Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your information. I will reply point by point as far as I
can and then tell you what my work around is.
Paul wrote:
> In article <DSRFd.1522$av2.750@trndny02>, bruce.s.murray@verizon.net wrote:
>
>
>>Well
>>
>>As Roseannadanna used to say "there's always something".
>>
>>I can get no sound from the front panel audio connector shown on p2-37
>>of the manual.
>>
>>I have tried both ports 1L&R and 2L&R
>>
>>Any clues?
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Bruce
>
>
> There are two configurations for the AAFP header. A so-called
> AC-97 configuration, and the Azalia configuration. Judging by
> your terminology, you have the BIOS "Front Panel Support Type"
> set to Azalia.
Yes I did
>
> When the header is in Azalia mode, notice it has some port sense
> pins. As far as I know, these are contact closures, but your
> average computer case probably doesn't have those closures yet.
>
That is true, there are no closure contact on my case, an Enermax
CS-800TA. However the C-Media Main setting control panel in the front
panel section shows the selected icon in bold and not shaded as it is
for the rear output connectors when the plug is absent. I assume that
this is done by ASUS to accomodate the lack of port sense switches on
most cases.
The diagram on page 5-11 of the manual seems to suggest that Smart Jack
settings are only used for the rear panel.
> The AC-97 mode is a simple output mode, and maybe it'll work better
> for you. For some reason, the Bline signals are missing on the
> header, and if you have a couple of wires left over from your
> computer case, don't sweat it. I think, with so many ports on the
> Azalia chip, there is no need to loop the audio back to the
> motherboard, and that is why, with the AAFP header, set in
> AC-97 mode, you should only need three wires (Lineout_R,
> Lineout_L, and AGND), to get a working set of headphones.
This is what I have tried.
BIOS set to Azalea Enabled and AAFP set to Azalia.
Checked headphone output at pins 1 & 3(port1 L/R) or at pins 5 & 9 (port
2L/R). No output in either case. I did check electrical continuity and
headphone performance so I know the obvious is not defective.
Then I reset the AAFP to AC97 and tried pins 5 & 9. Again no signal.
I had hoped to be able to have the earphones and the front speakers work
at the same time, but this doesn't happen. If on the rear panel, you
select earphone on one jack, say the black one, and select front
speakers on the lime jack, only the front speakers will work. If you
then unplug the front speakers, the headphone will work.
So it doesn't look like you can have both running at the same time even
though you can select them on the front panel.
Therefore my plan is to ignore the AAFP and run the front panel jacks
through to the back. I wanted to have on the front panel, a headphone
jack that would silence the front speakers when it was plugged in and
also a line input jack so that I could conveniently record from external
audio sources.
This does not seem to be viable approach, so I must resort to stone-age
analog switched jacks. I'll probably just use the front speaker
selection on the rear panel with a cable running from it though to a new
switched jack on the front panel.
The mic front panel jack will be wired through to the rear panel as well.
While I appreciate the cleverness of the Azalea system, sometimes these
things just seem to be too smart for their own good.
>
> For your reference, try this document which has been updated to
> take into account Azalia HDaudio configurations:
>
>
http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\A2928604.pdf
>
Yes I looked at this very useful document and appreciate the points you
make below.
> Figure 2 on page 20, shows an AC-97 header config. The computer
> case jacks used, had five pins, and have the two contact closures
> to route a pair of stereo signals back to the motherboard.
>
> Figure 6 on page 25, shows the Azalia HDaudio header. Notice
> how the audio jack on the computer case end is different. The
> jack still has five pins, but it only has one contact closure,
> and the contact pair is isolated from the audio signals
> themselves. Few computer cases will be using that jack type.
>
> Looking at the wiring there, I bet if the BIOS was set to
> Azalia mode, the "Presence#" pin is grounded (meaning an Azalia
> computer case is plugged in), and then you connect "sense_send"
> pin 7 signal, to both "sense1_return" pin 6 and "sense2_return"
> pin 10, the motherboard sound chip would interpret the signals
> seen on the two sense_return pins as meaning you have plugged
> something into both ports. That should cause the sound chip
> control panel to pop up, and you can then set the ports to
> whatever you want (mic or headphone).
>
> That solution stinks a bit, because it will always look like
> two devices are plugged in all the time, even when you aren't
> using them. I only presented the description in the previous
> paragraph, to show how it works. And, using some SPST switches,
> to fake the Azalia jack contacts, would also be an ugly
> kludge (flip switches, to use mic or headphones).
>
> BTW: Are the port settings being remembered across reboots,
> when using the new drivers ?
>
Yes the ports are being remembered across reboots
> HTH,
> Paul
>
>
>>Bruce Murray wrote:
>>
>>>Thank you Paul
>>>
>>>I downloaded the zip files you listed, ran them, and did the set up.
>>>
>>>On my first try , the audio configuration window showed useful rear jack
>>>allocations, however no sound came from the rear jack allocated to
>>>"Front Speaker".
>>>
>>>I then enabled Multiple Streaming from the device setting panel and
>>>EUREKA it worked.
>>>
>>>So I think I am fine now
>>>
>>>Many Thanks
>>>
>>>Paul wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>In article <9iAFd.27$1l2.22@trndny05>, bruce.s.murray@verizon.net wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I have loaded the CMI9880 software ans I have one problem (so far).
>>>>>
>>>>>The settings I apply for "Smart Jack Setting" rear panel are not
>>>>>retained after I reboot the system. I can find no method of
>>>>>explicitly saving the settings. This is a nuisance.
>>>>>
>>>>>What am I missing?
>>>>>
>>>>>Bruce Murray
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>There is one thread on CMI9880 problems on abxzone.com
>>>>
>>>>http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80650
>>>>
>>>>Microsoft has a driver called UAA, and I think the Cmedia
>>>>GUI talks to the Microsoft driver. This is the KB article
>>>>announcing the driver.
>>>>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835221
>>>>
>>>>Asus has a new version of the CMI9880 files queued on one of
>>>>their FTP servers, but there aren't HTML links to the files yet.
>>>>There is no change log in the package (what geniuses). Asus
>>>>should split the damn thing into two pieces (Microsoft as one
>>>>piece, and Cmedia as the other). The most recent date on a file
>>>>in the package, is Oct27/2004.
>>>>
>>>>Unzip the three parts, then execute the first part. Unrar will
>>>>prepare the CMI folder. The "BusDriver" folder contains 32MB
>>>>of Microsoft's stuff, for 26 different locales. Too bad this
>>>>part cannot be a 1MB single language download from Microsoft
>>>>themselves.
>>>>
>>>>
>
>
ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/audio/c-media/cmi9880/CMI9880-5120100085161-1.zip
>
>
>>>>
>
ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/audio/c-media/cmi9880/CMI9880-5120100085161-2.zip
>
>
>>>>
>
ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/audio/c-media/cmi9880/CMI9880-5120100085161-3.zip
>
>
>>>>
>>>>Post back if your symptoms change. There are other people waiting
>>>>for the saving of setup info to be fixed as well.
>>>>
>>>> Paul
Bruce