blockhead Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 I have been having problems with my onboard sound card. The Realtek ALC850 "Karajan". I set up the computer a month ago and the sound has been distorted from the start. I have tried different drives including the nVidea audio driver on the DFI instalation CD and Realtek drivers. These have all produced very distorted sound especially the realtek drivers. I am no audiofile but this is no subtle distortion, its a low crackled and grubled distortion of what I guess I should be hearing. At this stage I have installed the latest nVidea drivers which I found on the DFI website. Pack version 6.53. This pack includes the audio drivers version 4.57. This driver is the best (if I can call it that) of the bunch. Now windows audio, like the volume "ding" sound fine. Game audio is also fine I think. The problem now, is that sound from the "line-in", be it from radio tunner,walkman or normal radio, only results in sound from the left channel! The right channel produces nothing but a faint low volume distortion without any hint of the original sound. When I use the windows volume "Balance" channel slider to push all the sound to the right channel I hear nothing! When I use "Microphone" to source from, the sound is apparently not in stereo, both speakers (or headphones) work but the sound is distorted on both channels. Note: windows sound works at the moment from both channels it's just line-in sound to the right channel (and microphone to both channels) that does not. Please help! Any suggestions welcome! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 Make sure none of the jumpers on the audio module came out. Make sure it's in all the way stuff like that. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockhead Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 Hi Trevor, thanks for your reply. I just took the motherboard out and checked the pins on the Karajan's conection to the motherboard. They are fine; the Karajan onboard card appears to be in perfect condition. I checked the jumper positions (on the card) against the manual and they are present and in the right places. I have used different cables for input sources and tried hardphones and stereo speakers. I don't think it's anything external. I think the problem is the card or the drivers??? Anyone else had this problem? Is this likely to be a physical problem with the Karajan card? By the way, merry x-mass to those reading this Maybe Santa will be bringing me a new soundcard Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockhead Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 I've just tried diferent programs to see clearly what is working and what is not. mp3 program works fine. With the new drivers it sound much better than before. Game, KOTOR Sith Lords, works OK. I think the terrible voice overs are probably inherent to the game and not the sound card Sound effects from Windows XP sound fine. :confused: Microphone line-in is distorted and mono. I think it is ment to be mono. :confused: Line-in only results in the left channel producing sound. Should I ask for a RMA? Can I return just the Karajan sound card or do I have to send off the whole motherboard? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockhead Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 Hello? Does anyone have any advice on this? I have searched the forums and read relevent posts and the suggestions have got me this far. Is this the point where I try to get it replaced? Thanks in advance, blockhead. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspekt Posted December 22, 2005 Posted December 22, 2005 EDIT: Changed channels to streams, LOL, dunno why I wrote channels... The Realtek audio driver sucks. I don't get all the audio streams (only 20 of 52 I think it was) and the driver makes terrible clitch clatch sounds in games, plus the equaliser is living it's own life. I would suggest u get the latest nVidia chipset driver package which includes drivers for the sound module on your motherboard. nForce4 AMD Edition - Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or nForce4 AMD Edition - Windows XP/2000 (32-Bit) Remember to always remove your current chipset driver (and ofcourse the Realtek audio driver) before installing new drivers. Hope this helps Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockhead Posted December 23, 2005 Posted December 23, 2005 EDIT: Changed channels to streams, LOL, dunno why I wrote channels... The Realtek audio driver sucks. I don't get all the audio streams (only 20 of 52 I think it was) and the driver makes terrible clitch clatch sounds in games, plus the equaliser is living it's own