External Soundcard / DAC Solution ?

[admin_exported]

Finally decided to sign up as a member after lurking for long enough.

Hopefully someone can help shed some light on my query...

I have never been able to get any sound from my desktop which was built about a year ago, Assume sound should be taken care of on the motherboard (MSI Platinum K9A2) but no doing. I tried as have many others to solve the problem and can only assume the mb is faulty. As the machine is used for work the sound issue has never been a priority.

Without getting into possible causes etc I was wondering if an external usb soundcard / dac would solve the issue.If the onboard sound module is bypassed could this work or is it impossible to tell without identifying the original fault?

Thanks in advance

 

[davejberry]

Have you enabled the soundcard part of your motherboard in the BIOS?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

Checked BIOS, After going through all options the only reference to audio is the HD Audio Controller which is Enabled.

 

[davejberry]

Can you see the 'soundcard' in the device manager part of control panel (assuming you have windows)

 

[Anonymous]

In device manager there is a Sound, Video & Game Controller drop down tab, Expanding this i see the following...

Audio Codecs,LegacyAudio Drivers, Legacy Video Divices, Media Control Devices, Realtek Highe Definition Audio, Video Codecs.

Fair to say at this point i'm no I.T. expert

 

[kena]

Do they all show as "This device is working properly" i.e. None of them have yellow exclamation mark over them?

 

[davejberry]

kena:
Do they all show as "This device is working properly" i.e. None of them have yellow exclamation mark over them?

If this is the case, you can double click on the 'Realtek HD audio icon and check that you have an updated driver, Mine is dated Feb 2009. Then exit all and look in the task bar bottom right for the 'volume' icon. Right click it and select ' adjust audio properties'. In the dialogue box, select the tab for audio and make sure that Realtek HD output is the selected device for output. One last thing.....go to the volume icon on the taskbar again and 'open volume controls'. Make sure none of the 'mute' boxes are ticked.

 

[Anonymous]

Ref Device Manager Part:

"This device is working properly" Appears for all in the Device Status box and all have a speaker icon with no yellow exclamation marks.

I have worked through each updating the drivers and clicked on the properties of the Realtek High Definition Audio tab to check the Driver Date, No date or version available under the "driver" tab and clicking "driver details" only gives a "File Version" which is 5.10.0.5464 built by WinDDK.

Ref Daves last instructions:

After doing all of the above the Realtek HD Audio Manager Icon has appeared in my taskbar (Red Speaker)

Double clicking this i get an MSI box up with Tabs for Sound Effect, Mixer,Audio I/O,Microphone and 3D Audio demo......no info on the driver date.

Closing everything and right clicking over the HD Manager i can select volume control but this throws up an warning box

"There are no active mixer devices available. To install Mixer Devices, go to control panel, click printers and other hardware and then click add hardware."

 

[davejberry]

It may be that the driver is not installed properly. To change this go to control panel and click on 'add/remove program icon. Select Realtek HD from list and click remove (no issue here asit doesn't work anyway) This should remove the drivers and software totally.

When completed, go to the link below and download the file (it's a big one, over 80 Mb). Save it somewhere safe for future use, either to a flash drive or a folder in my documents (call the folder 'drivers').

Once the file is downloaded. Navigate to where you saved it and double click, it should open and start the installation wizard. Once installed everything should work.

Let me know if you need more info

Dave

http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1332

 

[Anonymous]

When running the install i get the message Install Realtek HD Audio Driver Failure !! [Error Code 0xE0000227]

Hmmm...

 

[Anonymous]

Working !!!!!!!!!!

I disabled and uninstalled the microsoft UAA BUS Driver for high defination audio then re-ran the realtek driver wizard.

Installed without the error and now have sound, On restarting however the "Found New Hardware Wizard" kicks in and wants to install the UAA BUS again which i'm not sure i should do.

 

[davejberry]

I've not come across the MS uaa bus thingy before. See if you can disable it in the control panel to get rid of the message. If not, re-install it and then disable it. At least now you know what to do to get the realtek bit to work.

Sorry cant be more helpful. Happy listening

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your help, Dave

Now i know everything works as it should and the MB is fine i feel better about looking into DAC's etc, As it was i wasnt sure if the pc would remain a mute no matter what external devices i connected.

 

[PJPro]

If you are using and external soundcard / usb dac, it shouldn't matter if sound on the mobo is enabled or not.

 

[Anonymous]

Basicaly new pc (for work only) and amp (home set-up) is on the cards so i'll be left with a spare pc and amp, I was interested in buying a dac so i could use the desktop with amp in another room for music once i get around to ripping some cd's (all paid for

).

My main concern was because i had never had any sound from the machine that the motherboard or at least the sound part of the MB was faulty (assuming worse case), Not fully understanding how the digital signal is passed and through what circuitry i wasnt sure if connecting any external device would work and didnt want to shell out for a dac if the MB was no good.

Now all sorted i feel confident in researching the dac idea knowing i have a perfectly fine machine about to need a new home...