbscrews and sliding off the side panel. Unplug any cables attached to your current sound card. For us, this was the speaker cable connected to the back of the card and two internal analog audio connectors—one from the CD-ROM drive and one from the voice modem. Make sure you ground yourself before you start, preferably by touching an unpainted part of the system's chassis or the power supply. Alternatively, you can buy a wrist grounding strap at RadioShack or other electronics outlets.

Testing The New Sound Card

Figure B: Removing the old sound card.

Figure C: Inserting the new sound card.

Now unscrew a backplane cover from an available PCI slot and move the cover over to the now-vacant ISA slot—without a card installed in this slot, you need the cover to help prevent dirt and dust from getting inside the case. Slide the new card into the PCI slot, being careful not to hit the motherboard with its support brace or scrape it against any adjacent cards.

Align the hole in the card's support brace with the hole on the system's backplane, and using the screw you should have left over, fasten the card into place.

Reconnect The Internal Cables

Reconnect the analog audio cable coming from your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. In our situation, we also had to reconnect the audio cable coming from our voice modem. If you are installing a sound card in your system for the first time, you may need to partially remove your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive to access its analog audio connector. Reconnect The External Cables

Reconnect the external cables you removed earlier, including the AC power connector. You may need to consult the manual to see which jack on the back of your new sound card you're supposed to plug the speakers into. Although the jacks on the back of the Vortex2 are color-coded, the little icons indicating what purpose each jack performs (faintly stamped next to each jack) are difficult to see. Power up the system. Windows should auto-detect your new sound card and prompt you for the new drivers. Follow the instructions in the new sound card's manual to find out how to install the drivers and any bundled software. Once you confirm that all is in order, put the cover back on the system. That's all there is to it. Now crank up the volume and dance, dance, dance!

Sounds Like Cellular

If you just finished configuring your settings and your audio sounds like a bad cellular phone connection, you probably have your analog speakers plugged into the digital output port. Don't be embarrassed. Unlike the real world where digital audio output uses an RCA connector, your sound card supplies you with a standard miniplug connector, just like the other outputs. It would have been labeled "digital" and most likely it'd be at the top of the card instead of the bottom, but who reads instructions anyway? Just unplug the speakers from the digital world and re-connect them to the analog output. Start at the End

Assuming nothing works, the easiest way to troubleshoot your sound woes is to start with the obvious: Rule out your speakers as the source of your problem. If they're powered speakers (which, most are), check that they're still plugged into an AC outlet and that you've turned them on. Most have LEDs that light up when power is applied so that should be obvious.

Are they still connected to your sound card? Vacuum cleaners, small pets, and siblings are notorious for unplugging things. And if it looks like they're still connected, check to make sure that they're plugged into a speaker port. Anyone who accidentally yanked the plug out may have accidentally put it back in the wrong place.

Even if it looks as if everything is connected correctly and powered up, try one final thing. Plug your speakers into some other device with a stereo output miniplug port, like a portable CD or MP3 player. If they work, you're assured that the problem lies with your sound card.

Check the Software

Every sound card has mixer software of some type. Regardless of whether it's fancy or plain, its primary job is to let you manage the individual volume of each of the various inputs, adjust the master volume, as well play the treble, bass, and fader controls. As you can see from Figure B, there are also mute options that can turn one or all of the inputs off. That's your next stop.

Go to the task bar or the Start/Program menu, find the software (usually under the sound card manufacturer's name or the card's name), and load the mixer. Look for a check mark or an unlit button at the bottom of the master sound control under the particular input (like line-in) that doesn't seem to be working. That's usually the indicator that the sound has been muted. You might as well take a look at the volume levels. If they've been slapped down to the bottom, that will effectively mute the audio as well. Faulty CD Drive

If you're having trouble with audio CDs or soundtracks from DVDs, and everything we've covered checks out, your CD drive may be at fault. Fortunately, it's easy to diagnose. Unplug your speakers (which you know are working correctly) from your sound and plug them into the headphone jack in the front of your CD drive. If you don't hear any audio, the drive is most likely bad. If you do hear sound, then keep reading for more clues on what's wrong with your sound card.

