Onboard Audio

[Grahamdubya]

My mobo has an integrated sound card with only line in, out, and mic in. I want to add some 5.1 capabilities in the form of a SB-Something in a PCI slot, but I was wondering if I needed to turn off the intergrated first. Also, how would I go about doing that? can i add a card without confusing the system?

[Xayd]

Yes you'll want to disable it.

Simply open up control panel/device manager and uninstall the current sound device(s), reboot, and go into your BIOS and disable the onboard sound.

After saving the bios settings put in your new sound card and reboot/install drivers, that's it.

If there are no settings for your onboard sound in the BIOS it may be a jumper on the motherboard itself that you need to change to disable it, in which case you'll need to find the manual for the motherboard to locate the jumper.

[ktkendall]

You definately want to turn off that onboard audio first, and that is done in the BIOS setup. That is the little place where it says right at the begining when U turn PC on and at the bottom of screen says something LIKE press F1 now to enter setup. Do that by pressing whatever it says to and usually its found under the heading of integrated periphials, and U should see a setting for onboard audio enable/disable. Disable it and exit saving changes. I think I would actually remove the sound device from windows device manager first, then reboot, entering the BIOS this time, disable the sound, exit saving changes, boot windows with no sound, chack device manager to be sure its completely gone, then shutdown, unplug power from wall or back of case, and open up and add new sound..

[wolfie]

also you might want to look at the external sound out now so you dont have to put anything into it.