Page 2 - Serial Port In Intel DG965RY Motherboard

Hello "beleagured",

You were right yet again!

After disabling the following two softwares:

1. Symantec Norton AV
2. Google Desktop

and running Windows in Safe Mode, I could revert to the earlier Restore Point set by me. Thank you very much!

The Restore Point screen shows me the points for only two months - the current month (April) and the previous month. Is it possible to go further back, to say February? Because my hope is that if I revert to some restore point in February, perhaps my sound will come back!

I would also appreciate your advice and guidance on the alternative route of soundcard. Since the efforts in reviving the onboard sound facility of DG965RY motherboard has not yielded results, will it help if I buy and install a third-party soundcard on the motherboard?

If so, then what features do you recommend I should look for in the soundcard? It shouldn't be too hi-fi, at the same time should be in tune with the times (not legacy, not obsolete). Any particular brand that will be 100% compatible to DG965RY?

In the TPS document, it says the motherboard has "two IEEE-1394a interfaces" for peripheral interfaces, one PCI-Express x16 add-in card connector, three PCI Express x1 bus add-in card connectors, and three PCI Conventional bus connectors. Which of these connectors / interfaces will the card fit in?

Given the advancement in software technology nowadays, I guess the OS will detect the new hardware automatically, and when it asks for the driver I will point it to the CD that will (hopefully) have come with the card. After installation, may be I can go to the soundcard manufacturer's website to see if there are any updates available to the card's software.

Request your help on both these points: the ability to go back beyond the two-month range in Restore points, and the choice of an appropriate soundcard.

Thanks in advance.

Automatic points will begin deleting themselves when the set amount of disk space has been taken by all your restore points (default 12% of max disk space in Win XP I believe). As newer restore points are created, older ones are deleted if the space is needed. I'm pretty sure you can change the maximum disk space allowed if necessary.

I'm not too big on sound cards honestly, so someone else may be able to provide some decent feedback for that. I've had horrible experiences with Creative Labs products (their drivers/software, namely). This was a few years ago, and I've just used the onboard audio on my motherboard for the longest time.

Hello "beleagured",

Thank you for your response.

What the restore-point limitation means is that, after changing the %age of storage allocation, henceforth I will be able to have more restore points to revert to, in the future. However, what earlier restore points have been lost, have been lost.

Re third-party soundcards, I am happy to inform that I have managed to install an old Yamaha soundcard on the motherboard. The OS detected the new device and could locate the appropriate drivers and codecs from the internet somewhere. I disabled the on-board audio device in the device manager of the hardware tab in "System".

As of this moment, my sound problem has been solved. The conclusion that I have arrived after this journey is that: there is some clash between IDT and the latest Microsoft upgrade that I received from them, to my XPSP3. Perhaps this clash will be resolved in some future upgrade automatically, or I will have to keep on the lookout for either IDT or Microsoft coming up with a solution.

Thank you very much for your help, "beleagured".

Best regards.