Is there a sound card for this old computer?

[rjisinspired]

My girlfriend has an old Intel 440 motherboard with a pentium 2 processor running Wimdows ME. This was a custom built computer: 256 megs of ram, 350 mghrtz processor and, get this, a 4 gb hard drive!!, loool. I hope my girlfriend never sees this page, she'll put me in the dog house for bashing her computer :-)

Her computer's sound card seems to be able to record but not playback sound. The sound card is an "analog devices 1816" brand and I have done everything from removing and readding these drivers, reseating the card into different PCI slots, playing around in bios and using different speakers to no avail.

There is something in the registry for this card/device as a "problem device" so I'm willing to venture that this sound card is fubared and I may need to get a hold of possibly an old creative labs card. Does anyone have any recommendations for a sound card for this old machine?

I have looked around for creative labs and turtle beach sound cards but I don't see any cards that would work with an older machine running windows ME. I however have seen old sound blaster cards being sold for as low as 1.00 up to a couple of hundred for the very same card huh?!! Never heard of a lot of these shops that carry these old cards also.

I hope that someday I can build her an awesome computer but for now if I can find a card that would work in her system, that would suffice. I would at least be out of the dog house after her reading this post

I have nothing against old computers but I sure am happy when I go back home and get back on my own computer. Runs like the wind. I built mine last year and built it with speed and longevity in mind. When I get on hers I feel like smacking myself hard against the walls of her living room and pulling my hair out and saying some really nasty words out loud.

This "thing' she has freezes all the time, locks up, blue screens. We have to use Opera just to really view anything. Boot time is about a good 2 minutes with only two things running in systray: Avast and filseclab firewall. I'm probably living on the edge using Avast on this machine in the first place, lol. Her system appears to be healthy otherwise, free of viruses and of junk. I use to be a die-hard 98 fan but windows ME seems to be a very delicate OS.

I tried looking up for some ME patches and updates but it looks like there isn't an apup for windows ME and everything has to be installed one-by-one. That I don't have the patience for. I then thought to put windows 2000 on her system, hmmmm. Might work out better?

Anyway, if anyone would know of a decent, older, sound card that would work with an older machine running windows ME that would be super. Thanks for all of your time.

RJ

[CoffeeFiend]

At some point, it's just not worth the hassle (all this, for a uber-slow P2 350 that barely runs WinME?) I'd sooner check local classifieds, craigslist, computer recycling places and what not. You can usually find basic P4's (2.x GHz) for under $100 (I've seen plenty of them being donated/free before). It would be a massive upgrade in every possible way, and it wouldn't cost much more than just a crappy old soundcard (and definitely less than trying to upgrade it part by part from ebay or such)

[hydroplant]

i hate to agree but go get a old P4 machine for less then a few 100 bucks heck i picked one up a few years ago for 100 cant think they would be more then that now. might be even cheaper who knows just get a new one for the price of a sound card you could have a better system.

[rjisinspired]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Your right. It wouldn't be worth it.

I could just see the sound getting choppy and destroyed when trying to use something even as simple as Audacity to record singing with a working sound card in this old machine. That is if this machine could even handle opening Audacity which I think this machine would choke on it.

I'll look into the low cost and refurbished lines. Thanks guys.

[jcarle]

You can also build a brand new complete PC using quality parts for less then $400.

[Sysdll]

By all means, keep the girlfriend happy.

There is a really good guide on Ebay about Sound Blaster Live sound cards. The third generation retail cards are the ones to look for.

There are also some inexpensive Athlon and Tualatin systems out there. A 1.4 ghz processor can be adequate for basic computing with a little tweaking and fine tuning.