life. I would suggest u get the latest nVidia chipset driver package which includes drivers for the sound module on your motherboard. Hope this helps Thanks heaps for your suggestion, suspect. I appreceate any advice I don't know what you mean by "audio streams" though. The problem I am having is that line-in is not in stereo. Only the left speaker works, It is as if the sound going to the right speaker just vanishes!!! Could this be related to missing audio streams? Anyway, thanks for that link to the latest nVidea drivers I uninstalled the previous drivers (which I got from DFI's homepage) and installed the nVidea version 6.7 drivers. However there is no apparent difference at all Could there be a software setting I am missing here? Has anyone even heard of someone else having this problem? lol, come on, someone give me an early X-mass present - help me solve this annoying problem! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspekt Posted December 24, 2005 Posted December 24, 2005 I think I have seen this or a similar setting somewhere.. can't remeber where right now.. hmm The new driver didn't settle the problem? I mean the Realtek audio manager could ( should ) have been the problem. I really think there is an option somewhere to put input to mono or stereo. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspekt Posted December 24, 2005 Posted December 24, 2005 Well I would think that an audio stream is one possible sound being played by the soundcard. If you have 52 streams, there is a possibility for the soundcard to play 52 different sounds (streams) at the same time. (Someone please correct me) The only thing I found is in the registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}0006SettingsMixerControls Start->Run-> type "regedit"-> Do a search in the menu Edit->Find-> Type "MixerControls" Skip the CurrentControl001 and CurrentControl002. You should see something like this: The available registry keys in this folder is DisableMasterAdvancedControls,1,01,00,00,00 DisableLineOut,1,01,00,00,00 DisableHeadphone,1,01,00,00,00 DisablePcBeep,1,01,00,00,00 DisablePhone,1,01,00,00,00 DisablePhoneRecord,1,01,00,00,00 DisableMic,1,01,00,00,00 DisableMicBoost,1,01,00,00,00 DisableMicSelect,1,01,00,00,00 DisableLineIn,1,01,00,00,00 DisableCd,1,01,00,00,00 DisableVideo,1,01,00,00,00 DisableAux,1,01,00,00,00 DisableSpdifIn,1,01,00,00,00 DisableRecordStereoMix,1,01,00,00,00 DisableRecordMonoMix,1,01,00,00,00 DisableDigitizedInputPanel,1,00,00,00,00 DisableDigitizedInput,1,01,00,00,00 DigitizedInputSelect,1,04,00,00,00 DisableMonoOutPanel,1,01,00,00,00 EnableSurroundVolume,1,01,00,00,00 Enable3DEnvironment,1,01,00,00,00 -- Try creating a new binary value DisableRecordStereoMix Press right mouse button->New->Binary value->DisableRecordStereoMix Then double-click DisableRecordStereoMix and put in 01 00 00 00. Then exit regedit and restart computer. If this doesnt work, try to set the value to 00 00 00 00 instead. Have you verified that your cable going to line-in on the soundcard is fully operational? If it isn't all the way connected you only get sound from one channel (left or right). Have you checked that the cable isn't going into microphone connection? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blockhead Posted December 27, 2005 Posted December 27, 2005 Hey suspect, that's the kind of post i can really get stuck into! I'll have a wrestle with the registry and get back to you. And yes, I've checked and tried all different combinations of cables, input sources and speakers! And no, the newer driver didn't solve the problem, in fact, I can't see or hear any difference at all... My favourite radio show is on in 15 mins; I like to record it and re-listen till it's on again next week. This audio problem really throws a spanner in the works! So thanks for you're help Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspekt Posted December 29, 2005 Posted December 29, 2005 You should hear some difference in games, or while stressing the soundmodule. (Atleast I did...) Maybe it's just an EAX thing.. well anyways, I like the Nvidia driver better. Keep us posted about your progress. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
licklavin Posted December 29, 2005 Posted December 29, 2005 I have the same problem. I have an old 5.1 home theater system that i'm using and after I couldn't get the s/pdif to send digital audio i tried to just run all channel surround but end up having the same problem that you do. I found that connecting to the 'rear' output provided sound to all speakers but certain audio didnt work at all. ex: quicktime-mute, itunes,wmp,winamp,games-normal Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.