motherboard sound chip problems

[Lain]

I have discovered that most of my games are crashing because of my crappy motherboard sound chip. When I disable the chip through the BIOS, all the games run beautifully. I would, however, like to be able to have sound without having to purchase a sound card. I believe I might have found a solution for my problem in the readme file for GTA vice city. It states:
"We found that running Microsoft's "DXDIAG" and performing the sound tests, will present the user with an error message saying that a hardware buffer is not supported, and would you like to use a software buffer. Selecting a software buffer will allow this sound chipset to work with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City." [and hopefully other games i've tested]
So I tried the dxdiag test, and it did say that my soundchip couldn't support a hardware buffer, but it didn't ask me to select a software buffer. Is there other some way I can set this manually?

Thanks
Lain

 

[Codesmith]

In the past I have experimented with different driver versions until I found one that won't crash my games.

Start with the latest version provided by your motherboard's support page, then work your way back. With cheap soundcards they will often release a patch to fix one problem that ends up causing another.

Also getting the drivers direct from the chipset manufactuer is another option. Usually they will have newer drivers, but the MB maker just hasn't bothered testing them and updating their suport page.

Games quit crashing my mother's PC when I used the 2nd newest drivers from the MB support page.

BTW I use a SB Live 5.1 which you can get for $30 and I have zero problems with games.

An Audigy 2 Value is about $50 and supports EAX 4.