FFighter

Hi...

I´m having some problems here... I recently bought a new system, and only found out this issue a few days ago - only the left sound channel is playing, I tried everything I could imagine in the system configuration to solve this but with no success, I wonder what could be happening? What hardware missconfiguration could be causing that?

My system:
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe OnBoard NForce 2 SoundCard. Windows XP PRO SP2.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Marcelo.

clintfan

Hi FFighter, and welcome to the forum!

Whenever I hear of problems like this, my first thought goes to the cabling. If you use a mono plug anywhere in your cabling chain, you will get only the left. So first, check your cabling: every plug should be stereo, i.e. it should have a tip (left), a tiny little ring (right), and a sleeve (common ground).

Your onboard sound isn't a proper soundcard, rather the audio is software-generated, so any software glitch can cause problems like this. Other things you can try for this problem: Reboot. Reinstall the sound driver. Double-click the speaker icon in the systray and check the balance sliders.

Let us know if you find anything wrong with the cables.

-clintfan

mr_aarondavis

I am having the same problem with sound from only one speaker. I formated and put a soundblaster 32 in and the sound worked fine...but then when I installed the nvidia display drivers for the onboard nforce2 video chipset, the sound went out again, in the opposite speaker.
I have messed with tons of different drivers and double-checked the sound with headphones, but this sound does not work right if you install either the nvidia sound or video drivers.
Can anyone help?
Biostar M7NCG 400 (7.2)
AMD 2500
1gb ram
80 gb WD hd
onboard lan, video and sound

FFighter

Thanks for the reply clintfan :)

Well the cabling seems ok ... I´m not a specialist in audio cabling but I think that should work ... I didnt buy any special kind of cables or speakers, its just the "default" small speakers with that green plug (sorry for the ignorance)

As for the software problem - well I wish it would be that but I tried everything! ... Actually I own this computer for a few months now (this post was on the nforcershq forum and just pasted it here) and I formatted the hd many times then, reinstalled the drivers but the problem stills ... I almost gave up on solving this issue... I started listening to music on my sister´s machine :/

Is there any jumper or cable missplaced in the mobo that could be causing that?

Man, I´m getting nuts with this!

Thanks a lot again,

Marcelo.

FFighter

Hmmm... long time no answers ... Playing Half Life 2 with a Athlon 2600+ n a GeForce 5900 XT and only one speaker outputting sound ... and its not the speakers problem becouse I tested it on my other machine ... it must be some hardware missconfiguration or maybe the mobo´s fault? Really could use some help! Plz!

clintfan

As you're no doubt finding, this sort of problem is really quite difficult to debug over the web.

If you're sure the cabling is OK --and you suggest that you do get stereo if you plug the same speaker setup into a different computer-- then the only other hardware problem you can check yourself is the jumpers. Your FPAUDIO1 header is between the AGP and PCI 1 slots, along the rear edge of the mobo. There should be 2 jumpers: one vertically across the center two pins (right channel), and another vertically across the far right two pins (left channel). For your reference, in the high-res. mobo-manual photo on page 17, these jumpers are blue.

If you're handy with electronics, armed with the proper alligator-clip test wires you could even tap off the lower pins at those positions I described, to see if you're sourcing both a left and a right audio signal at those pins. If you are, it would mean the mobo amps are OK and the problem is downstream, maybe a bad jack or a cut trace (maybe around the mounting screw just below the audio jack).

If the jumpers were removed because you've attached a front-panel audio harness, then all bets are off: I'd first try removing that harness and reinstall the jumpers, then attach the speaker to the green jack on the rear, and see if stereo sound returns. If it does, the problem is with the audio front-panel case wiring, not the fault of the mobo at all.

It sounds like you've already figured out it isn't software. Since reinstalling and reconfiguring didn't help, there's nothing software-wise that we can help with here, I'm afraid... if it turns out to be a software problem, you'll need to contact Asus and work through them to get a fix, since we're talking onboard sound here.

So if it's not the jumpers, and not the front-panel harness, then in my estimation it's most likely a blown chip on the mobo, probably a little tiny amplifier circuit deep inside the Realtek Codec chip, or some supporting chip, or maybe a bad mobo audio jack, cold solder joint, etc.. Again all of these issues require Asus factory service to fix.

One final option is to abandon the onboard sound altogether and use a PCI soundcard instead. This may be an attractive solution, since with a real soundcard you'll avoid some of the snap-crackle-pop common with the software-generated onboard sound Codec's anyway. Based on the table in 2.6.2, I'd suggest PCI slot 2 or 4 for a soundcard; 1 or 5 would be second choice, but don't use 3. I'd recommend something like a TurtleBeach Santa Cruz over any sort of Soundblaster, but it depends on what features you need.

Hope this helps,

-clintfan