Please help.
I have a Asus M2N-MX motherboard and a AMD X2 processor. The motherboard is having a integrated "SoundMax High definition Audio". The problem is after installing the sound drivers from my Motherboard support disk, the audio will play for some time (generally less than 30 min and occasionally 1hr) and then it suddenly stops. It shows a red "x" on my speaker tray icon and says that no audio drivers are installed. After I uninstall them and try to reinstall, it will say that the drivers doesn't support my hardware. Again I have to reinstall my "os". I tried with different speakers but invain. I was previously using "XP". Now I have upgraded it to "vista". But still the same problem. After the installion, the playback stayed for some around 20 min and again it says, there is no audio driver installed. Its making me crazy. Imazine a system with everything and uncapable of playing sound?? I downloaded the sound max drivers from asus site many times. But no use. Please any of you solve this. If it is any hardware failure, for your information, when I approached my vendor, he formated the OS and installed a new copy of XP. The sound worked fine till now but still showed that soundmax drivers are not present and its control panel cannot be used. I lost my sound again when I reformated recently. I tried many copies of OS but invain.

Since you are installing and re-installing Windows, the steps to take are:

Using your current install, download all the latest drivers to a safe place.

1. Install Windows and SP2. (assuming XP of course).
2. Install audio drivers.
3. Reboot - check if correct in device manager.
4. Install chipset drivers. Reboot
5. Install Video drivers. Reboot
6. Install Network drivers. Reboot.

Even though a reboot is not usually necessary, it never hurts, its just a little more time in completing the install.:)

I use an Asus P5GPL-X which uses the same sound chip, AD1986A. I installed the latest version from Asus and have no problems.

From your explanation, it sounds like a hardware problem, so reinstalling Windows and drivers will not help.

You can return the motherboard, or disable the onboard sound and buy an add-on sound card, such as a Soundblaster. You can still find the older ones for a really good price, and as a bonus, you'll get better sound, and more features. :)