I have a E-Machine N-10 but when you look under the bottom side it says Modle W3404A but in another section it says Modle N-10, odd.

Any how This couple I know wanted their labtop fix and let me tell this thing was messed up could not run normal or in safe mode because of all kinds of errors, man this thing was messed up. OK NP here just do a factory restore from the recovery partion, wrooong, the thing crashes, hangs up, will not boot nadda nadda.

Well nice I say here comes a headach, np Whip out the windows media center cd's and just say heck on it and format the drive, fine so far, now when I download the drivers from emachine web site, guess what.

Everything installs but no sound, so I tryed and tryed to get it to work nothing, now I am in my 4th format because of trying differant things and the strage part is I found drivers this morning from gateways web site for this machine, in fact more drivers than emachine site and better install instruction. Ok install all the drivers again, and no sound, when I even look at the device manager, no question marks or nothing, everything looks normal, but when you go into the control panel, and double click on the sound icon, it shows no device at all, all is grayed out.

So I am lost of whats wrong:

When you look at the specs online you see it says AC97 2.3 compliant, but the drivers are Sigmatel Tel High Definition Audio Codec, this is where I am thrown off.

Did a back up of the drivers before formatting and the system shows this:
Nividia Geforce 6100
Agere Systems HDA Modem
Nvidia Nforce Networking Controller
Realtek RTL 8185 54M Wireless Network adapter
Now it did not show a sound card, but the sound was working, listed was in the section: Sound, Video, Game controller was Sigma Tel High Definition Audio Codec and a bunch other stuff with no yellow question marks.

Any clues to what you think is, either I got a feeling, could the sound card have gone bad. Or when walmart had these things built it another mfg part thats not listed on E-machines web site or gateway. E-machine had not answer the e-mail support yet, waiting to see what they will say.

Done tryed install the lastest update AC97 drivers, nothing, heck I even tryed Sound max drivers and nothing. So this is why I am here two heads or more better than one.

This post has been edited by Jimbo1: Nov 11 2009, 01:51 PM

I only have 1 suggestion based on such a battle years ago, go into the sound in the control panel as you have where it's greyed out, now I can't recall exactly where it is, so look through the tabs as needed, what your looking for is a drop down box(es) listing the hardware to be used for the sound, in the case I had it turned out it had listed the modem for audio, once I used the drop down box and selected the sound card it all worked fine, completely freak situation and only time I've encountered it, no idea how it happened, but it gave me issues such as yours until I found this, hope it works for you, not sure what else to suggest if it doesn't.

k, will do, downloading all the windows updates atm and bringing it to SP3. Nods first for me, like I said before this makes the 4th format of trying because of trying other drivers. I am beating myself up because before the first format it was working and now it's not, make me think that a sound card or built in one can go out that fast.

As one post read, the E-machine labtop I am messing with blew away like a fart in the wind.

Went to control panel and here is the low down:
Volume tab - no audio device - grayed out
Sound tab - Windows default scheme
Audio tab - Default device grayed out np play
sound recorder - none, midi playback - none } not able to use pull down tab no able to select
Voice tab - none all grayed out
Hardware tab- List a lot
Sigma tell high definition audio codec, such and such to many to type.

Did more looking on the net some give ref to Sigma Tel Stac 9200 @ Nvidia nforce 430 (MCDSI HDA)
Some say try Nforce driver 430/410 from nvidia web site
some say ALC880 drivers
Some say Nvidia c51 mv chipset drivers

Me say gets gun and shoots labtop

If I try these and windows gets messed up again another or another format and back to square one.

Well looking at my options the tab to select the hardware is the Audio tab, it then has 3 drop down boxes to select to hardware to use with each feature, if this is all greyed out for you then I have to wonder about it being a driver issue, have you checked under the device manager to see if there are any conflicts ?
What may be worth a try in to uninstall the audio from the device manager, then reboot and let the system auto install it, and let it search online for a driver, the hope is it will get the right driver and associate everything correctly again, beyond that I don't know what else to think ATM.

When I even look at the device manager, no question marks or nothing, everything looks normal, but when you go into the control panel, and double click on the sound icon, it shows no device.All is grayed out.

