On board Audio has died!!

Hi

Has anyone any ideas as to why a perfectly good on board sound system should suddenly fail.
It was working ok till I shut down the PC for the night, then next morning I woke up the PC to find no sound whatsoever.

I thought at first that it may be the speakers but after connecting another pair of speakers and ear speakers to the back and front sound jacks I realised that there was no sound.

I did check the Bios settings to make sure that the on board sound was still enabled and it was.

Any help is gratefully received. System Information is below.


Coralin



System Information


Desktop PC
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium x64

Mother Board
Manufacturer ASRock
Model N68C-GS UCC
BIOS Version P1.40
BIOS Date 08/25/2010
BIOS Size 1024 KB

CPU Name AMD Sempron(tm) 145 Processor 2.80GHz
Cpu Socket Socket AM3 (938)

Memory 2 x 2048 MBytes 667 MHz (DDR3 1333)

On board Audio VIA High Definition Audio

Hard Drive
Manufacturer Hitachi
Model Hitachi HDS721050CLA362
Size 500.1 GB 7200 RPM
Form Factor 3.5 inch
Interface Serial ATA

Video Processor GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a
Adapter DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
Memory 256 MBytes
BIOS String Version 5.61.32.28.01
BIOS Date 01/22/09

Hi Coralin and Welcome to EDABoard forum,

Check OS, sound driver, but first check sound configuration, specially sound mixer (volume control, Wave,...).

I will say this is software problem, you probably accidentally reduce volume or mute some component in audio mixer.



Best regards,
Peter

peter said:

Hi Coralin and Welcome to Eda Board forum,

Check OS, sound driver, but first check sound configuration, specially sound mixer (volume control, Wave,...).

I will say this is software problem, you probably accidentally reduce volume or mute some component in audio mixer.



Best regards,
Peter

Click to expand...

Hi Peter, Checked all that you said and found them all ok I have even tried to update the driver but when searched message says I already have the up to date driver.

Thanks for the welcome

Kind regards

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

Did you check speaker configuration in OS?

Check device manager to see that device driver works at all.


Best regards,
Peter

1.

Try unplugging all power for 5 minutes (to let circuits fall to zero).

2.

The board contacts may be tarnished. Is there a card you can remove, and rub a clean pencil eraser on them?

3.

Can you do a software uninstall of the sound card? (Done via a status window for the device, accessed via the Device Manager tab in the System control panel.) This will remove the drivers.

Next time you start up, a message should appear saying 'recognizing new hardware (the sound card)', which will re-install drivers.

tpetar said:

Hi Elaine,

Did you check speaker configuration in OS?

Check device manager to see that device driver works at all.


Best regards,
Peter

Click to expand...

Hi Peter

Yes done both of them items but again all is ok.

Elaine

Elaine try what BradtheRad propose, try to uninstall sound driver, restart PC and install again.

First remove sound software from control panel using Programs icon, then uninstall manually device driver from device manager, then restart and install sound software with driver again.


Are you sure that speakers are ok?

Next step can be reinstallation of OS.


Best regards,
Peter

tpetar said:

Hi Elaine,

Did you check speaker configuration in OS?

Check device manager to see that device driver works at all.




Best regards,
Peter

Click to expand...

Hi Peter

Yep all ok on that

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

I think that You should check again all suggested measures, somewhere mistake is hidden.

for next step try to reinstall OS, and first install motherboard drivers, starting with sound drivers, after that check sound output.

If this does not show some results, maybe its time to consider additional sound card.


Best regards,
Peter

:wink:

BradtheRad said:

1.

Try unplugging all power for 5 minutes (to let circuits fall to zero).

2.

The board contacts may be tarnished. Is there a card you can remove, and rub a clean pencil eraser on them?

3.

Can you do a software uninstall of the sound card? (Done via a status window for the device, accessed via the Device Manager tab in the System control panel.) This will remove the drivers.

Next time you start up, a message should appear saying 'recognizing new hardware (the sound card)', which will re-install drivers.

Click to expand...

Hi BradtheRad

Answer's to:

No 1 Done that still no sound

No 2 No card as the audio is integrated on board.

No 3 I removed drivers even did a clean up Ccleaner then rebooted and as you rightly said it said recognizing new hardware, and promptly install the drivers. But still I got no sound and the drivers were of the same version as before.

Been in to the bios checked to make sure all was ok in there, the on board audio is enabled so that was ok.

