Sound Cards are used to change a digital signal to a audio signal. Some have built in interfaces for CD-Roms, Modems or Graphics.
The most common problems incountered are conflicts with other devices, some sound cards require multiple IRQ'S and DMA'S. Before installing a sound card check the doc's that came with it to make sure you have the system resources available that are required.
To find out what resources are available run MSD.exe from the dos prompt and print out a report. Check to make sure that there is no other devices using the resources needed, it may be required to reconfigure some of your other hardware to allow installation.
Some sound cards have interfaces for running a cd-rom from them, there is usually a set up program for the card to enable or disable the individual areas as required. Most have a plug input on them to allow a sound cable be installed from the cd-rom to the sound cards to enable a person to listen to sound cd's threw the computer speakers.
There are "plug'n'play" sound cards designed to install themselves and most of the time will without causing conflicts, others require a series of jumpers to be set for the interupts and dma channels, there is usually also a joystick port installed for playing games with a joystick.
If conflicts do arise, find out what device is using what and make sure nothing is being used by two seperate devices.
Check the doc's that come with the card for proper instalation, it seems everyone is different. Make sure you are using the latest drivers available for your soundcard.
There are many variations, some have modems built in to allow voice transmision while transfering data, some have the graphic card built in. which ever the case make sure the resources are there that are required, get the latest drivers for the platform you are using (eg: Win95, Win3.1 ).
