CMI Audio Config wont remove after unstalling C-Media sound drive

CMI Audio Config icon in my control panel wont remove after unstalling
C-Media sound driver from Microsoft downloads. Cant delete this driver so
conflict with my NVIDA driver results in NO SOUND

Go to Device Manager and remove everything that might have something to
do with C-Media. (Starting with CMI etc)
After a while he system should tell you that it has found new hardware
(the soundcard) and installs the original drivers. If it does not,
install the original sound drivers from your CD.

What was the actual reason to update the drivers? If sound worked OK
before, was there really any reason to update?
Also, AFAIK your system is not ment to use C-Media drivers at all, but
Realtek-drivers.

The Microsoft website listed this download as an improvement. My mistake.
It s like a virus that I can't remove after 15 attemps to clean the
registry. Any brilliant ideas?

You were not able to remove it through Device Manager the way I told
you? It usually can be uninstalled that way.

Did 100% cleanup and then CAudio reinstalled itself on reboot.
Please tell me a better way to get my sound back to NVIDA.

Well...let's start.

-Backup you registry

- Start regedit and find a key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

- There you'll find something that has to do with C-media, propably a
string "cmaudio". Delete that string

- Do a registry search. Search for "cmaudio" and "C-Media". Search
everything, not just string, but keys also

-Delete everything related to C-Media/cmaudio/cmc.....something

- Find
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control
Panel\Cpls

- Find "Cmcpls"

- It points to a file in c:\windows\system32

-Delete that file from the disk and "Cmcpls" from registry

- Go to c:\windows\system32
-Delete these files:
cmirmdrv.exe
cmirmdrv.dll
cmuda.dll
cmicnfg.cpl

-Delete C:\WINDOWS\System32\LastGood\cmicnfg.cpl

- Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers. Find every file that has something
to do with C-Media and delete them. Propably "it" is called cmuda.dll
but there may be more. They all begin with 'cm'. If you have doubts,
right click on a dll and check the Properties.

-Empty these folders:
C:\Temp
C:\WINDOWS\prefetch
C:\WINDOWS\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Temp
(Notice: You are not able to delete some files, perfdata etc. That is
not a problem)

- Go to Command prompt

- Type the following lines, Enter of course after each line:
net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 renamed_catroot2
net start cryptsvc

-Check c:\windows\Driver Cache. If you find there something that has to
do with C-Media, delete it.

-Find C:\ windows\system 32\dllcache and empty it (Do not delete the
folder)

- Go to Device Manager

- Find the C-Media driver. It should be under Sound, video and game
controllers

-Right-click on it and select Uninstall/Remove/whatever it is in English

-Open c:\windows\system32
-On the top of the Device manager list you can see your computer
-Right click on it and select "Scan for hardware changes"
-Keep you eye on the bottom of the window where you have
c:\windows\system32 open. If cmuda.dll, cmirmdrv.exe and cmirmdrv.dll
re-appear there, delete them as soon as you see them.

-Generic Multimedia Audio Driver having yellow exclamation mark on it
should now appear to Device Manager.

-Now you can install original drivers from your soundcard CD

If this does not help you, I've ran out of solutions, sorry.

I actually installed the C-Media drivers and killed my computers sounds
trying to solve your problem and I was able to get sound back with this
method.

I follwowed all instructions. At then end, I right clicked to select "Scan
for hardware changes", pointed to my CD with nvidIa audio drivers, and the
wrong C-Media driver reinstalled itself as before. Only cleanup glitch was I
could not delete reference in PCI/DeviceDesc: C-Media (Reg_SZ) and also Mfg
; C-Meica (Reg_SZ). Am I missing something???

On that point, when it starts to install C-media again, it is essential
that you keep your eye on /system32 and delete the all the c-media stuff
as soon as it appears.

But as said...if this did not help you, I just ran out of solutions.
Sorry. :(

Hello, JK.
I just chanced upon your instructions on this CMI Audio problem. I have it on a P4 machine running XPP. I do not know how I got this CMI stuff but it sure interfered with my machine. Dead audio.

To cure it, I did a Restore 6 weeks ago. It got rid of it as I have the audio back. Why/how this took place I totally ignore. Was this part of an Update from Microsoft ? My Hardware shows a yellow ! on C-Media AC97 Audio Device, it keeps re-installing it on every booting.

I will read your text, I got it dumped to a printer and come back to you on any success. . . . or not.

Have a great day and may Christmas be good to you. JP.

I'm sure after FIVE YEARS he'll be real appreciative of your response, that
is, if he's still alive!

Michael, hello.

>> I'm sure after FIVE YEARS he'll be real appreciative of your response, that
is, if he's still alive!

These things never die. It was a great help to me regardless of what century it was in. ;-) JP.