ATI 3870 HDMI audio problems no sound help!

try going to control panel/sound/ audio see choices

Use the ATI HDMI output as the default Windows sound device.

Hi, under the control panel sound It says the realtek HDMi audio is unplugged, thus I cannot set it as default. Unless you are saying there is another way? It is not unplugged though, I have no idea why it says it is.

DVI only does video no sound. So if you use a dvi to hdmi you will only get video at one source. You need hdmi to hdmi for both video and sound.

Why are you trying to set the realtec HDMI as default if you want the Audio to come from the ATI source ?
Im not sure but i think you still need the onboard Audio enabled, I dont think the ATI card has the ability to generate its own audio but rather route's the onboard but i may well be 100% wrong on that.
As far as being unpluged goes, when i built my system a few months back i had a choice of which audio i plugged in to the header, HDMI or the AC 97 so it could be that simple.
I am 100% sure that the ATI DVI is differant to a standard one though and what macblob says is correct with standard set ups but as i said the ATI DVI isnt standard.

Mactronix

1. make sure you use the correct DVI to HDMI adapter that came with your box. E.g the one that comes with 4870 will not work with 2400 or 2600.

2. I have ATI 4870 and had HDMI audio drop problem previously. I was able to resolve the problem by disabling the ATI external event utility service in services.msc, read below for details. It really works:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14338769&...

Uh, the DVI on the 3870 DOES output sound. I ran HDMI cable from the DVI output (with the adaptor) to my HDTV, and then an optical cable from the TV to my tuner. The sound signal came from somewhere.   You should also be able to get sound from the TV speakers, though.

Make sure you are using the Rear HD Audio hardware as your default audio device, and that you have the drivers installed.

If you want to use surround sound, you'll also need to go to the Audio tab and click Advanced and set the speakers to 5.1 or 7.1, whichever apply.

i also have this problem the only difference being that my version of the HD 3870 has a HDMI out built in

For vista at least, this should solve many issues:

control panel: sound
playback tab, you should have an HDMI sound option, set that as default.

I had the same problem
Make sure you have hdmi to hdmi and the adapter(dvi to dvi or dvi to hdmi does not carry sound)
I found that if in device manager you enable show hidden hardware, the ATI device shows and you update the drivers from the windows website it will work. Not sure how this worked but i promise you it did !!
Installing realtek drivers does work if you have a realtek onboard.

The "ATI HDMI Output" option on the SOUND section of the control panel should be set as default to work.

I have made it to work on 3870 , 4870, and 4890 on Vista-64 Ultimate.

Limited Experiment on 4890:
====================
Important thing to note is dansobolanu's input of using the DVI-HDMI converter from ATI. Other 3rd Party DVI/HDMI converter don't work. I went to frys & tried different brands and got no audio.

The option is "ATI HDMI Output".... Without the correct DVI-HDMI converter (The one from ATI) this option don't show up on the SOUND section of the control panel.

I tried different 3rd party DVI/HDMI connector and it just doesn't work. The option " ATI HDMI Output" don't appear on the SOUND section of the control Panel. Ati software may be detecting some sort of ID on the connector.... I'm not sure & i may be wrong.

I'll be calling Diamond Multimedia tomorrow regarding this, and I need another DV-HDMI converter (From ATI).

The 3rd party brands of DVI/HDMI converte that i tried this weekend are PTC, Link-Depot, Belkin, and another less popular brand. Got no audio on these converters.

On the 4890 i can get audio on both DVI outputs using the ATI DVI-HDMI converter.

I talked to Diamond Multimedia tech support this morning got the following response when i asked why 3rd party converter dont pass the audio.

"There is a chip inside the (From ATi)DVI-HDMI converter to PASS both video and Audio".

I requested an extra converter and Diamond is to ship me another connector.

I also tried to use the DVI-HDMI converter from BFG. When using GTX-280 i can get Video and Audio through HDMI. But when i use the BFG connector(DVI to HDMI) on 4890 only the video gets through.

So to date in my case to get audio/video on HDMI is to use ATI supplied DVI-HDMI converter/connector. Using other connector only video is pass through the HDTV.

If this is any help. I have a 4850 card and used the packaged dvi to hdmi adaptor. with all the installed drivers cat ver 9.9 I would get ati hdmi cable not connected. I found my problem was as stupid as having two dvi outs that were color coded. A white dvi out and a yellow dvi out that just so happend to match the yellow dvi to hdmi adaptor. Once i plugged into the yellow the audio magically worked.

I have not done this, but my reading says ATI cards are different from others in that they DO make audio signals available at the DVI connector so that using their adapter to create the HDMI connection does provide audio on the HDMI lines. However, there's also the question of where that audio signal comes from. I understand that some ATI video cards with this feature do NOT create any audio. Instead there is an included separate cable that merely connects the signal from the mobo's audio pinout connector to the ATI video card so it can be passed through to the DVI / HDMI output. Don't know about your card, but check if you need to use such a cable.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey