No sound on Windows 7/8/10, works on Linux (new Mainboard)

[Sepa72]

I have recently installed my new mainboard ASrock 980DE3/U3S3 R2.0.
Everything seems to work out fine, except for the sound.

I have installed different drivers, each should be the correct drivers for the mainboard/the soundchip onboard. After trying a number of things, I have no idea what to do, but to ask in this forum. The onboard soundcard is a Realtek ALC662.

I have already reinstalled Windows 8.1, then installed Windows 10, Windows 7 and finally Windows 10 again (clean install). On every installation, I have installed the driver for my own mainboard and also the driver for my specific onboard sound card (the drivers were probably the same, but the one I downloaded from asrock.com and the other I downloaded from Realtek directly).

Here is the interesting thing: I installed a hard drive with a linux distribution (KDE Neon) ready to boot and on this system, the sound worked correctly, aswell as the microphone.

Everytime I installed Windows or reinstalled the audio drivers, a sound device named Digital Audio (S/PDIF), which obviously doesn't work, appeared.

The device manager shows Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus without any warning. When sorting after "Resources by type" and under IRQs, it shows a "High Definition Audio Controller" at IRQ16 (along with two Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controllers) and at IRQ19 there is another "High Definition Audio Controller" with a "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller". We suspected an IRQ conflict, but this is probably not the case.

There is another Audio device "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" which is irrelevant, since I am not using HDMI and as such it is unusable for me.

I have spent two days almost exclusively working on fixing that and thinking of all different kinds of causes, but I am unable to fix the problem. The fact that it works under Linux is peculiar and basically proves, that the onboard sound of my mainboard is working.

Hope I have provided enough information about my problem.
Thanks in advance!

 

[herrwizo]

You have provided very detailed information. In general, yes, there is nothing wrong with your audio hardware-wise.

The reason is most likely an IRQ conflict of some kind, most likely between several audio cards.

First try this:

In BIOS, disable everything you don't use except audio: that means serial and parallel ports, firewire, any additional networking cards, onboard video... and then try again.

Do not forget to set your onboard audio te be default device for playback in Windows as well.

Let us know how it works out.

 

[Sepa72]

More information about the playback devices:
It lists four NVIDIA Outputs ("Not plugged in"), Digital Audio (S/PDIF) (active and shows sound, but cannot hear any sound), Headphones ("Not plugged in") and Speakers ("Not plugged in"). The Headphones are new to me, but the Speakers is what I have always been using for sound in the past. Furthermore, the NVIDIA Outputs are listed with NVIDIA High Definition Audio and the rest is listed with High Definition Audio Device.

Regarding your suggestion, I disabled the following settings (I only changed settings under the "Advanced" tab):

Chipset settings: I made sure Onboard HD Audio is set to [Enabled].
Storage Configuration: Onboard SATA Controller [Disabled]
Advanced PCI/PnP Settings: PCI IDE BusMaster [Disabled]
Floppy Configuration: Floppy A [Disabled]
Configure SuperIO Chipset: OnBoard Floppy Contorller [Disabled], Serial Port Address [Disabled], Infrared Port Address [Disabled]
USB Configuration: USB 3.0 Controller [disabled]
I tried disabling USB 2.0 Controller, USB 2.0 Support and Legacy USB Support, but this disables my keyboard and mouse.

The Conflicts/Sharing summary in msinfo32 did not change at all.
No changes in the device manager either.

Edit:
After installing the Realtek HD Drivers from ASrock again, the "Headphones" in the Playback devices disappeared and the digital output changed to "Realtek Digital Output". Also, both the Digital Output and the Speakers are running via "Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus".

Another thing worth mentioning is the small crack that I can hear, when I disable or enable the "Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus.

 

[Paperdoc]

It certainly appears that your system has more than one hardware audio output system available - the Realtek on-board system, an Nvidia system, and MAYBE another? My guess is that your system has a video card plugged into a PCIe slot and that's where your signal to the monitor comes from. And I'll bet that card has an HDMI output, whether or not you are using it.

HDMI cables carry an audio signal to the monitor if you choose to use that. But the video card has no way of getting an audio signal from your mobo's audio chip. So all such video cards include their own audio output chip. VERY often when you install such a card, as it loads the proper drivers for it it also loads the driver for that audio system, and then changes the settings in Windows to make that chip on the video card the default audio output device for your system. Thus the audio output jacks on your computer's back connector panel do NOT get any signal to send out.

The root of this is that Windows itself can only deal with ONE audio output device at a time, even though your system may have more. YOU have to tell Windows which you want to use. Go through the bottom left icon to get through Control Panel to Sounds, and find the tab that lets you look at all the possible sound devices. Pick the Realtek system that is on your mobo and make it the Default Windows Playback device. (There are similar choices available for the default Recording and MIDI playback devices, if you want to set them.) Back out of there and check whether your back-panel and front-panel jacks now send out sound.

 

[Sepa72]

Pick the Realtek system that is on your mobo and make it the Default Windows Playback device.

I suppose you are talking about the "Set as Default Device" option in the "Playback devices" section.
I cannot select the Speakers, because they are "not plugged in" and the option is greyed out. The Realtek Digital Output has been automatically set as default sound device, because it is the only one, that is available.

In as much as I know, I only have two devices, that enable sound output:
My graphics card (FYI: it is a NVIDIA GeFORCE GTX 950)
The onboard integrated realtek soundchip

With the NVIDIA sound enabled again, it looks liks this:

http://

There is another NVIDIA Output at the bottom.

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, that looks right. Now I suggest checking another thing. I think the problem is that, although the Realtek system is the default sound output device, it is telling Windows that no speakers are plugged into it. Sounds odd, but here's what I just posted on another thread.

IF your on-board audio system is by Realtek, you may have run into trouble with an interesting feature of that system called jack re-assignment. On my system, here's what it does.

If you start from nothing plugged into the jacks and plug one thing in (say, the green plug for front left / right speakers into the green socket) a small window will pop up on screen saying it just detected a new item plugged in and asking what that is. It usually suggests what it might be, and often is correct. If you simply ignore that screen, it will time out and disappear and NOT use the default it suggested. Instead it simply will not send out a signal on that socket because it does not know what was plugged in. You MUST answer the query on that little screen in order to set the correct connected device.

If you have not done this already, I suggest this sequence.
1. Unplug all your sound devices from the back panel. Shut down, then reboot. The Realtek driver will detect that nothing is connected, and will need input for all new connections.
2. Arrange your system so you can plug in devices on the back and still see the screen and have access to your keyboard / mouse.
3. Plug in ONE item - say, front speakers. When the window pops up, answer it and it will go away. Now do another device, and repeat.
4. When you have all items re-connected and have told the system what each is, you should have sounds again.

 

[Sepa72]

I know how the Realtek HD Audio Manager works and I have done a similar approach before and I have repeated it exactly like you said, but without any success. There is no response at all. Even in the device manager, I cannot register any changes.
As I mentioned, I am used to this system of plugging in and selecting what device I just plugged in and as such, I always looked out for such a prompt, but I have not seen the prompt once with this mainboard. Not in any Windows installation.