The drivers from the MFG site are these = Sigma Tel high definition audio codec and they pick up a item and install with no problem. Yet no sound. Like I have said in my first post the specs on line shows AC97 2.3 compliant.

When I read of the sound problems on the net with this machine using Windows Media Center they all have differant answers to the problem as these listed below.

Some say try Nforce driver 430/410 from nvidia web site
some say ALC880 drivers
Some say Nvidia c51 mv chipset drivers

Had not tryed any of those yet, others I have tryed and nothing and ended up reformatting the machine 4 times because of messing up the operating system. From what I gather WalMart had a lot of these machines made, from who ever makes E-Machines, then these same drivers for same modle # are on gateways support site and then gatway had these made from somewhere over seas.

I did a backup using driver magican and the drivers for sound was Sigma Tel high definition audio codec using E-machine drivers, using gateways drivers and using the update driver in device manager all netted same results no sound. Only monkey wrench is the spec's for this machine saying AC97 2.3 compliant.

So this is why I am puzzle and almost to a point of shooting this thing. Yes like you said its almost like their is no sound card in the system, but yet as I remove the device as you said, windows does find it and ask these options - let it search online for a driver and did this and nothing found online.

Thats why one guy on the net said these machine vanished like a fart in the wind.

This post has been edited by Jimbo1: Nov 12 2009, 12:48 PM

No wonder your stuck, definitely a weird one, only things I can think of currently is either the device is faulty, or the most likely is the driver, and given your comments on the driver issue it's the most likely, I have a vague recollection of a system way back that had more than 1 sound file required to work (can't recall more clearly than that), so I wonder if there is a 2nd file required before it works perhaps ?
Here is your driver page, I suggest going there and downloading the drivers again, I notice they offered numerous downloads of the same type, but they were broken down by the OS, so there is more than 1 Audio download, but 1 is for Vista, 1 for xp etc, so take note of each description and make sure you get the correct driver, I would also install the chipset driver again as well just to be safe, see if this helps, don't forget if using Vista right click and run as admin.

Did that and on the chip set drivers their are 2 of them that has to be installed because of a co processor, and yes I have ran into systems before which required 2 drivers to be loaded to run, this is what I think is going on but because of these machine no longer made and somehow these same drivers are on gateways web site and more than emachines web site. In the process of trying the last 3 drivers that others on the net said to try will post the results.

Is it possible the onboard sound went out, hey I seen weird things before. If they do not work than I will have to admit defeat

Well I have to admit defeat, don't know what, tryed the last 3 drivers others on the net have tryed and nothing, even deleted the file to let windows pick up unknown device and let it pick up the drivers from the folder and nothing. I have ran into this before where you had to install 2 set of drivers but because of this machine no longer made from 2006 or 2007 no telling whats going on, everything else is working fine.

So again one more time, I went ahead and reformatted the machine, not last time all I was getting under device manager were audio device on high definition audio bus, but now their another listing and it this:
modem device on high definition audio bus , tryed to install modem drivers in the past 5 attempts but as the driver gets about 50% it kicks its self out.

So the question now, is the sound working through the modem or is the modem and sound on the mother board apart?

This post has been edited by Jimbo1: Nov 13 2009, 01:35 PM

Well this is strange after the last time trying and going out to clear the head up went ahead and did this, like I said in the last post of all the time formatting this never showed up in device manager = modem device on high definition audio bus, plus I also had = audio device on high definition audio bus.

As I said when trying to install the modem drivers in the past it would kick itself out after about 50% install. This time it did not and after that was done I tryed the sound card drivers again and said well its not going to work, but when windows rebooted the nice sound of windows shutting down sound came through the speakers, I said naaa a fluke, but when windows started up sound. Wheeeeeee, after a week of fighting this, don't ask me why it started working and going to leave it at that.

Thanks 8210GUY, guess were going have to add this one to the record books of strange one.

Sounds like a variation of the experience I had where the modem became listed as the audio device, although in your case it was the required component, definitely one to remember, Thanks for the update, and sorry I couldn't get back sooner, trying to get set for a wedding tomorrow as well as trying to get the house in shape for Xmas after some building work, glad you got it sorted though.

Yep going to do some reading and as you said the modem must have been a required component, pretty sure I saw this one time or another, but hey I am glad its working.

Have a happy wedding feast and take care will see ya more, I am sure.