I would like to use my front panel sound ports.

If you disabled the board, the front ports for your jacks may not work. Try to turn them on; still continue to use your sound card. It should do the trick. :-) Let us know how it goes!


-J

So I won;t kill the motherboard by enabling both discrete and onboard sound cards at the same time? Would I have to install driver for the onboard sound card, after enabling it at the BIOS? Thanks for the reply.

you won't kill mobo, you only risk no sound;)

I know the new ones (e.g. X-Fi xtreme gamer) work with the HD Audio connectors but it looks like some skills are needed to get old blasters to work with ac97.

Some folks at occ managed to get their front connections to work with sound blasters, see this:

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=65559

Have enabled and installed onboard sound card driver. No sound though. How do you test if the onboard card is working? Sound comes from the discrete sound card. Thanks.

you have no sound because there is a conflict between, onboard sound and your sound card. To answer your question delete the drivers to your sound card to see if your onboard is working. don't worry you can always download your drivers again. I know that the highend sound cards from creative will have the connectors for your front audio panel. Hopefully though the connector from your case will already fit the connector on the card. if not then you will have to find the pinouts online. Hopefully that answer your questions.

Quote:

you won't kill mobo, you only risk no sound;)

I know the new ones (e.g. X-Fi xtreme gamer) work with the HD Audio connectors but it looks like some skills are needed to get old blasters to work with ac97.

Some folks at occ managed to get their front connections to work with sound blasters, see this:

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=65559

Yup had done that with my Live! but the mic was alway super quiet

1 - Analog Ground
2 - Analog Headphone Out Left
3 - Audio Backpanel Mute -- short to ground to mute the backpanel (when headphones are plugged in)
4 - Analog Headphone Out Right
5 - same as #3
6 - Mic input from front panel
7 - key pin (shouldn't be there)
8 - VREF out -- voltage reference for Mic
9 - MIC IN MUTE -- ground when mic isn't plugged in, +12VDC when mic is plugged in
10 - Audio cable detect -- will be ground when headphones are plugged in (not normally used)

Look familiar? It's been around for a while

I have a pic somewhere but cant find it...should work...with the exception to a low mic volume

Thanks for answering Crazywheels and Nukemaster.

My onboard sound is working. I had forgotten to restart after installing my driver for onboard sound. So after turning on my computer, the onboard sound is working.

No sound from Sound Blaster Live though. I guess htere is conflict between them like Crazwheels was saying. I don't want to use my onboard sound card for front panel ports because the onboard card sounds terrible when compared to my discrete card - even though my discrete card is Sound Blaster Live 5.1!

I will have to find out if my SB card has connectors for the front panel connector wire.

Thanks guys!

I've found out which connector on my SB card would work with my case's AC97 connector. But I don't think I can seperate the AC97 connectors. They are so closely formed. They look like this:
-------
ooooo 5 connectors (8th connector is blocked)
ooooo 5 connectors
-------
If I tried to seperate them, I would be left with bare wires - not seperate connectors. Could someone tell me what a real connector would be called?
Thanks for all the inputs.

I have contacted Sound Blaster's website and asked about my problem.
They said they don't have such connector.
Bummer....

When i set it up i just had separate connectors and a block.

They are bigger then the sb pins so gave a little squeeze with pliers.

You can separate them but you better label well.

With a utility knife you can lift the tab and remove each wire. Give the ends a slight squeze and cover then in electrical tape to make sure they dont touch each other. You can then you can try to connect it up.

Performance-PCs sells a cable to adapt the proprietary Sound Blaster connector to a standard AC97 front-panel header. http://tinyurl.com/37fzla

However, there's no indication if headphone detection does or does not work when using this cable. I e-mailed the question to Performance-PCs back when the cable showed up in their "New Products" list, and got a response of "We don't know".

Headphone detection does not work on the SB live without an extra cable(that shorts to ground i believe) run from the headphone jack that shorts out when the headphones are plugged in.

I can confirm that I could use headphones and speakers at the same time. This may not be good for the card tho.

Newer cards detect the load chage when headphones are plugged in to disable speakers in software, but i can not even confirm if new cards from creative do it or not.

Another alternative is to get a cheap X-fi Xtreme Audio card with the right plug already onboard. This is not as powerful as the normal x-fi but should be better then live anyway.

See the fp at the back.

Quote:

I've found out which connector on my SB card would work with my case's AC97 connector. But I don't think I can seperate the AC97 connectors. They are so closely formed. They look like this:
-------
ooooo 5 connectors (8th connector is blocked)
ooooo 5 connectors
-------
If I tried to seperate them, I would be left with bare wires - not seperate connectors. Could someone tell me what a real connector would be called?
Thanks for all the inputs.

Is this what you are looking for. Creative Labs X-Fi/Audigy Sound Card to Front Case Port Adapter Cable.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=21700

Or this one. Internal AC-97 Audio Cable Extention.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=21039

It is amazing to me that you found the cable for my trouble.
However it is bit expensive. And if it doesn't work(they did not mention SB Live card), it would be dissapointing.
Thanks for your effort.

I have emailed the question to the Performance PC.

How much is X-fi Xtreme Audio card?

where do you live

they come on sale allot here for like 30-40$ CAD

Go to NewEgg and chck there prices out from the Audigy to the X-FI..

Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card Retail $32.99 w/o shipping (*)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102012

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card Retail $65.99 w/o shipping cost (%)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102007

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card Retail $90.99 w/o shipping cost (%)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

Creative 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series - Retai $139.99 w/o shipping cost. (*)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005

(*) uses the Creative Labs X-Fi/Audigy Sound Card to Front Case Port Adapter Cable $19.95 w/o shipping
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=21700

(%) uses the Internal AC-97 Audio Cable Extention $9.95 w/o shipping cost
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=21039

Hope this helps.

Ugh, do not get the XtremeAudio. It's a rebranded SoundBlaster Live 24-bit. The XtremeGamer (which also has a connector for the front audio ports), on the other hand, is an actual X-Fi, but its components are a bit worse than the XtremeMusic's and up.

Well as the OP says, they already have live. and its more like an audigy with software to help it get some of the X-fi features(Crystalizer thingy anyone?). but still as good as the live and has the PF they are looking for and when you see them for 30$ on sale and a cable for the old card is 20. its not a hard choice.