I have 4 PCI Slots on the motherboard see the picture I have uploaded. it gives all the details on the slots I would like to get a Sound Card and install it in one of the slots, What sound card would you suggest and which of the slots would be the best one to use for it.
Actually can someone please explain just what is the difference between PCI and PCIE ?




Thanks for all comments.

Elaine x

- - - Updated - - -

tpetar said:

Hi Elaine,

I think that You should check again all suggested measures, somewhere mistake is hidden.

for next step try to reinstall OS, and first install motherboard drivers, starting with sound drivers, after that check sound output.

If this does not show some results, maybe its time to consider additional sound card.


Best regards,
Peter

:wink:

Click to expand...

Hi Peter

Although I am a dab hand at reinstalling computers, I am loath to do this one as it would take me a good fortnight just to back up all the files on it. LOL
At the moment shes working well, all bar the sound, but at least if I can get a sound card I can take my time and sort out the files and back them up on the External Drives.

Computers are great fun arnt they.....:lol:

Elaine x

In any case, an experience more.

If you have an extra disk you can try it on him.


Best regards,
Peter

Actually can someone please explain just what is the difference between PCI and PCIE ?

Click to expand...

The added 'E' makes a difference. It means 'express' and it is a different format.

When I considered purchasing wifi cards, I did some research and found there are several formats. They are not compatible. PCI, PCIe, PCI-X, PCM-CIE.

Therefore I needed to find out what type of slots my computers had. If I were to choose wrong then it would be a waste of several dollars.

I looked around the internet to see photographs of cards. I checked them with the dimensions and contacts as they appeared inside my computers. I looked on Ebay for cards of the same type.

From your table it appears your computer has both PCI and PCIe type. You have twice as much likelihood of purchasing a usable card.

Your entries for the PCIe slots show specs are different in the case of data bus width (x1 or x32). Your card may need compatible specs.

PCIe is newer and may be a bit more expensive.

- - - Updated - - -

tpetar said:

In any case, an experience more.

If you have an extra disk you can try it on him.


Best regards,
Peter

Click to expand...

Now that's an Idea, Install 7 on another hard drive, and see if the sound works then and if it dose, hand over ears for every one......

I wonder if I could make one of the drives a slave I know I could on XP but they were not Sata drives I not sure if I can do that on windows 7 and the Sata drives?


Elaine x

- - - Updated - - -

BradtheRad said:

The added 'E' makes a difference. It means 'express' and it is a different format.

When I considered purchasing wifi cards, I did some research and found there are several formats. They are not compatible. PCI, PCIe, PCI-X, PCM-CIE.

Therefore I needed to find out what type of slots my computers had. If I were to choose wrong then it would be a waste of several dollars.

I looked around the internet to see photographs of cards. I checked them with the dimensions and contacts as they appeared inside my computers. I looked on Ebay for cards of the same type.

From your table it appears your computer has both PCI and PCIe type. You have twice as much likelihood of purchasing a usable card.

Your entries for the PCIe slots show specs are different in the case of data bus width (x1 or x32). Your card may need compatible specs.

PCIe is newer and may be a bit more expensive.

Click to expand...

Looks as if I may have to research the internet again for a suitable sound card, Trouble with me is I hate to give up on a problem.
I was wondering if I could test the mother board some how, to see if the sound chip is at fault if it is then maybe I could get another sound chip and replace the faulty one. I have worked on PCB boards before all beit on a smaller scale to a mother board. Would it be worth it?

Elaine x

Does it have an internal speaker, and has it made any clicks or beeps since this problem started? If so then the audio isn't gone.

Or the problem may be the circuitry that detects which output device is connected. My Mac G5 sometimes gets it wrong as to whether it should route output to (a) the internal speaker, or (b) to the jack where I plug in headphones/patch cable.

Do you have a schematic?

If not then you'll need to be able to recognize which is the audio circuitry.

It may even not have its own IC but might be inside a multi-function IC, making it inaccessible to testing.

Then there is the risk of touching traces on a congested board. Bridge across the wrong wires and you may render the computer useless.

BradtheRad said:

Does it have an internal speaker, and has it made any clicks or beeps since this problem started? If so then the audio isn't gone.

Or the problem may be the circuitry that detects which output device is connected. My Mac G5 sometimes gets it wrong as to whether it should route output to (a) the internal speaker, or (b) to the jack where I plug in headphones/patch cable.

Do you have a schematic?

If not then you'll need to be able to recognize which is the audio circuitry.

It may even not have its own IC but might be inside a multi-function IC, making it inaccessible to testing.

