Sound Card Driver

Sound Card Drivers - Free Download

2008-04-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Latest update for sound card drivers, download for audio types as: AOpen, Asus, Audiotrack, Aztech, Cirrus Logic, C-Media, Creative, ESS Audio, Genius, Guillemot/ Hercules, Leadtek, Philips, Realtek, Screpte, Terratec, Trust, VIA, Videologic, Yamaha, and many others, support for Windows (95, 98, XP and several for Vista).

AOpen

Asus

AUDIOTRAK

AZTECH

CIRRUS LOGIC

CMedia

CREATIVE

ESS AUDIO

GENIUS

GUILLEMOT/HERCULES

LEADTEK

OTHER SOUNDCARDS

PHILIPS

REALTEK

Sceptre

TERRATEC

TRUST

VIA

VIDEOLOGIC

YAMAHA

How And When To Upgrade Your Sound Card

2008-04-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Have you seen or even heard of a new computer without a sound card today? Yet many PC users, even owners of new systems upgrade their sound card.

Why you ask? Many new computers come with an integrated sound card.This means that the sound card is really a chip mounted right onto the motherboard.This type of sound card is of poor quality and sound.

Installing a new dedicated sound card in an empty expansion bay will greatly improve the quality and sound of anything you listen to on your computer, especially those awesome in depth games you play.

Before deciding to upgrade your sound card, you should know the type of sound card you have and its capability. You should know if your current sound card is integrated or if its inserted into a adapter slot in the system unit.

Its rather easy to find this information from your PC by clicking on Start,Control Panel,click on Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices. Now Click on Sounds and Audio Devices and click on the Hardware Tab.Whew,that's a lot of clicking isn't it.

But you can find this information without going through the hassle of opening your computer or its owner's manual.If you see a device with the phrase "Integrated Digital Audio" then you have an integrated sound chip on your motherboard.

Games are no doubt the first reason for sound card upgrades.Nearly all games support 3D audio APIs or Application Program Interface.This technology use surround sound through your sound card.

Two of the most popular APIs are Microsoft's DirectX and Creative Lab's EAX. When upgrading don't overlook the type of speakers you have.You will cripple that awesome new sound card if your speakers are the pits.

The Second thing you need to do in upgrading is to remove any and all software concerning your current card. And you need to disable your old card if it is integrated onto the motherboard.

To perform this task,boot up your computer and as it goes through the POST or Power On Self Test,press the key combination that will allow you to access your BIOS.

Your BIOS is your Basic Input Output System which tells the computer to check itself for operation.There are various key combinations and sometimes just one key such as F1 to access the BIOS.Check your owner's manual to be sure of the right key.

Once inside the BIOS,look for references such as "On-board" or "Integrated" devices.Click this reference and find the "Sound Device.Next change the settings to off or disabled.The Integrated sound chip is now off.

To remove any software and device drivers related to the old card,Click on Start,Control Panel,and click the System Icon.Then click the Hardware tab of the System properties windows.

Now click on the Device Manager button and click the plus sign next to Sound,Video,and Game Controllers.Now you will need to Right-click on the entry for your sound card or chip.

Choose Uninstall from the drop-down menu to complete the software removal task.This procedure must not be overlooked since the computer uses device drivers to talk to the components inside the PC.

Now you are ready to remove the old card if it is in a expansion slot and install the new card. Turn off the PC and unplug it.Remove static charge from yourself by touching a doorknob or using a wrist strap.

Open the case and locate the sound card in one of the adapter slots.Remove the retaining screw and carefully pull the old card out.Take note of the cable coming from the cd-rom and dvd drive.

Disconnect this cable,remove the old card and push the new card in its place.Re-connect the dvd drive cable and secure the card to the system unit using the old retaining screw.

Now you can replace the system unit cover,plug all the peripherals into the computer and plug the PC back into its power source.Plug the speakers into the line level output of the sound card.

Start the computer and when Windows detect the new card,follow the instructions to install the manufacturer supplied software with the device drivers.

Even though the sound card is new,visit the card's support web site and check to be certain you have the most recent device drivers.If not,you can easily download and install them from the support site.

And there you have it.Its that simple to upgrade your crappy old sound card to a powerful high quality sound card capable of producing bone shaddering noises in conjunction with the awesome graphics in your favorite game.

