This computer was bought in 2003. It has an onboard AC97 Audio. Recently I got an ESS Solo-1 (ES1938, PCI) and I want to let this computer use this chip instead of the onboard AC97 to grant the computer DOS compatibilities...

However, after I've disabled the onboard audio on BIOS and installed it into a PCI chip, the system was unable to detect it!

What should I do next?

EDIT: I first installed this chip in the 5th slot, and then changed it to the 2nd slot...

It doesn't seem to be able to install it directly from Add New Hardware... It should be detected before the driver can be installed...

The PCI slot on the end closest to the middle of the mboard is forced to share it's IRQ with the video. Most cards other than a PCI video card will often not work properly because of that, in that slot.

You may be able to get the card to work in another slot if you swap card positions. The closer the slot is to the middle of the mboard, other than the above, the more likely the sound card will work.

As I recall ES1938 is an older chipset, that may be inferior to the AC97 sound on the 2003 mboard, that requires the slot provides at least two IRQs. In that case, two IRQs the card can use must be available in a particular slot - they may not be if you have other devices using up most of your IRQs.

You don't have to disable the onboard sound in order to use a sound card.
Windows supports more than one sound chipset but only one can be used at a time. You can toggle which one you use in Control Panel. The last one installed is the default.

If you're not going to use the onboard sound, un-install the drivers and associated applications for it in Add/Remove programs.

.......

Since I can no longer post on your previous thread,
http://www.computing.net/answers/ha...

here are my answers to your last post there:

Your error messages are generated by the operating system, not the bios. I know from much experience the bios recognizing the ram as it's true total amount doesn't guarantee it works properly, and if it doesn't you can get all sorts of error messages, and each pair working properly by itself doesn't guarantee the two pairs will work properly when all are installed.
Did you test using a ram diagnostic program, and if you did, did you do a test when all 4 modules were installed?

The contacts on the SIMM modules and the SIMM slots may be either tin or gold plated - if the two are different, or if the modules were ever installed in a mboard where they were different, there can be corrosion or oxides on the SIMM module or ram slot contacts that accumulates over time. Sometimes you need to remove those oxides or that corrosion - e.g. by gently rubbing the contacts with a non-abrasive pencil eraser - pink or white or translucent yellow - don't use an age hardened eraser or one on a cheap (e.g. Chinese) pencil itself.
....

There are many versions of the ISA SB16 cards that use many different main chips. The earlier ones had jumpers for everything except possibly the game port (if you want to turn it off, you need a driver and a line in Autoexec.bat / Config.sys) - for the later ones you could change some settings in Device Manager by disabling Use Automatic Settings in their Configuration. If you supply the model number on the card - CTxxxx - I can proably point you to info about your card, or I may already have the info.
.....

Your mboard has no USB ports or a header (connector) on the mboard for USB ports. Therefore it's bios has no USB support, and in that case, I'm pretty sure a USB card cannot be recognized. If you have a look around on this site I think you'll find that's the case: http://www.usbman.com/

But that doesn't explain why you computer would crash when you install a USB card. Possibilities: - all USB 2.0 cards require 2 IRQs - lots of older mboards have problems with any card that needs more than one IRQ, even if both the IRQs are actually available in the slot you install the card in. E.g. some old sound cards other than SB16 ones required two or even three IRQs and were difficult to get to work. - USB 2.0 cards require the PCI version the mboard uses is a certain spec or higher - your mboard probably does not even meet the minimum spec. If you can even find one - I don't think you can buy them new anymore - a USB 1.x (only) card requires one IRQ and an older minimum PCI spec - but I doubt even that would work with this mboard. .....

"...I want to let this computer use this chip instead of the onboard AC97 to grant the computer DOS compatibilities..."

You don't necessarily need a sound card to do that.
The bios on newer mboards often has settings that can enable or disable emulation of legacy sound card settings for the onboard sound.

If you want sound in XP for e.g. Dos games, it has some support but it doesn't work very well. There are freeware Dos emulator programs out there that improve that situation.
E.g. I have used this one and it works fine with most Dos games - it can be easily tweaked if it doesn't work properly with default settings - it is both a Dos emulator and a Dos sound enabler:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdm...

You don't necessarily need a sound chipset that has Dos drivers available for it if you use one of the Dos emulators for XP (or 2000).

Well...

I have discovered that ALi PCI2USB Open Host Controller uses IRQ5... It is likely to conflict with audio cards... Also, I have an nVidia GeForce2 (32MB) on a slot that is close to PCI1 (Probably an AGP card).

It is a Realtek AC97 Audio, without Legacy Audio Emulation...

I don't know how to make that USB controller use another IRQ than 5...

"It is a Realtek AC97 Audio, without Legacy Audio Emulation..."

Look in your bios Setup for the legacy audio settings - they might be turned off there.

If you installed the drivers for the onboard sound, properly, e.g. by using the installation the CD that came with the mboard,
look in Device Manager under Sound, Video and Game controllers - there should be Legacy audio listings there.

(DO NOT point Windows to where the sound drivers are while booting when it finds a sound device and can't find the drivers for it. Cancel that, and use the proper install or Setup program that installs the drivers and associated applications, otherwise the sound won't install properly).

If Windows finds the Realtek sound chipset automatically because the drivers for it are built in, you may not have the legacy audio listings in Device Manager until you install the drivers and apps for the Realtek sound.

Virtually all sound chipsets made since about 1997 are AC97 compatible. That doesn't necessarily mean the onboard sound is inferior. It is either a standalone simple codec chip or the equivalent built into one of the main chipset chips, or it's a standalone chip the same or very similar to what you get on a sound card made by the same maker.
If yours is the latter, the mboard presumably made in 2003, it's probably superior to the sound card you are trying to use.

The VDMsound program I pointed you to also works in 9X and up.
If you use that or similar, you don't need a sound card there are Dos drivers available for unless you are going to be sometimes running only using a Dos op system, which would require you had at least one partition on your computer that is FAT32, not NTFS.
.....

I advise you to NOT use the PCI 1 slot for any card except a PCI video card.
......

"I don't know how to make that USB controller use another IRQ than 5..."

1. Free up any IRQs for legacy devices you aren't using so that the USB can possibly use a different IRQ.
- if you aren't using a PS/2 mouse, or if you do use one, if you can use a serial or USB mouse instead of a PS/2 mouse, disabling a PS/2 mouse in your bios Setup usually frees up IRQ 12 for use by plug and play devices. Not many things can use IRQ 12, but USB (and some network cards) often can.
- if you aren't using one or both Com (Serial) ports, disabling it/them in your bios Setup frees up the IRQs it/they use, usually IRQ 4 and/or 3, for use by plug and play devices. USB may not be able to use the IRQ(s) freed up, but other devices may be able to use it/them and the IRQs the other devices presently use will become available for the USB, or other plug and play devices.

2. After you have done that, or in any case, you probably need to disable the USB controller(s) (if there is more than one, disable all of them) in the bios Setup, save settings, reboot at least once if not several times, then go into the bios Setup again and enable the USB controller(s), save settings, in order for the USB to use a different IRQ than it is using now.

Personally I have been able to get a USB controller to use IRQ 12 by doing that procedure.

3. If that doesn't help, you could try doing the same thing as in 2,
- except turn off PNP Aware OS in the bios Setup if it is on, or visa versa, whatever is oppsite of what it is set to now, before you enable the USB controller(s) again.
- you could get the sound card working before you enable the USB controller(s) again - if the sound card grabs IRQ 5, it won't be available for the USB and it will have to use a different IRQ.