Asus Xonar DS 7.1 sound card not working but still recognized.

well i just finished building my first computer, and with a blown power supply and a limitless supply of problems, i am happy that i finished it. but now i have a problem: within 2 days of finishing it (september 10th 2012), the output from the sound card made a buzzing sound through my headphones. becoming worried i quickly disconnected my headphones and tested them on my iPod. they worked just as good as ever. i tried them with my computer's card again but this time there is no sound at all.
I installed the latest drivers when this happened but that didnt work. windows still recognizes the soundcard as there and active. neither the actual output direct from the card nor the front I/O panel give any output sound. sometimes if im lucky i get some very quiet static or some buzzing that goes away after a few seconds.
I contacted Asus but they never replied. how odd. no other headphones work either.
is there any way i can fix this without opening my case and returning the card? it clearly wants to work to some degree.
any help would be much apreciated.