I am experiencing a problem with Microsoft Reader where all the text is upside down. I have found a fix on the Microsoft Knowledge Base which involved changes to the display settings. However, this does not work. The only thing left to try is to download a new driver for the sound card. I am at present trying to identify the brand name. The only documentation I have says that the card is an ‘ESSWA’. Can you offer any assistance to solve this problem?

I searched through Microsoft Knowledge Base and found the article support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q274/0/76.ASP which is more than likely the one which you have read. Make sure that you have read and tried all the suggestions listed here. If you have not gone over the article recently, then go over it again and try the suggestions again. I am not quite sure why you wish to find new drivers for your sound card. Although this may be the cause of your problems, it doesn’t really seem likely. In any case, it seems that the chipset was made by ESS Technology. However, be aware that ESS does not manufacture sound cards, they just make the chips on the sound card. As you cannot find the actual manufacturer of your sound card, your best bet is to download the generic drivers from the ESS website. However, be warned that these may not work, so have your old drivers handy. If you do run into trouble and your sound card does not work, you will need to uninstall your sound card and then reinstall it with the old drivers (which worked). You can do this by right-clicking on ‘My Computer’ (on the desktop) and in the menu that appears click ‘Properties’. When the window appears, click the ‘Device Manager’ tab and then expand ‘Sound, video and game controllers’. Right-click on your sound card and then click ‘Uninstall’. You will then need to run the ‘Add New Hardware’ wizard or simply reboot your computer for it to detect and reinstall your sound card. Now that we have that out of the way, you can download the generic drivers from www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm. You will need to match the drivers with the ESS Technology chip that your sound card uses (eg. ES1898). To do this, you may have to look at the physical sound card. When doing this, also have a look for the FCC ID code. This is the Federal Communications ID code. If you have this, you can do a search for the manufacturer. An example code is DZL which is Logitech’s FCC ID. If you find it, you can do a search on www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/ to find the name of the manufacturer. Once you have the name, you can try to track down their website, and hopefully, the specific drivers for your sound card. Your Microsoft Reader should now work properly. As always, if any other readers have experienced or heard of a similar problem and have a suggested solution, please write in.