How To Download Device Drivers Free?

C-Media AC97 Audio Device (Need drivers)?

• After reformatting my HDD and reinstalling Windows XP version 5.1.2600 I have a problem with my on board audio device which is C-Media AC 97. I tried to reinstall the drivers from the CD which came with the motherboard but I get a message CODE 10. I went to the site of C-MEDIA and down loaded all that was meant for onboard device drivers. But still my device not working properly. Some of the drivers are free but some are for sale through C-net, which obiously I don't want to purchase. I also opened the CPU in order to find out the type and the number of the audio device but could not locate it. I am not an expert in that!! Can somebody tell me how to know the correct number of the device in order to download the required drivers? Can anybody tell me an alternative site where I can get these required drivers without the hassels of using a credit card?

• Answer:

  Try this one first, it covers the 8738 and 9738 onboard CMI (c-media) solutions which are common on many mainboards that have the onboard CMI AC97 codec. http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/cmedia-9738.html Alternatively you can try some of the onboard CMI codecs from here if that doesn't work. http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/drivers_sound.html Be very sure though that you actually have a c-media based controller - you might not. Look on your motherboard if you can at the actual chip it might be a Realtek chip - better yet download Everest Home edition (google it) and run that and it will tell you exactly what onboard codec you have (example 8738-9739-9338 etc..) and you can go from there. If you find out you have a realtek AC97 chip you would go directly to the realtek site to download it. If you have a VIA based AC97 chip you would go to viaarena to download it.