First searched, now asking

[ericstjohn]

Hi all,
I posted a rather lengthy question previously, Megatrends Rears Its Ugly Head Again, which has gotten no responses. Bad title, I assume.
I have audio problems with a custom build that I recently acquired.
Mobo: ASUS M4A785-M with integrated VIA HD audio running W7 Pro X64 on an unlocked Athlon II, 4gb RAM.
After suffering a two-day driver hassle--this was in XP Pro--I did finally get fully functioning audio by removing the ASUS Xonar DG-badged C-Media card and reverting back to the integrated.
BUT::: I then buckled under to the impending non-support for XP next year (if it ain't broke...) and upgraded to W7 Pro 64.
I can't find the thread that suggests to update the BIOS to attempt to solve audio issues but I Googled a couple of days before I actually did it. (In the process, I learned how to unlock my cpu that locked back when I updated!)
SO::: Now my BIOS is updated as confirmed in Regedit but I still have no front panel audio.
Any ideas? Like maybe taking a loss and gutting this really cool rack-mount case and starting over with Intel? I mean, re-installing the same driver over and over tends to make me believe that I've lost all sanity.

 

[SPEED94]

Hi all,
I posted a rather lengthy question previously, Megatrends Rears Its Ugly Head Again, which has gotten no responses. Bad title, I assume.
I have audio problems with a custom build that I recently acquired.
Mobo: ASUS M4A785-M with integrated VIA HD audio running W7 Pro X64 on an unlocked Athlon II, 4gb RAM.
After suffering a two-day driver hassle--this was in XP Pro--I did finally get fully functioning audio by removing the ASUS Xonar DG-badged C-Media card and reverting back to the integrated.
BUT::: I then buckled under to the impending non-support for XP next year (if it ain't broke...) and upgraded to W7 Pro 64.
I can't find the thread that suggests to update the BIOS to attempt to solve audio issues but I Googled a couple of days before I actually did it. (In the process, I learned how to unlock my cpu that locked back when I updated!)
SO::: Now my BIOS is updated as confirmed in Regedit but I still have no front panel audio.
Any ideas? Like maybe taking a loss and gutting this really cool rack-mount case and starting over with Intel? I mean, re-installing the same driver over and over tends to make me believe that I've lost all sanity.

to be precise audio or front panel audio ? I assume the first one. You are using the driver ASUS recommends in its official site for your mobo for win 7 64 bit editions ? Right ?

 

[SPEED94]

Hi all,
I posted a rather lengthy question previously, Megatrends Rears Its Ugly Head Again, which has gotten no responses. Bad title, I assume.
I have audio problems with a custom build that I recently acquired.
Mobo: ASUS M4A785-M with integrated VIA HD audio running W7 Pro X64 on an unlocked Athlon II, 4gb RAM.
After suffering a two-day driver hassle--this was in XP Pro--I did finally get fully functioning audio by removing the ASUS Xonar DG-badged C-Media card and reverting back to the integrated.
BUT::: I then buckled under to the impending non-support for XP next year (if it ain't broke...) and upgraded to W7 Pro 64.
I can't find the thread that suggests to update the BIOS to attempt to solve audio issues but I Googled a couple of days before I actually did it. (In the process, I learned how to unlock my cpu that locked back when I updated!)
SO::: Now my BIOS is updated as confirmed in Regedit but I still have no front panel audio.
Any ideas? Like maybe taking a loss and gutting this really cool rack-mount case and starting over with Intel? I mean, re-installing the same driver over and over tends to make me believe that I've lost all sanity.

I assume you are talking about the entire audio in your system and not the front panel one as you mentioned. And you are using the driver ASUS recommends in its site for your mobo for win7 64 bit editions. Right ?

 

[ericstjohn]

I assume you are talking about the entire audio in your system and not the front panel one as you mentioned. And you are using the driver ASUS recommends in its site for your mobo for win7 64 bit editions. Right ?

