Question After a power failure PC no longer outputs sound, looking for a temporary USB soundcard.

[Cyber_Akuma]

Had a power failure due to the snow here, when I turned my PC back on no sound was playing through the speakers anymore. The speakers themselves (Klipsch ProMedia 2.1) are working fine when I plugged them into the phone, and when I tried to output through the very very very horrible quality built in speakers in my HDMI monitor that worked... if you can call that mess working, but it's not outputting audio from the audio jack anymore.

I need my audio working soon, so instead of spending days trying to see if the audio hardware is indeed fried somehow or if something else happened, I am just going to quickly order a USB soundcard/DAC and use that, at least until I can fix this (Or just keep the USB card as it's likely going to be better quality).

Since the card is only temporary as this system itself is a temporary system until I can get my main PC which has a Sound BlasterX AE-5 I'm not looking for some high-end DAC that could be expensive. I just want something temporary for now that would be at least on par if not better than the motherboard audio from this old workstation. I see prices vary wildly from ones as suspiciously cheap as $10 all the way up to $200 and likely higher if I kept looking.

Another problem I have though... just how much USB power do these devices use? I already have a lot of the USB ports on this system used up, and I am worried a higher-draw device will take too much power. Do any of them have an option of being powered externally? Or am I looking way too much into this?

Any recommendations for what I am looking for? Preferably on the cheaper side if it's a decent one. Would love one that's $30 or less but if it's really worth it I can see doing one that's around $50, not looking to go into the triple digits.

Specs:
Dell Precision T3610
CPU - Xeon E5-2667 v2
Motherboard: DELL 09M8Y8
RAM: DDR3 ECC 32GBX4
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 720
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Drives: 250GB SSD, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD
PSU: 675W (Proprietary)
USB devices: Cm Storm Trigger Keyboard, Genesys Logic USB V2.0 4-Port Hub(Part of the keyboard), SteelSeries Rival 310 Mouse, HD Pro Webcam C920, NVIDIA stereo controller, Xbox360 Controller, EPSON Perfection 2400 Scanner

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU and disk drive(s).

List all USB devices, how connected? Any USB hubs - either PC USB port powered or independently powered?

= = = = m

Try running the built in Windows troubleshooters. The troubleshooter may find and fix something.

Likewise the power outage may have corrupted some files.

Run "dism" and "sfc /scannow".

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU and disk drive(s).

List all USB devices, how connected? Any USB hubs - either PC USB port powered or independently powered?

= = = = m

Try running the built in Windows troubleshooters. The troubleshooter may find and fix something.

Likewise the power outage may have corrupted some files.

Run "dism" and "sfc /scannow".

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

Ok, added the specs, also the troubleshooter said it would try to reinstall the driver and then said it could not fix my problem, I can try a drive scan in a bit but I am doing some work so I can't reboot right now.

 

[Ralston18]

PSU: 675W (Proprietary)

No make or model information at all? Maybe a part number that could be searched...

How old?

In any case, the PSU is likely of low quality with respect to design, materials, and assembly.

I would not be surprised if the power outage damaged the PSU and/or even some components within the PC.

Is it possible for you to swap in another known working PSU with 700 watts or so? (Remember to use only the cables that come with the swapped in PSU.)

Another option is to use an independently powered USB hub to serve some of those USB devices. Premise being that the system is unable to no longer support them all. May have worked for awhile but then PSU degraded and/or was damaged by the power outage.

Just be methodical with respect to further troubleshooting. Hopefully another audio card will restore audio.

If not then more effort will be needed.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Seems it was a corrupted driver issue, forcing Windows to not just uninstall the device but also the cached drivers and re-download/install it fixed it.

To answer the PSU questions though.

PSU: 675W (Proprietary)

No make or model information at all? Maybe a part number that could be searched...

How old?

It came with the system so I don't know how old, but the system was released around 2013 and I know that sometime between that and their 2015 models the PSU design changed slightly so probably from around then. Also I realize that I made a mistake, it's 685 watts, not 675... what weird amounts they used.

In any case, the PSU is likely of low quality with respect to design, materials, and assembly.

Not like I have an option to use a different one, it's a workstation PSU so it's not necessarily as low-end as some cheap consumer proprietary PSUs. It had no trouble powering a 2060 super in it along with everything else for OCCT's one hour "power" test multiple times, and hours of benchmarks.

Is it possible for you to swap in another known working PSU with 700 watts or so? (Remember to use only the cables that come with the swapped in PSU.)

I would just have to get another used one, not like I have options to shop around since it's not standard and the system is old. It also has no cables, it just slots into it from the back, don't even need to open the case.

Another option is to use an independently powered USB hub to serve some of those USB devices. Premise being that the system is unable to no longer support them all. May have worked for awhile but then PSU degraded and/or was damaged by the power outage.

Yeah, I was considering that option. Although since it could handle much beefier GPUs than the one I temporarily have in here right now before I meant that I was worried about whatever power it supplies to it's USB hubs was being maxed out, not the overall system power in it's entirety.

 

[Ralston18]

Good that all appears working again.

Two thoughts to add:

1) Be thinking ahead with respect to a replacement PSU. They do get old and may start faltering or simply just fail.

2) Ensure that all important data etc., as applicable, is backed up to a location other than the workstation.

Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[Paperdoc]

Since you have it working again, this is after the fact. But FYI, anyway.

