I'm new to forums, so here it goes. I'm having issues with my onboard audio. Before I get to the issue at hand, it might come in handy to say what I have. -MGE Gamer M1 Case w/ 400W power supply -Gigabyte GA-8IG1000 Pro-G Motherboard -Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB -Kingston 1024MB PC-3200 DDR (512x2) -Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM IDE -ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB -One 120mm front fan, two 80mm rear fans -Logitech Z-5300 Speakers With that said and done, on to the problem. Recently, while cleaning my computer, I connected my front headphone and mic jacks to my motherboard. After finishing cleaning my computer and plugging in the jacks, I turned on my computer to find that the audio was not being processed correctly. My onboard audio controls said that the front speakers where not properly connected to the Line Out jack, when in fact they were. The sound seemed to come primarily from the front left speaker, where as there was seemingly no sound coming from the front right. When I leaned in to hear it, the sound was very soft and sounded distorted. I turned off my computer, unplugged the the front audio ports, reconnected the jumpers, but there was no change. I reinstalled the RealTek Audio drivers and ultimately reformatted my C drive to no avail. RealTek advised I reinstall my drivers, and I'm currently waiting to hear back from Gigabyte. In the meantime I was wondering if there was anyone that would have any knowledge or experience of anything of this sort. I realize onboard audio is not the first choice for gaming, mp3's, 5.1 surround sound, but seeing as I'm a college student and used my money buying the rest of the parts for my computer, I compromised on the audio, a decision I'm now regretting. Any help would be appreciated.
Your Gigabyte Realtek audio drivers http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Driver/Driver_GA-8IG1000 Pro-G.htm are almost 24MB download size (zipped). I suspect you are getting 'automatic connection detection' where the 3.5mm connector is detected when inserted into line-out. If these front connections are correct, obviously the rear line-out should not be affected... but it was? I feel that, ideally you could just get basic WinXP drivers for your audio and take a pass on all the elaborate (useless) software that cloggs-up streamlined functionality, and auto-detects this & that, and adds DSP room-environments & echoes/reverb etc. 9 out of 10 people have onboard audio these days, so you are in good company, but unless working with advanced multi-channel recording or special-effects you really just want solid reliable Windows audio, right? They include all the bells & whistles to make you think that it's just as good and as fancy as any standalone soundboard - but it's not so; it's window-dressing... But anyway, hopefully you can get it going with NOTHING plugged in, then insert your line-out which will be detected and ask you, 'what d'you want to do - make this line-out?' and you can click 'Yes' and tell it: good guess! Hope this helps, let us know if you get it sorted... Regards
I'm not certain the onboard audio will work without all of the realtek drivers, etc. When I sit down and think about it, I might not have had my front outdio ports correctly plugged in, even though the only change was to the right audiio. I'm not certain I understand getting the audio going with nothing plugged in. It was the front audio that was effected in this case. Sounds if primarily coming from the left front, where normally I would hear sounds primarily from the center channel and could hear sound to my right ala the right channel. This is no longer the case. I appreciate the comment though, I just think I don't completely understand what you are saying though.
Nothing plugged in: meaning speakers' 3.5mm plugs. It detects things plugged in. Reboot with no speakers plugged in. Then introduce main L & R (green). Then if functioning, introduce other channels; test. Configure as required. Yes if you had mixed-up front connections, could explain what's going on... Sure you need functional audio drivers but I was just saying they are needlessly complex and this can create a challenge in stability & reliability ;-( L8R
I tried what you suggested, and when I plugged in the main L & R, it came up as improperly connected. I went ahead and introduced the other plugs, which were sensed just fine. Obviously my inexperience with computer is probably showing through by this point. When I went through step by step how I connected my front ports, I came to the conclusion that I did improperly connect the audio ports. I do believe this to be the cause of the problem, but I am still at a loss for a solution. I've tried reconnecting them properly, drivers, etc. I'm wondering if there's a diagnostic for this kind of problem, or resetting of value, factory defaults, etc. Thanks for the clearification and the patience and time you're sharing, this is the most help I've recieved from anyone, including Gigabyte.
Does this mean you have it sorted out? The key is getting front-main (green) L&R working; the other channels are just 'bonus' and forget about them until you achieve stereo. Something has happened/changed to mess up your hardware: I would be looking inside the box not messing with the software (unless to re-detect or config). And yes, well, I am not as helpful as some (and am evil-tempered too Good luck
Yea, I'm thinking it's shorted out also. I've finally started hearing back from Gigabyte, so I'm just a little bit closer. Like always, thanks for the time and thought, I'm sure I'll have this resolved soon.
Just to give closure to the thread, I haven't had a whole lot of help from Gigabyte, so I'm giving up on any fix to the audio problem. So now I'm going to hurry my plans to by a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. Thanks for all the help again!
