For several months now I've been having an audio problem. The problem PC is an older Jetway V266b running XP SP2. The O/S keeps identifying the embedded audio as a C-media product, which it isn't, its VIA/Avance using the VIA 8233A chip in VIA's K266A chipset.

I know thw audio works as I can dual boot the PC into a clean XP SP1 O/S and the audio is identified as VIA/Avance and works OK.

I can't roll back to SP1 as too many changes have been made to the system. I know I could reinstall the OS or install a separate sound card but I'd rather fix the problem rather than work round it.

I've read the postings starting at http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread25517.html and followed the instructions carefully but so far no joy. The problem has become personal know *!"%$$! and I really want to beat it. If I could find the location where the OS gets its C-media reference from I'd be in with a better chance, so any assistance would be gratefully received.
Kind regards.

The whole reason it gets identified as C-Media Audio is because, and this is just my belief, but I think either someone at Microsoft or whomever created the original Realtek AC'97/Avance 97 sound components/chipset/drivers got a wild hair up their butt and decided that when they were going to update/upgrade the driver set for these components that that would be what it would be called. Or maybe a company called C-Media bought the rights, which is more likely. I don't know for sure, but I do know that if your system is identifying the device as this, it's not that it is misreading the components/chipset, etc., quite the opposite. It is trying to load the updated/upgraded driver, which doesn't work I've seen in about 95% of the cases I've seen, unfortunately. Whatever C-Media INF file they created is what has that reference and its entries into the system are only replaced when another driver is installed in its place as the CurrentControlSet sound driver in the registry (in HKCU). Finding & deleting the INF will not help you, nor just the entries, either. It all must go.

The key is getting rid of, or at least fooling the system into thinking it's gotten rid of, that newer C-Media driver by getting rid of the system files and registry entries as I described, then taking it out of the Device Manager and then re-installing the old driver. More importantly than that, though, is that if you don't get the RIGHT old driver for your components that worked before it updated and get that re-installed into your system, you won't have sound and you'll have to go through the removal process with the driver you are trying to use and hope to God C-Media doesn't re-install until you do get the right one. My suggestion is to break out your motherboard CD or the CD that came with your system that says "Drivers & Applications" or whatever came with your system and find the driver on that. If it has a setup.exe, after you remove all the corresponding C-Media registry entries & files and the Device Manager component, run the setup.exe for your sound driver. If it has an INF file, you'll have to go through the Add New Hardware wizard in the Control Panel and point it at the file.

Double-check my thread at http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread25517.html, because I don't have everything there that you need to know all in one post, unfortunately... Make sure you read all of my entries there, because I left out some later discoveries from the first posts as the thread goes on.

Hope this helps,
Tom