Then there is the risk of touching traces on a congested board. Bridge across the wrong wires and you may render the computer useless.

Click to expand...

Hi Brad

Yes, to Internal Speaker but no sound. No, to do I have a schematic? wish I did;
Yesterday I did a thorougher registry clean, Malware, and Virus scan rebooted and still no sound

So today, I have been inside the PC and gave it a good vacuuming (without touching anything with the vacuum pipe)
made sure that all the connections were ok and put it back together again. and to my surprise when I booted the PC up the sound had returned.

I am totally dumbfounded as to why the sound disappeared :shock:

Elaine x

Ah yes... Another repair-that-we-wonder-what-we-did-to-make-it-happen.

This sort of thing occurs every so often. You fixed it and you don't know whether it was anything you did, or just a fortunate tap on the right spot.

I suppose you did not want to risk static charge, and that is why you avoided touching the circuitry? Good idea. However I think I heard that air rushing by components can cause a certain amount of static as well. That is one reason to disconnect all power, in case it will let all the circuits 'fall back to zero'.

For whatever reason, it appears that your computer's circuits got 'stuck' at some setting. I don't know of an electrical explanation for this.

It is easy to say it was a Windows glitch, but that doesn't explain why it was reversed because you vacuumed the pc boards.

BradtheRad said:

Ah yes... Another repair-that-we-wonder-what-we-did-to-make-it-happen.

This sort of thing occurs every so often. You fixed it and you don't know whether it was anything you did, or just a fortunate tap on the right spot.

I suppose you did not want to risk static charge, and that is why you avoided touching the circuitry? Good idea. However I think I heard that air rushing by components can cause a certain amount of static as well. That is one reason to disconnect all power, in case it will let all the circuits 'fall back to zero'.

For whatever reason, it appears that your computer's circuits got 'stuck' at some setting. I don't know of an electrical explanation for this.

It is easy to say it was a Windows glitch, but that doesn't explain why it was reversed because you vacuumed the pc boards.

Click to expand...

Hi Brad,

I am still confused about the returning of the Audio but am glad it did. I had taken all the power leads out before I opened the PC and I was wearing a antistatic wrist strap. To do the vacuuming, I have a small portable, battery powerd vacuum cleaner which picks up dust really well, I brought this over seven years ago. Its amazing really I had three electric vacumm cleaners in that time, all that died after a short while.:-?

My biggest problem with this computer is shortly after I brought it December 2010 with a 3 year guarantee, the online firm I got it from disappeared, so of course I can't get in touch with them to put it right. Just my luck, well at least I know a bit about computers, although the 64bit and windows 7 I am still learning about. I built my 32bit XP computer from scratch in 2003 and its still going strong.

Elaine x

best solution is recovery or FORMAT your hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 .

nick703 said:

best solution is recovery or FORMAT your hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 .

Click to expand...

Hi Nick

Since my last message the audio has gone again, but it seemed to happen this time when it had a windows update. I have tried the restore/recovery but there are only so many times I can go back, went back 4 times but no joy. I have uninstalled the Audio Drivers and on powering up the PC windows installed them again but still no joy. I have tried to update the drivers, No joy just tells me that I have the latest version for the on board sound.

I don't really want to format the Hard drive as I know that its the onboard sound that's gone and not the hard drive, that still runs perfectly, Personally formatting a hard drive is a case of last resort (in my eyes) but not in this case, as I believe it is the Mother Board that is causing the problem, especially as in the last week that the front Usb Ports both of which are USB 2 have intermittently refused to see my external hard-drive or my usb pen-drives or the usb port sends me a message that both the external and pen drive could run faster on USB2, yet when plugging the drives into any of the four usb port at the back of the PC I don't get that message or the problem.

What niggles me the most is that this MB (ASRock Model N68C-GS UCC BIOS Version P1.40 BIOS Date 08/25/2010 BIOS Size 1024 KB) is only 3 years old, and looks as if its on its way out.

Great I have another PC running windows XP on a MSI MS-7021 Version: 1.0 MB. 6 PCI slots. BIOS Version: AMIINT - 10 BIOS Date: 10/20/04. 4 Usb1 ports on the back. 2 Usb2 ports on the front. AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1500+ CPU, Memory 1280. VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio On Board Sound and a VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter. and its still working well.

So It looks as if I need a new Mother Board, another Hard Drive and set that up for Windows 7 and use the original hard drive as a slave.

That is unless someone out there has a better Idea ....