AC97 Drivers Continuous Reboot and Won't InstallI hate drivers. I really do. Just wrestled with another AC97 (AC 97) REALTEK driver issue on an older computer with WINDOWS XP SP3.
The board was an INTEL D845GRG (audio was a 82801DB). The driver from REALTEK kept rebooting without finishing (WDM_A406) and the INTEL drivers kept saying, "DRIVER NOT FOUND" with the SOUNDMAX installs.
Here are the steps I used to get it fixed:
A patch is required before any of the HD device drivers are installed, but the patch will only go on XP SP2 computers.
-right-click MY COMPUTER
-click MANAGE
-click DEVICE MANAGER (on the left-hand side)
-find SOUND, VIDEO, AND GAME CONTROLLERS
-under it, find the yellow exclamation point
-right-click yellow exclamation point
-click UNINSTALL
-click START > RUN
-type: regedit
-go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows\CSDVersion
-change HEX VALUE TO: 200
-Restart your PC
-download kb888111xpsp2.exe
-install: kb888111xpsp2.exe
-download: Audio_eMachines_5.12.1.3571_XPx86_A.zip
-unzip: Audio_eMachines_5.12.1.3571_XPx86_A.zip
-run: SoundMAX_WDM_5_12_1_3571.exe
(the old driver is removed & new is downloaded)
(may have to manually run: DownloadedDriver_1-7-2005\Setup.exe)
-Restart your PC
-click START > RUN
-type: regedit
-go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows\CSDVersion
-change HEX VALUE TO: 300
-Restart your PC
I'm putting this here so I never have to deal with it again.