Biostar Windows 8 Low Volume no solution!

Hello. I just recently put together this rig under a very tight budget and everything boots up and runs fine. This build is an upgrade from an old PC that burned out. The only original parts are the hard drives and the graphics card. So everything was going fine until I plugged in my speakers and my volume is a whisper at max.




I started on Windows 7, after doing a bit of research I read that windows 7 has issues with Realtek HD drivers sometimes, so I upgraded to windows 8, only to now realize it wasn't that at all and it's something more insidious. I've done a clean install of windows 8, completely reformatted all drives. I've installed the most recent drivers for the onboard audio. I have tried different sets of speakers and headphones in both front and back ports. I have tweaked and toyed with all the available settings and features on both windows sound settings and the Realtek driver settings. But nothing seems to work.

These are the exact parts I purchased and have running at the moment...

fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200014

Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182044

Ram

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313345

CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103953

Board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138345


Everything is installed properly and working as it should, except for the sound. I'm about to RMA the board, because it's the only option I have next to refunding and purchasing something else. I've called tech support for Biostar and they suggested I RMA, Newegg will do that for free.. But I'm thinking it's the board itself, perhaps it simply doesn't supply enough power output to the speakers.




My old board was a M2N32-SLI Deluxe/Wireless Edition, worked fine (For being ancient and still costing 100$ today!). With my speakers I could seriously thump my room. The sound I'm getting out of this board is no where near in comparison. If I had to compare the volume output I would say it is 10% or less than what it should be/used to be, with or without powered speakers or external amps.







If anyone has any information on this it would be a great help, Biostar basically told me they've never heard of the problem, but I've seen plenty of reports of this issue on various forums. If there is a fix, would be great, going to RMA before the time limit is up. A suggestion for a better working capable board for under 70$ would be helpful too, incase the board is just junk and I need a refund/replace. I do realize I could buy a sound card and add it on but I don't want to spend any more cash trying to fix a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place.




Thanks in advance.







PS: This is where I got my drivers from.. http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=555#dl










DXDIAG

Operating System: Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (9200.win8_gdr.130410-1505)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: BIOSTAR Group
System Model: A880GZ
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/24/12 14:14:11 Ver: 04.06.04
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 270 Processor (2 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8186MB RAM
Page File: 1613MB used, 11181MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.02.9200.16384 64bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.2)

Display Memory: 4050 MB
Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
Shared Memory: 3072 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0662&SUBSYS_1565821F&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.6662 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 6/19/2012 19:54:20, 4065296 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0662&SUBSYS_1565821F&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.6662 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 6/19/2012 19:54:20, 4065296 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
-------------------
DirectInput Devices
-------------------
Device Name: Mouse
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a

Poll w/ Interrupt: No