Sis 7018: No sounds.

[Figen]

I have found so many of these threads on the internet, people having their Sis 7012 and 7018 chipsets suddenly stop working untill they reboot, but allways this has been resolved by simply installing a windows xp sis driver, or a problem that would not fix mine.

Im running (base specs):
Windows Me (4.90, Build 3000)
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.7GHz
512MB RAM
SiS 7018 Wave sound chipset

Every now and then, usually when running, but not limited to, demanding games (World of warcraft and Tribes: Vengeance are the main culprits right now...) my sound will cut out, and whatever i do, refuse point blank to work again till i reboot. The sound usually works for about 30 minutes till it blows, but sometimes doesnt stop working at all.

I've tryed everything, lowering and disabling hardware accelleration, updating the drivers, changing ingame sound settings, checking the device manager for problems, messing with dxdiag, checking ctrl+alt+delete for unresponsive programs, even reformatting once! Ever since i bought this pc (about 5 years ago) it has done it.

Whoever helps me gets a free cookie

[pip22]

I notice you referred to Windows XP driver in your post. An Xp driver is no good for Windows ME. And neither is a Windows 98 one. When Windows ME was launched it caused major headaches where device drivers were concerned, especially sound drivers.

I solved the problem only by disabling the on-board sound and buying a slot-in PCI soundcard after checking that a Windows ME compatible driver was included with it. It worked.

However, ME runs like a lame dog for most people, in several areas. It did for me. I solved that problem by upgrading to XP. However, it's also worth mentioning that Windows 98SE is far superior to ME where drivers and stability are concerned. ME was generally regarded as the "upgrade to hell" that should never have seen the light of day.

If you can get hold of 98SE your sound driver problem would most likely not exist.

[Figen]

I had win98SE but i upgraded to ME because many programs are not compatible with 98 no more, ME runs fine on my pc, never had any problems with it. Even since i bought this pc i have had the sound problem, even when i was running windows 98 in the past i had the same sound problem.

[Figen]

So nobody knows anything that may help?

If not then are there any recommended sound cards for a very low budget (under £15 preferably, bout $30, and preferably from a cheap place like ebay)...looking for a reliable card, with no over the top features, just the bare bones