My first thought in reading your post was how Windows uses sound output devices. That was prompted by your statements that the speakers that are plugged into the computer back panel sound output jack do not work suddenly, BUT when you plug them into an output jack from the MONITOR you DO get sound. Did I get that right?

Your system may have two or more devices for sound output. Your mobo has its own Audio chip that can send out signals on the mobo's back panel jacks. In your case, you have also a video card connected to your monitor by an HDMI cable. HDMI cables can have 2-channel stereo audio signals included for delivery to a monitor with speakers. However, there never has been any standard way for audio output from a mobo chip to be routed to a card plugged into a PCIe slot. So virtually all video card makers also include on their boards an audio output chip that CAN feed sound out on the HDMI cable to your monitor. Then it is up to Windows to figure out where to send the digital audio signals internally.

Now, Windows can use only ONE sound output device at a time, no matter how many your system has. YOU get to tell Windows which one to use, and from your post it appears that this setting somehow got changed when the power glitch happened. To make this setting yourself use the lower left search window for Sound Settings. There you will find a drop-down selector window to Choose Your Default Sound Output Device, and it will show you all the devices you have. (There are similar sections for you to set the Default Sound Input Device and the Default MIDI Output Device.) IF you set it to the mobo system (VERY commonly from Realtek) as Default Sound Output , then back out, all sound OUTPUT will come from the jacks on the back panel of the mobo, and your Monitor will NOT get sound from the video card. On the other hand, IF you set it to use the output device on your video card, ALL sound will be sent out on the HDMI cable, and NO sound will come from the mobo back panel jack. This latter case appears to be what happened you you. And somehow in your work you have fixed that by changing it back to using the mobo sound output system.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

1) Be thinking ahead with respect to a replacement PSU. They do get old and may start faltering or simply just fail.

Like I mentioned, the PSU is proprietary and it's an older system, I don't believe they make new PSUs for it anymore. So my only option are used PSUs.

My first thought in reading your post was how Windows uses sound output devices. That was prompted by your statements that the speakers that are plugged into the computer back panel sound output jack do not work suddenly, BUT when you plug them into an output jack from the MONITOR you DO get sound. Did I get that right?

Not exactly, the monitor has built in speakers, I was hearing the audio through that.

Your system may have two or more devices for sound output. Your mobo has its own Audio chip that can send out signals on the mobo's back panel jacks. In your case, you have also a video card connected to your monitor by an HDMI cable. HDMI cables can have 2-channel stereo audio signals included for delivery to a monitor with speakers. However, there never has been any standard way for audio output from a mobo chip to be routed to a card plugged into a PCIe slot. So virtually all video card makers also include on their boards an audio output chip that CAN feed sound out on the HDMI cable to your monitor. Then it is up to Windows to figure out where to send the digital audio signals internally.

Yeah, I made sure that the output to my speakers from the rear jack was set as the default, and the sound control panel showed that's where it was attempting to output the audio. That's also how I tested the monitor, by switching the default to my GPU temporarily.

 

[Christophe516]

Had a power failure due to the snow here, when I turned my PC back on no sound was playing through the speakers anymore. The speakers themselves (Klipsch ProMedia 2.1) are working fine when I plugged them into the phone, and when I tried to output through the very very very horrible quality built in speakers in my HDMI monitor that worked... if you can call that mess working, but it's not outputting audio from the audio jack anymore.

I need my audio working soon, so instead of spending days trying to see if the audio hardware is indeed fried somehow or if something else happened, I am just going to quickly order a USB soundcard/DAC and use that, at least until I can fix this (Or just keep the USB card as it's likely going to be better quality).

Since the card is only temporary as this system itself is a temporary system until I can get my main PC which has a Sound BlasterX AE-5 I'm not looking for some high-end DAC that could be expensive. I just want something temporary for now that would be at least on par if not better than the motherboard audio from this old workstation. I see prices vary wildly from ones as suspiciously cheap as $10 all the way up to $200 and likely higher if I kept looking.

Another problem I have though... just how much USB power do these devices use? I already have a lot of the USB ports on this system used up, and I am worried a higher-draw device will take too much power. Do any of them have an option of being powered externally? Or am I looking way too much into this?

Any recommendations for what I am looking for? Preferably on the cheaper side if it's a decent one. Would love one that's $30 or less but if it's really worth it I can see doing one that's around $50, not looking to go into the triple digits.

Specs:
Dell Precision T3610
CPU - Xeon E5-2667 v2
Motherboard: DELL 09M8Y8
RAM: DDR3 ECC 32GBX4
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 720
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Drives: 250GB SSD, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD
PSU: 675W (Proprietary)
USB devices: Cm Storm Trigger Keyboard, Genesys Logic USB V2.0 4-Port Hub(Part of the keyboard), SteelSeries Rival 310 Mouse, HD Pro Webcam C920, NVIDIA stereo controller, Xbox360 Controller, EPSON Perfection 2400 Scanner

I know I am late in replying, but. I have Win11(64-bit). Right around New Years Day(2024), my sound went AOL. For two months' I tried everything I could think of, from a software standpoint. To resolve the problem. Nothing worked. I finally just 'bit the bullet' and, ordered a new sound card. I am also looking for a new video card, before the on-board video driver goes bad.

I don't like 'all-in-one systems'. I would rather build it myself.