I just put together a new machine and everything seems to be working except the audio.
System Details
Component list
OS: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
All updates have been installed, and the device manager does not show any unrecognized devices.
Symptoms
The speaker jack is not outputting sound correctly. There is audio, but it is very quiet (as in, put your ear up to the speaker to hear anything) and slightly distorted. I have tried multiple sets of speakers: all behave the same.
The head phone jack in the front-panel also does not work. No sound at all is produced from the headphones.
What I Have Tried
In general, I have been searching this forum and the Internet at large and I have not yet found a solution for the problem.
I went to the downloads area for the motherboard and downloaded and installed the latest Realtek audio driver, to no effect.
I went to Control Panel > Sound > Right click on "Speakers" -> Properties.. -> Levels, and increased the audio levels. By increasing the levels to the maximum, the speakers were just barely audible at a normal distance, but much too quiet for everyday use.
Also from Control Panel > Sound, I tried disabling all the NVIDIA audio devices (associated with the video card, I assume), but this had no effect.
Since the head phone jack doesn't work, I opened up the machine and ensured the cable (from the front panel to the motherboard) was properly connected. No change.
From the BIOS (or UEFI), I toggled the "on board sound" from "Auto" to "Enabled", and disabled the front head phone jack, but this had no effect on the speakers.
I opened up the "Realtek HD Audio Manager" program and futzed with its settings, to no avail.
Next Steps
Is there anything else I should try? Help would be much appreciated.
I'm really hoping this isn't a motherboard hardware problem; having just assembled the machine, I am reluctant to disassemble it so the motherboard can be exchanged. But if it does look like a motherboard problem, would adding a sound card (something I have never used) be a viable workaround? What about a USB sound card? Or do those rely on the motherboard?
System Details
Component list
OS: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
All updates have been installed, and the device manager does not show any unrecognized devices.
Symptoms
The speaker jack is not outputting sound correctly. There is audio, but it is very quiet (as in, put your ear up to the speaker to hear anything) and slightly distorted. I have tried multiple sets of speakers: all behave the same.
The head phone jack in the front-panel also does not work. No sound at all is produced from the headphones.
What I Have Tried
In general, I have been searching this forum and the Internet at large and I have not yet found a solution for the problem.
I went to the downloads area for the motherboard and downloaded and installed the latest Realtek audio driver, to no effect.
I went to Control Panel > Sound > Right click on "Speakers" -> Properties.. -> Levels, and increased the audio levels. By increasing the levels to the maximum, the speakers were just barely audible at a normal distance, but much too quiet for everyday use.
Also from Control Panel > Sound, I tried disabling all the NVIDIA audio devices (associated with the video card, I assume), but this had no effect.
Since the head phone jack doesn't work, I opened up the machine and ensured the cable (from the front panel to the motherboard) was properly connected. No change.
From the BIOS (or UEFI), I toggled the "on board sound" from "Auto" to "Enabled", and disabled the front head phone jack, but this had no effect on the speakers.
I opened up the "Realtek HD Audio Manager" program and futzed with its settings, to no avail.
Next Steps
Is there anything else I should try? Help would be much appreciated.
I'm really hoping this isn't a motherboard hardware problem; having just assembled the machine, I am reluctant to disassemble it so the motherboard can be exchanged. But if it does look like a motherboard problem, would adding a sound card (something I have never used) be a viable workaround? What about a USB sound card? Or do those rely on the motherboard?
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