An audio adapter physically installs just as any other expansion card does. Some audio adapters require many system resources, so keep the following guidelines in mind:
Install the audio adapter before you install other components such as network adapters, allowing the audio adapter to make first claim on system resources. Although Windows and recent motherboards usually do a good job of juggling resources, we have experienced resource conflicts when installing an audio adapter in a system that was already heavily loaded with other adapters. If that happens, the best course is to disable all adapters in Device Manager (except essential ones like the video card and disk interfaces), then physically remove those adapters, then install and configure the audio adapter, and finally reinstall the other adapters one by one. If you have problems, try installing the audio adapter in a different PCI slot.
Before you remove the card, use the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs applet to remove audio drivers and supporting software, delete the audio adapter in Device Manager and delete all remaining drivers from the hard disk. Turn the PC off (even though Windows or the driver's uninstall program may advise you to reboot, don't reboot yet, or Windows will try to reinstall the drivers), take off the cover, physically remove the old audio adapter, and start the PC. Verify that all vestiges of the old audio adapter are gone. If the audio adapter is embedded, run BIOS Setup and disable it. With all that done, turn off the PC again and physically install the new audio adapter. Start the system again and install the drivers for it.
Before you install an audio adapter in a system with embedded audio, disable the integrated audio adapter either in BIOS Setup or by changing a jumper on the motherboard (or both). Every motherboard we know that includes integrated audio allows you to disable sound in BIOS. Enabling or disabling sound usually has no effect on interrupts, because embedded PCI sound uses one or two shareable PCI interrupts. Older motherboards, however, may have embedded ISA sound adapters, which may use fixed ISA interrupts. Such motherboards may or may not allow sound to be disabled and the interrupt made available for other adapters. If it is possible to disable the interrupt, doing so usually requires removing a physical jumper on the motherboard.