Everest listing puts a question mark beside PCI Multimedia Audio Device. So I guess this means I have no sound driver?

This is a locally built custom machine.

That's probably what it means.

Did you ever check your Device Manager?

You said at the beginning: "My computer booted up telling me it had to find a driver for Soundmax digital system"

Why not try to give it a SoundMax Driver from the above site.

If that doesn't work then get a firm ID on your sound card & search for its' driver.

If Everest doesn't give any more detail than: "PCI Multimedia Audio Device" you need to run other scans or look in dxdiag or the Device Manager to ID your sound card or chip.

in the device manager listing for PCI/PnP audio, it lists a VIA AC97 Enhanced Audio Controller. What's that?

is the device ID what I use to find a driver?

VIA AC97 Enhanced Audio Controller is your onboard Audio Device.

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

Choose 98SE then Audio.

Go back to Everest & verify your chipset under motherboard & see if you get a match at the above link.


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at Viaarena, the motherboard model # does not show. What next?

Back to Everest:

What is under Motherboard | Motherboard Properties

Also what is under Chipset | Chipset Properties

or if you want to try this:

VIA Audio Drivers Pack 3.70c


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I went through the VIA arena site, downloaded the driver and unzipped it. What to do to get the speaker icon on the taskbar?

In the multimedia box in Control Panel, the option of placing the speaker on the taskbar is grayed out. How to change that? Do it in safe mode?