No sound out of sound card

[pkilway]

Specs are in the sig.

 

I started having problems with my sound when I added a second 80Gb hard drive to form a Raid 0 - and my previous Audigy 2. Slowly, I started having sound interruptions, then it faded all together. I switched PCI slots, an dstill had the same problem - no sound.

 

As I LIKE sound, I couldn't figure what was going on, so I figured my sound card crapped out on me. I downloaded the on-board sound drivers, enabled the on-board sound in the BIOS (I did have it disabled up to this point), then installed the drivers. I had sound again, it wasn't great sound, but at least I could hear what was going on in games and listen to CDs.

 

Now I figured I'd get by with this until I found a deal on a new sound card. Then Monday Newegg had that GREAT deal on Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Limited Editions (yep, got it for $71 and have the $50 mail-in rebate too). Well, I spent all night putting it in, no sound. So I figured I had messed up the drivers, reformated, reinstalled Windows XP, disabled on-board sound - NO SOUND. Switched from middle to last PCI slot - NO SOUND. Switched back to middle PCI slot - NO SOUND. Double checked the speaker connections about 20 times - NO SOUND.

 

I'm beginning to feel jinxed. I have no idea what's going on. And I can't believe that my new RAID 0 is what causing the problems (could it really be the culprit?). Is there anything I'm missing - and yes, on-board sound is now disabled. Could I possibly have screwed up a BIOS setting that disabled the PCI slots? But Windows detected the Audigy 2 ZS and asked for the drivers. Device Manager reports that the sound card is fully functional and has no conflicts.

 

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[Worm]

First place to check will be "Sound and Audio Devices" in Control Panel. Click the "Advanced" button on the "Volume" tab and make sure nothing's muted.

 

Run DirectX sound diags test via Start --> Run, type dxdiag and click OK.

 

Is the Audigy recognized in Device Manager without a yellow exclamation mark or a red X? Go to Start --> Run, type devmgmt.msc to check.

 

Oh, and did you choose "Digital" sound during setup, or "Analog"?

[pkilway]

1) Checked "Sound and Audio Devices" - everything's ok there - there's nothing checked, or muted.

 

2) Ran DirectX sound diags, no sound was heard on all tests.

 

3) No yellow exclamation marks or red X's in Device Manager.

 

4) Installing drivers, Analog was default, I left the sound setup as is for that.

[warden]

I am having the exact same problem with my Infinity SLI motherboard. I had a Game Theater 6.1 card installed in my previous setup and when I put this together I removed it and installed it in the DFI. Installed all drivers, etc... No sound. I figured I may have damaged the sound card removing it and bought a new Chaintech 7.1 card based on the Via Envy chip. Installed it and again, no sound. Tried every setting adjustment, etc.. nothing. Activated the onboard audio, installed the drivers and everything was perfect.

 

 

System is:

 

XFX 7800 GT

A-64 3500

DFI Infinity SLI NF-4

1 gig of Mushkin Ram

Seagate SATA drive (120 gig)

Dual Lite-On DVD drives

Zippy 600w PSU

 

 

What gives?

 

Warden

[Worm]

1) Checked "Sound and Audio Devices" - everything's ok there - there's nothing checked, or muted.

 

2) Ran DirectX sound diags, no sound was heard on all tests.

 

3) No yellow exclamation marks or red X's in Device Manager.

 

4) Installing drivers, Analog was default, I left the sound setup as is for that.

There should be a Creative icon in your system tray next to the clock. If you right click that, there should be a diagnostics menu. If when you run the test it encounters a problem, a submenu will appear with the option "Begin Fix".

 

Also, check Event Viewer for clues --> Start --> Run, type eventvwr.msc and click OK. Go to the System menu: you're looking for any events with either a yellow warning triangle or a red X. Open those and you'll get a link to Microsoft. That link will open a subsequent page with an explanation of what the cause of the problem is and steps you can to take to fix it.

 

One other thing, when you disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS, did you hit F10 to save & exit, or did you merely hit Esc (save & exit)?

[warden]

Worm - is it possible that if all of the power connectors are not plugged in it could cause this? I was reading another thred and I think that I do not have the Molex connector plugged in (24pin, ATX12v and Mini are plugged in).

 

Warden

[pkilway]

The DAGF and the Infinity only have two plug-ins from the power supply.

 

The only other thing that I could possibly think of is the chipset drivers. If the chipset drivers somehow got corrupted, or weren't working properly with the PCI bus.

 

Edit: Again I know it's not the speakers as they were JUST working with the on-board sound. And when I plug them into the Audigy 2 ZS I get nothing.

[warden]

Do you suggest the chipset drivers on the CD or downloading Nvidias chipset drivers from their website? I believe I went ahead and downloaded them from Nvidia since they seemed to be more recent.

 

Warden

[Worm]

Worm - is it possible that if all of the power connectors are not plugged in it could cause this? I was reading another thred and I think that I do not have the Molex connector plugged in (24pin, ATX12v and Mini are plugged in).

 

Warden

I don't have either of mine connected Warden and I've got a Creative 24-bit sound card that runs without a problem.

 

There's seems to be different schools of thought on the subject of those additional power connectors, but according to the manual, they're only intended to supply additional power to improve stability in systems with an SLi setup.

 

It shouldn't do the board any harm to connect them though.

 

Do you suggest the chipset drivers on the CD or downloading Nvidias chipset drivers from their website? I believe I went ahead and downloaded them from Nvidia since they seemed to be more recent.

 

Warden

 

I downloaded v6.53 from nVidia after the later version: v6.66 virtually crippled my machine.

[warden]

I'll check my version when I get home and see what I have. Perhaps I have the 6.66 drivers and they are causing trouble.

 

Warden

[pkilway]

Doh, I installed the V6.66 when I reformatted.

 

That could be the culprit!

 

Edit: Ok, what's the best way to uninstall chipset drivers?

[Worm]

I'll check my version when I get home and see what I have. Perhaps I have the 6.66 drivers and they are causing trouble.

 

Warden

I had v6.53 installed and the system was running just fine albeit with my Zyxel modem continually doing DHCP renewal according to my ISP. I was trying to resolve that issue by upgrading to v6.66. But Windows threw up dire warnings that the SW IDE drivers weren't digitally signed even though they appear to be certified on nVidia's site. I ignored the warning and went ahead and installed them anyway. After that the system slowed down to a virtual crawl. I tried rolling back the driver, but the installation process removes the previous version, so by rolling back, the system installs a standard Windows ATA-133 driver instead of a SATA version.

 

I played around with it for a couple of hours trying to sort out the mess, but finally gave up, deleted the primary and reinstalled the OS. I'm now running v6.53 again.