Ask Me Help Desk - Very weird one Please help!

I know this is going to sound weird but I am not kidding when I say that my monitor is causing my sound not to work.
When I try to increase the volume I can visuall even see the volume going right back down all the way on its own.
I have tested everything with different parts and everything works fine until I add my own Monitor and then I have no control of my sound again and it is turned right down.
I have a Compaq Presario 5204 with the Es1869 built in sound and A Certified Data 17" Monitor Model #DH-1764 and it is made by CD Electronics Inc is stamped on the back.The computer has the monitor installed as the TRL/RIC DH-1764M/DH-1764.
I would really appreciate any help you could give me.
P.S. I did not use the recovery disk when I re-formated the computer but I intalled WinMX and it found the monitor and sound on its own.

Thank-You in advance for any help
Joe

Joe, hi, indeed, you are right. It is very common for the video and sound card, and or NIC card to share the same IRQ #, which is usually 5. What is normally done is moving the video card to another available IRQ #, if any. If that is the case and if your bios settings allow, please change the IRQ # for the video and/or NIC card to an unused or free IRQ #, like 10 or 11. You can enter the BIOS setup just after you turn your PC on. As soon as it beeps, the screen will say either "PRESS F1, F10 or DEL to enter the BIOS". You will have to press the button fast, as soon as you hear 1 or 2 beeps. If that still doesn't work, you may have to flash update your bios, which your PC company's website or motherboard company's website can show you how. One last thing: it sometimes help to place your video and sound cards 1 slot apart from each other, the sound card being closer to the CPU if the slot is a white one if the cards are not built into the motherboard. Just open the PC, touch the metal part of the case or wear an anti-static wrist strap first. GOOD LUCK! :D

Hi Joe

I have the Same model computer--Compaq 5204. The bad news is that I have never encountered a problem like that. I have used different monitors and operating systems and have had no problems. So all I can offer is a few suggestions:

Does the sound only break with that one particular monitor?????
You say the sound works until you add a monitor. Do you mean it works with a different monitor or only when the system is running without a monitor at all?

As mentioned above, if you have added or changed hardware, or messed with the BIOS, be sure to check the settings. The BIOS key for this machine is F10. I hope you didn't low-level format the hard drive, because (supposedly) the BIOS won't work properly if you do that and you will need to "reinitialize" the disk. Or so I've heard. I'm not going to try and find out.:D:)

If you think it's worth the effort, go to http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html and get a Knoppix CD. Boot from it, and see if you have the same problem. But it's a lot of work if you have a dialup connection like me--700 MB! However, that CD is the best troubleshooting/portable os/rescue disk/whatever I have ever seen:). (While I'm on this tangent, I have to ask--is win98 taking 10 minutes to boot up on your system?)

If you're going to poke around inside the case, you'll want to look at the Compaq MSG (yes that's what it's called), here. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to find that documentation.

Quote:

]I intalled WinMX and it found the monitor and sound on its own.

What is WinMX? Google says "filesharing program." So...

Quote:

]I did not use the recovery disk when I re-formated the computer

Er... then what did you use?

Hope we can get to the bottom of this :):)
~psi42