Thanks for responding! Yep and nope. The driver from ASUS Support is the VIA HD audio with the VIA Deck interface. (I just downed a brand new one but haven't installed it yet.)
Previously, I had just the rear panel before the driver hassle in XP. Then I downed the XP driver and had both the front and back functioning.
Now with W7 it's the same driver hassle. After uninstalling everything audio and running CCleaner, I rebooted and W7 auto-installed the "HD Audio Device" which happens to be a S/PDIF device. The front panel doesn't work, but the rear one does. Now I'm gonna install the new driver from ASUS--again--and see...
I don't have much hope, that's why I was asking if a mobo could die little by little, a section at a time...
I just got this machine off evilBay and I'm guessing it's not THAT old... but...

 

[SPEED94]

I assume you are talking about the entire audio in your system and not the front panel one as you mentioned. And you are using the driver ASUS recommends in its site for your mobo for win7 64 bit editions. Right ?

Thanks for responding! Yep and nope. The driver from ASUS Support is the VIA HD audio with the VIA Deck interface. (I just downed a brand new one but haven't installed it yet.)
Previously, I had just the rear panel before the driver hassle in XP. Then I downed the XP driver and had both the front and back functioning.
Now with W7 it's the same driver hassle. After uninstalling everything audio and running CCleaner, I rebooted and W7 auto-installed the "HD Audio Device" which happens to be a S/PDIF device. The front panel doesn't work, but the rear one does. Now I'm gonna install the new driver from ASUS--again--and see...
I don't have much hope, that's why I was asking if a mobo could die little by little, a section at a time...
I just got this machine off evilBay and I'm guessing it's not THAT old... but...

If your front panel's not working but your rear (panel ) is then the problem is not your mobo or driver. Check the connections of the front panel with the mobo....the minute wires coming to the front panel down the mobo may be the problem.

 

[ericstjohn]

Check the connections of the front panel with the mobo....the minute wires coming to the front panel down the mobo may be the problem.

Thanks for getting some skin in this game, SPEED94! I don't know why I could get fully functioning audio before and lose it so fast, but unless it's disconnected right there at the front panel, or it's got a bad conxn cable, that's not the problem--that's the FIRST thing I checked.

I'm discouraged that there is so little traffic over at the ASUS forum unless it's a real simple issue, then it's a feeding frenzy. Where's the best forum for guys like me who are novice geeks doing audio production? I can't be the only musician out there that can build his own PC!

The newest driver (from ASUS) has a different "deck" interface that "doesn't support the os. Update the driver." There are a couple other things going on: I installed my Presonus Audiobox USB interface which bundles its usb and asio driver with a "helper" app, "Open AL". Also Magix installed Text-to-speech-runtime, whatever that is...

So now, I've just uninstalled everything VIA--again--and rebooted--again--and the "stock" driver was installed by W7--again--and still no front panel. Next step is to pull the hdds to inspect the front panel from inside. Stay tuned!

I don't know the mfr of the case, but it's a BIG rack-mount job; capable of holding six hdds and a full-sized ATX board. It's obviously a custom build, probably a mobo combo b/c I saw a real old ad for this combo for like $87. I've got about that much into it right now, so a complete rebuild won't hurt too, too terribly bad. But I'd sure like to get around that since I AM a starving artist! LOL

 

[ericstjohn]

If your front panel's not working but your rear (panel ) is then the problem is not your mobo or driver. Check the connections of the front panel with the mobo....the minute wires coming to the front panel down the mobo may be the problem.

...so you don't think a mobo could go bad section by section? It's not the cnxn but maybe the outside chance it's the wire itself on either end, most prob'ly the end by the mobo since it's handled the most.

 

[SPEED94]

...so you don't think a mobo could go bad section by section? It's not the cnxn but maybe the outside chance it's the wire itself on either end, most prob'ly the end by the mobo since it's handled the most.

What I meant to say was out of pure common connection - since the audio is coming out of the rear - that is direct connection with the mobo - that clearly indicates that your mobo is perfectly fine as far as audio is concerned. Software/drivers/windows are far off things and are least related.so the problem can be any of the 4 And are all related to the front panel.

1)The connecting wires are improper or broken (You have checked this, so CHECK)
2)The connecting wires are in wrong setups or configuration with the mainboard (Most probable)
3)The port for the front panel audio on the mainboard is somewhat disabled/not working/defective (least probable)
4)The small front panel circuit board has some problems (That came in built with the chassis)