Sound problems

meekrobmeekrob
edited November 2004 in Hardware
Hey, I just put in a Asus K8V SE mobo and everything was going great until, I realized I had no sound. I fiddled and finally gave up on onboard sound and stuck a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit card in the comp. My sound still won't work, unless i turn the speakers up all the way, I can hear a really awful, distorted, scratchy rendition of what I should be hearing. I accidently installed Windows XP Professional twice after putting the motherboard in (is this normal? whenever I put a new mobo in I have to reinstall Windows), but I doubt that has anything to do with it. I have tried different speakers of course, as well as drivers for both the card and the onboard sound (Creative doesn't have drivers on the Net for the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit card for some reason, so I just used the CD). Help! I never realized how important sound was to everything on a computer.

Comments

  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    When you put a new mobo in, the first time you start up, windows will try to use the chipset driver from the old motherboard, and this can have a wide variety of interesting effects. Usually, simply doing a clean install is better than trying to sort the drivers out, unless you know the two particular driver sets won't cause problems with each other. As for your sound, are you sure that you have correctly installed all the components for your onboard to work? (most recent sound driver, most recent DirectX)

    if you have, I would suggest seeing if there are any BIOSes available to update your board with. If none of this fixes your problem, it might be a faulty audio chip.
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    Thanks bean. My previous motherboard was this same one, I RMA'd it and just got it back. The sound worked on the old board, so I'm afraid the faulty audio chip might be right. It took me 3 weeks to get my motherboard sent, fixed and returned when I RMA'd it, so I am very reluctant to do this again. This has been over 3 months of computer problems!
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    I had the same problem, I am not using the onboard sound on my asus a7n8x-x board. I put my Soundblaster Live card in and had sound in the beginning (windows loading theme) then after updating some drivers for the mobo I had no sound, or what appeared to be no sound.

    I opened the sound and audio properties and under Audio I had to manually choose my Soundblaster card. Then under Volume turn it back up. Working fine ever since, but now am thinking of just running the onboard sound and putting the SB card back in my old system.
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    I'm afraid this isn't the case, Khold. My main audio device is the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit card. Is there any way to test the motherboard's audio chip to see if that is the problem?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    well, if I understand correctly and the problem is you are not getting sound out of the SB card, make sure the onboard is disabled in the BIOS (not set to on or auto) and then see if the SB works. If it doesn't with the O/B disabled, there's something else wrong somewhere.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    I agree with what lordbean said.
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    Ok, so I went into the BIOS and skimmed for something that looked like onboard sound and found something called Onboard Audio and turned it off. That didn't work, but I'm not entirely sure if it was the right thing (BIOS is the thing that you press F8 or DEL when your comp is starting up?). So this is my new question: can there be something on the motherboard that is broken and wont let any audio work, be it in a PCI slot or onboard? (Thanks for the help so far Khold and Lordbean.)
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Have u tried putting it in a different PCI slot?
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Hmm... I just re-read your first post on the sound problem and u used your CD to install the SB card. I quit using the CD for install on my SB Live card, quite a few times it gave me problems so I just downloaded the driver (LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe). Its a clean install and its an up to date driver, (for my SB Card anyway).

    Now it doesnt say 24 bit but it does state the requirement of win2000 or XP and >>>>"Creative SB Live! Series Audio card installed."<<<<

    Give it a try : )
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    meekrob wrote:
    Ok, so I went into the BIOS and skimmed for something that looked like onboard sound and found something called Onboard Audio and turned it off. That didn't work, but I'm not entirely sure if it was the right thing (BIOS is the thing that you press F8 or DEL when your comp is starting up?). So this is my new question: can there be something on the motherboard that is broken and wont let any audio work, be it in a PCI slot or onboard? (Thanks for the help so far Khold and Lordbean.)

    You found the correct setting, and yes, the F8 / delete at startup is indeed the BIOS. Since it doesn't work, I'd try looking for an internet driver for the card, as Khold suggests, and also trying a different PCI slot. (also try both at the same time.) If it STILL fails to work, odds are it's the SB card itself - although there is a chance the mobo doesn't like it, it's a low chance.
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    That's one of the problems, Creative hasn't put out drivers on the internet for the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit. I used the drivers from the CD and the card installed fine. An interesting thing is if I hook up my speakers to the onboard and turn the volume to max I still can't hear a peep, but if I do the same thing and plug it into the SB card, I FAINTLY hear what I should with a bunch of distortion and popping (not good for the speakers, I know). So, I am trying so hard to not have to RMA this board a second, because it will cost me this time, and there are a few games being released that I was hoping to play with friends this month (3 weeks to get the motherboard fixed).
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    hmm i just thought of something, my friend had problems with his SB Live card. He ALWAYS had to turn the digital audio on, the card wouldnt work no other way. Mine works without the digital audio enabled. Turning that on is about the only thing I can think of for you to do.

    Did you switch pci slots and/or try the (LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe) from Soundblaster.com? SB Live cards then and now (24bit) arent that much different whether 24bit or the regular Live or Live Value cards so give that driver a shot if the digital audio fix dont take care of it.

    Hope you get some kind of sound going, I know what it is like to have a problem going on and cant figure it out. Most cases it is something small and simple and easily overlooked :)
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    Yeah, all the driver packs from Creative say that I don't have the a SB card installed, as does the auto-update on the site. I tried another PCI slot, but no luck. How do I turn digital audio on?
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    maybe the problem is his digital audio is ON, when it should be off...? I've accidentally turned on digital on my Audigy with analog speakers plugged in before, and the result was a rather nasty combination of noise and sound...

    As for turning it on or off, double click the volume icon in your system tray (if it is not there, go to Control Panel, open Sounds and Audio Devices, then click Advanced on Device Volume), click the Options menu and make sure Advanced Controls is checked, then click the "Advanced" button under the master volume. There should be an option to force digital output only - change it to the opposite as you have it now, and try making noise again.
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    Well, it was set to off, and when I turned it on I didn't hear anything at all, not even the crackling, distorted mess it was before.
  • zenusic5zenusic5 Metro Atlanta
    edited November 2004
    meekrob wrote:
    Well, it was set to off, and when I turned it on I didn't hear anything at all, not even the crackling, distorted mess it was before.

    VIA Chipsets have been notorious for having these problems with Sound Blaster Audio products, although I have usually been able to get them to work by trying different PCI slots, and applying the George Breese patch.
    You might want to look here for info on VIA chipsets and some solutions for your problems.
    http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/#CREATIVE

    Hope this helps.

    ben
  • meekrobmeekrob
    edited November 2004
    IT IS FIXED! I finally decided to reassemble my motherboard, and in taking it out I realized the spacers between the back of the motherboard and the case were too short. This prevented anything in the PCI slots from fully plugging in, so the card was only halfway plugged in. I don't know how my wireless, LAN, and graphics card were able to operate while plugged in like this. Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who helped on this, especially Khold and Lordbean, you guys are great.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Grats man on getting the sound going. Heck I wouldnt even have thought of the card not being plugged in all the way. Glad it was a little problem that was easily fixed.
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