Realtek audio problem on A8N-SLI

TripleBlackxTwo · 01-25-2006, 09:44 AM

Config:
A8N-SLI/XP Pro
Using line level out to separate receiver/amp to drive some NHT speakers. Stereo only.

Everything has been stable for months. Yesterday get no sound from:
CD
DVD
WinAmp
Windows Media Player
Windows System sounds

Speakers, receiver and cableing are fine - checked on another computer.

No problems apparent in Device Manager. All devices show to be working correctly. Onboard audio is activated in BIOS.

The RealTek port configuration utility seems to see the connection as a line in instead of line out.

I have not tried updating drivers as the current setup has been working fine. No other software loaded recently except Windows update. Dev. Mgr shows driver versions as 5.10.0.5750 which I know is old.

Any thoughts?

ThX.

**UncleMacro** · 01-25-2006, 03:38 PM

That motherboard uses the Realtek ALC850 which automatically senses what's connected to the audio jacks. I've never had that Realtek but I have another auto-sensing audio setup and it used to (hasn't in quite some time) get confused about what was connected to the jacks. I had to tell it manually what the connection was from time to time. You might try that with your motherboard. According to the manual, you can disable the auto-sensing feature. If that doesn't work, I'd uninstall and reinstall the audio drivers. Your audio may have really died but if it thinks the line-out is a line-in, then my first guess would be a software problem rather than a hardware problem.

TripleBlackxTwo · 01-25-2006, 03:52 PM

Thanks for the reply. Have some time this evening so I'll give that a shot.

TripleBlackxTwo · 02-01-2006, 12:55 PM

Okay, finally got a chance to work on this again. Downloaded new drivers/appl from Realtek, updated driver and reinstalled applications. The RealTek sound manager still sees my line out cable to my receiver as "line in" if I have Automatic Connector Sensing enabled. If I set things manually, I still get no sound but all drivers/devices seem to be fine in Hardware Manager. WinAmp et al seem to 'think' they are working fine... sound levels are animated, etc. But no sound from Windows, CD/DVD, or WinAmp/Media Player, etc.

Should I just give up and put an M-Audio card in it and be done? BTW, rarely play games, so prefer to get the M-Audio for sound quality.

Thoughts/Ideas?

TIA,
GA

**UncleMacro** · 02-01-2006, 02:24 PM

The only other things I can think of are:

If you haven't already tried this, make sure to try all of the universal audio jacks just in case only one of them has died. Realtek says "Three Universal Audio Jacks (UAJ®): Front-Out, Line-In, and Mic-In" so I'd connect your line to all three to see if any work.

Reinstall Windows using a repair installation. Personally, I wouldn't go to the trouble. Reinstalling the Realtek driver should undo any damage done by other software problems.

When I run into an unfixable problem with audio, USB, firewire, etc., I generally just solve it with a PCI card. Sometimes hardware really does just up and die. If you're really strapped for cash (and your time isn't worth much) then doing a clean install of Windows proves it's not a software problem. But given that reinstalling the driver didn't do it, I'd just go with the add-on card solution.

TripleBlackxTwo · 02-01-2006, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleMacro

The only other things I can think of are:

If you haven't already tried this, make sure to try all of the universal audio jacks just in case only one of them has died. Realtek says "Three Universal Audio Jacks (UAJ®): Front-Out, Line-In, and Mic-In" so I'd connect your line to all three to see if any work.

Reinstall Windows using a repair installation. Personally, I wouldn't go to the trouble. Reinstalling the Realtek driver should undo any damage done by other software problems.

When I run into an unfixable problem with audio, USB, firewire, etc., I generally just solve it with a PCI card. Sometimes hardware really does just up and die. If you're really strapped for cash (and your time isn't worth much) then doing a clean install of Windows proves it's not a software problem. But given that reinstalling the driver didn't do it, I'd just go with the add-on card solution.

Well tried to reconfigure the jacks with no luck. Gave it one more try and removed everything again and reloaded. Still no. Gonna have to think this one over... It could be releated to an issue I had sometime ago with one of the lan ports. Think we took a power hit and one lan port stopped working. Using the other one now, but but for twice the price of the card, I could just replace the board and maybe avoid issues later on. Probably just buy the m-audio and hope for the best.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

01-25-2006, 09:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
TripleBlackxTwo Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 11 OS: XP	Realtek audio problem on A8N-SLI Config: A8N-SLI/XP Pro Using line level out to separate receiver/amp to drive some NHT speakers. Stereo only. Everything has been stable for months. Yesterday get no sound from: CD DVD WinAmp Windows Media Player Windows System sounds Speakers, receiver and cableing are fine - checked on another computer. No problems apparent in Device Manager. All devices show to be working correctly. Onboard audio is activated in BIOS. The RealTek port configuration utility seems to see the connection as a line in instead of line out. I have not tried updating drivers as the current setup has been working fine. No other software loaded recently except Windows update. Dev. Mgr shows driver versions as 5.10.0.5750 which I know is old. Any thoughts? ThX.

02-01-2006, 12:55 PM	#4 (permalink)
TripleBlackxTwo Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 11 OS: XP	Okay, finally got a chance to work on this again. Downloaded new drivers/appl from Realtek, updated driver and reinstalled applications. The RealTek sound manager still sees my line out cable to my receiver as "line in" if I have Automatic Connector Sensing enabled. If I set things manually, I still get no sound but all drivers/devices seem to be fine in Hardware Manager. WinAmp et al seem to 'think' they are working fine... sound levels are animated, etc. But no sound from Windows, CD/DVD, or WinAmp/Media Player, etc. Should I just give up and put an M-Audio card in it and be done? BTW, rarely play games, so prefer to get the M-Audio for sound quality. Thoughts/Ideas? TIA, GA Last edited by TripleBlackxTwo; 02-01-2006 at 12:56 PM.

01-25-2006, 03:38 PM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	That motherboard uses the Realtek ALC850 which automatically senses what's connected to the audio jacks. I've never had that Realtek but I have another auto-sensing audio setup and it used to (hasn't in quite some time) get confused about what was connected to the jacks. I had to tell it manually what the connection was from time to time. You might try that with your motherboard. According to the manual, you can disable the auto-sensing feature. If that doesn't work, I'd uninstall and reinstall the audio drivers. Your audio may have really died but if it thinks the line-out is a line-in, then my first guess would be a software problem rather than a hardware problem.

01-25-2006, 03:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
TripleBlackxTwo Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 11 OS: XP	Thanks for the reply. Have some time this evening so I'll give that a shot.

02-01-2006, 02:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	The only other things I can think of are: If you haven't already tried this, make sure to try all of the universal audio jacks just in case only one of them has died. Realtek says "Three Universal Audio Jacks (UAJ®): Front-Out, Line-In, and Mic-In" so I'd connect your line to all three to see if any work. Reinstall Windows using a repair installation. Personally, I wouldn't go to the trouble. Reinstalling the Realtek driver should undo any damage done by other software problems. When I run into an unfixable problem with audio, USB, firewire, etc., I generally just solve it with a PCI card. Sometimes hardware really does just up and die. If you're really strapped for cash (and your time isn't worth much) then doing a clean install of Windows proves it's not a software problem. But given that reinstalling the driver didn't do it, I'd just go with the add-on card solution.