About a week ago, I was here complaining (ok, whining) about my generic XP Pro installation on a 9100 I bought recently. When I last posted, I reported great joy in that the OS FINALLY installed.

Well, now I'm trying to fix certain things that didn't come along with the base OS installation, namely making the front panel mic and headphone jacks work. Since the XP Pro installation, I've swapped out the SB 24Live soundcard for a new Creative X-Fi card. While the new card works with speakers, when I plug in the 10-pin cable that connects to the circuit board at the front of the computer (and has the jacks), I lose all audio signal to either front end or back end. Even after 'cleansweeping' (Creative's term for a full nuke) the new OS of all SoundBlaster drivers and software and then reinstalling, I still got nothing out of the X-Fi when that cable to the front was plugged in. But when the cable was disconnected from the X-Fi...no problems, at least with speakers.

I determined before I started modifying the 9100 that the front jacks did work, so it's reasonable to assume that the cable should not be the issue. Moreover, I've been conversing with another user over in Dimension\Hardware Upgrade who's installed the X-Fi in his 9100 and had the front end work correctly. Plus, both X-Fi and 24Live cards use the same sort of 10-pin connection; again, reasonable to assume it's the same wiring in both cases, given that it's the same company making the cards. Even though his was a retail XP Pro upgrade, it WAS an upgrade and not a clean OS install like my case is, so any Dell-related drivers that might manage and access that front panel circuit board could easily still be installed and not written over when he did his OS upgrade. Which leads me to my question (whew):

Looking over the Resource CD...does ANYONE have any idea where I might be able to find a driver that could access that front panel circuit board? I've launched the Setup command on the Resource CD, but I don't rightly know what'll happen next; will it automatically try to install anything/everything like it seems to say it will do? Or will it reach a point, and then just sit there, waiting for me to tell it specifically what to do next? The Resource CD that came with my XPS B just sat there at a main menu, if I remember correctly, but that was five or so years ago and things can change in that amount of time. The 9100's Resource CD seems to say, "I WILL INSTALL EVERYTHING ON THIS CD, DUMMY" as soon as I click 'NEXT'. Suffice to say, I haven't been balls enough to click that last 'NEXT' (though I have been tempted).

I REALLY don't want to muck up the new Windoze installation, but I also really want to see about getting those front panel jacks working again (the USB2 side works fine already). Any insights would be appreciated.