About the Author:

Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Sign up to receive his informative articles every month and learn PC Repair absolutely free.Sign up
now at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

Record and create MP3 from your home

2008-04-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

You won't get any substitution for a good recording being done in a professional recording studio. With the rise in popularity of digital PC recording and the low cost of recording software, many people are thinking again for the idea of home recording. The ease of MP3 distribution and the sites that offer free web hosting and the ability to upload and download free music, the difficulty of promoting and distributing your MP3 band has become very easy.

You need to think that what is needed to begin such recording at home, how these recordings can be turned into MP3's and what to do with these MP3 ‘s once they are created. Home recording on a PC requires some necessary things such as a computer, recording software and a digital sound card. If you are recording multiple tracks from multiple sources at the same time you might want to invest in a mixer as well. This will allow you input more than one instrument or microphone to your computer at the same time. You need to install your recording software and sound card drivers. Plug your mixer into your sound card, plug your instruments into your mixer and there you are ready for recording. The recording process may be a little different depending upon what software you are using. Most decent software comes with a good instruction manual that you can consult if you have any problems. After recording, you can also mix all tracks down to stereo audio .wav file.

Now that the recording is completed and you have the .wav file in hand you can convert it into MP3 file. IF you burn your tracks to CD, you won't need to convert it to a MP3 file but for distributing music downloads on the web, the most universally accepted method will be an Mp3 file. You can take your .wav file and export it as an MP3 with the help of any audio recording program. Most of the recording software provides this option but you should keep in mind that you might need to mess with the output settings to get the best quality MP3 program. Another option is to use a stand alone .wav to MP3 converter.

Once you have your MP3 files, you can set up your own website and offer free music downloads. You can visit many websites that offer free web hosting for musicians so that the musicians will have a place to offer downloadable music Mp3, music videos and music lyrics.

About the Author:

Olivia Andrews, writer of freedownloadmp3song.info is a freelance journalist and has written many reviews on subjects such as finance, education, health, entertainment, music, gifts, crafts, travel, apparels and mobile phones.

Know More About Computer Speaker

2008-04-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

When Charles Babbage invented computer, it was meant for calculations and nothing else. And moreover, it was huge in size with less functioning. But technological experimentation over the years has resulted into the change in the forms and functioning of the computers. Calculation is a just a small part of the broad system; it is now the most hi-tech equipment for interaction, networking and entertainment. A computer has become a replacement of the televisions, movie theatres and as well as music players. And for all these things good quality computer speakers are required.

Computer speaker is also known as multimedia speaker that is used externally and has low power internal amplifier. Most of speakers that come along with the computer do not have good sound quality but those with better sound quality have equalization features like bass and treble that support the quality to some extent. The sophisticated speakers have a sub-woofer unit to support the bass output and they usually include power amplifiers both for the bass speaker and the satellite speaker.

However, the qualities of the computer speaker depend on the manufacturer. But there are some common features too. First of all there are controls of volume and the bass and treble that support the sound. Next is the audio connection, which is 3.5mm (or1/8 inch, considered to be standard) stereo jack. Then there is a power indicator called the light emitting diode (LED) indicator.

High quality computer speaker is that, which has high frequency response, total harmonic distortion and has more watts, i.e. it should have good amount of amplification. Frequency response actually determines the measurement of amount of sound (high or low) produced by the speaker. Whereas, total harmonic distortion means the amount of distortion created by amplifying the signal. These higher quality speakers are not only used for music and movies but also are the perfect ones for multimedia and games as they provide higher quality sound effects.

Among the others, personal computers are such that are being used with greater frequency. And moreover, multimedia is one of the vital features of every computer with other software applications due to which the personal computers are more in use. Especially with increase in the use of video and the audio application in the multimedia, speakers are becoming important day by day. Most of the desktop computers and laptops usually had a single audio output, which had minimum dynamic range. Even the sound cards that are capable of reproducing high fidelity sound were absent in most of the computers.

Multimedia integrated computers have LCD display panels; CD ROM drives as well as audio speaker systems. Moreover, it also has added stereo high fidelity sound and improved sound card systems. Multimedia computer speaker system includes pairs of wide band speaker drivers mounted in different housings with amplification. It should be mentioned here that integral amplification electronics provide simple and compact transducers. This feature makes the sound quality of these speakers more exclusive and perfect for music.

About the Author:

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for music gear, speakers, and microphones. You can find the best marketplace for music gear, speakers, and microphones at these 3 sites: music gear, music equipment, speakers, computer speaker, , and laser microphones, parabolic microphone.