I downgraded my OS on my Acer Notebook (5570Z) from VISTA Home Premium
to XP Pro with SP3. Its a SATA hdd if that matters. I downloaded all the XP drivers
from Acers download site and everything works EXCEPT for the sound & I dont have a modem
now (Although the wirelesss modem works so I can access the net wirelesssly anyway..
The audio specs. are Realtek High definition Audio ALC883.
I downloaded the driver for xp from Realtek and it doesnt work. It show up in my Device Manager
but has the yellow exclamation mark next to it. And in The Control Panel under properties for it
it says 'Device Cannot Start. The drivers may be missing or corrupted"
I have re-downloaded both drivers 3 times just to eliminate the corruption angle. Still no go.
I also have PCI Device with the yellow exclamation mark next to it also. I have tried installing
the Realtek driver R192 and even the updated one later R194. But nothing.
I have read that installing the UAA is pointless since I have SP3 so.....
And nowhere is there anywhere where it says microsoft UAA etc. in System Devices in Device Manager.
Now one time I did fiddle with uninstalling and re-installiing etc. for almost 3 weeks, and one day
all of a sudden I had sound. The speaker icon for the first time appeared in my task bar and I actually had
sound. I have no idea how it happened. Well...I had to reformat 2 days ago and thought maybe I would stumble across the solution accidently again and get my audio again but no go.
I ALWAYS restart after each install but no luck. I removed the PCI via Uninstall when installing the driver so as tro avoid any conflicts. And even left it on there a few time installed to see if it made any difference. I never could resolve the PCI Device with the Yellow exclamation mark except for 1 time. I used my vista drivers backup CD to install on it..it installed and was recorded in System in Device Manager as High Definition Audio Controller. HOWEVER..it still had the Yellow Exclamation mark next to it. I dont know why it would even load and install the VISTA driver when I was using XP OS now. Although I have left the backup VISTA OS on my D:E: partition just so I could reinstall VISTA if XP Didnt work out.
Using Everest (before I downgraded) the audio specs are:
Realtek High Definition Audio ALC883
THANK YOU to anyone who can help me with this.
I know it can be fixed again since it did work once.
I have almost no hair left now..haha