Plugged In or Not?

Sounds that come from either audio CDs or DVD discs go straight to your sound card's amplifier. They're piped in via an audio cable attached between your drive and card. If that cable becomes detached or is broken, you'll be able to hear computer-generated sound, but not audio tracks. You'll need to power down your PC and open up the case to check the condition of that cable. On the sound card side, there are typically three four-pin analog connectors and sometimes one two-pin digital connector (see Figure C below.) On the drive side—in particular, the side opposite the power connector—there's usually at least one analog and sometimes one digital connector. (Increasingly, sound cards are showing up with digital connectors because they can output digital audio. CD-ROM drives have been a little slower to catch up, so don't be surprised if you can't find one on your drive if it's an older model.) Figure C: There are three four-pin analog connectors in this sound card.

The important part of the operation is to make sure that the cables are securely inserted in their respective connectors. For analog use, the CD IN connector should be used for your first CD-ROM drive. The AUX IN connector is typically used for a second drive or another audio source, like a TV tuner card. (A TAD connector is meant for a Telephone Answering Device and not really used much.) It will be obvious for digital set-ups if you see a two-pin plug in a four-pin connector.

Busted Cables There is the possibility that, no matter what type of cable you have, it might be broken. Unless that's occurred at the connector, you won't be able to see it. If your audio problems started right after you installed a new interface card or drive, you might have accidentally scraped, tugged, or yanked across the audio cable. You can easily buy a replacement for just a few dollars, if that's the case.

Audio Driver is Gone

If you see that the speaker symbol in your task bar has been crossed out, you've probably lost your audio drivers, as shown in Figure D. Before you tear your hair out, remember that anything can happen in Windows. Figure D: If you don't have a speaker icon, you may have lost your audio drivers.

You can check out the situation from the Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) by double-clicking the System icon and selecting the Device Manager tab. Scroll down the list of devices, and you'll probably see something odd with yellow question marks sticking out like a sore thumb (see Figure E). The "PCI Input Controller" is your joystick, and the "Multimedia Sound Device" is your sound card. The fix is fairly simple. Just re-install the card's drivers, which should clear things up. It's also an opportunity download the latest drivers and install those instead.

Things aren't very much different if you have an embedded sound system on your motherboard: You still have an audio connection to your CD drive, you can plug your speakers into the wrong connector, and you can lose your drivers. Of course, if something does go wrong, it makes a great excuse to get a sound card that offers better audio choices. In most cases, just installing the new card will override the embedded system and you'll be tuned up and ready to go.

Listening With Your Headphones

Help & How-To Control sound on your PC with Part IV of this four part guide.

There comes a time when we all want to keep our sonic choices to ourselves. The solution is headphones, and the process is relatively easy. There are two basic roads to headphone Nirvana: go to the source, or go to the device.

Go To The Source

The source, of course, is your sound card. The downside to this approach is that if your sound card only has one output jack, you'll have to disconnect your speakers to plug in your headphones. For many sound cards with two outputs, sound will still play through both jacks. It's not like the nifty headphone jacks on your stereo which, when plugged in, automatically mute the volume going to your speakers. All this spells workaround, which leads us down the other headphone road.

Go To The Device

If all you want is to listen to the latest in Country and Western without tipping off your office-mates, check out the headphone jack on your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Fortunately, the headphone jack on most CD and DVD rives works like a conventional stereo system. Plug in headphones, and sound only goes out the headphone jack. What you lose is the ability to control volume from your PC -you'll have to use the little dial on the front of the drive.

What you gain is hours of listening to the soundtrack for Grease II without anyone ever being the wiser. If you want to hear everything, including Wave Audio, MIDI, and CD, and your sound card doesn't mute one channel when you plug in headphones, or only has one output jack, you'll need to switch sound sources whenever you use headphones.

You can avoid constant trips to the back of your computer, by visiting your friendly neighborhood retailer of electronic components. Pick up stereo male mini-jack to stereo female mini-jack on a long cable, and you'll be in business. Connect the male end of the cord to your sound card output, and put the female end on your desk: when you want to switch sounds, all you have to do is switch plugs.