# Onboard Sound Doesn't Work :(



## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

I have an ASUS P5N32 SLi Deluxe (ignore the specs on the left)

http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=aRt58hctks0a1cXX

My friend gave it to me after the onboard sound ceased to function

He also heard a loud bang when this happened...

I've just tried connecting some speakers and headphones, and neither of them work

Obviously he wasn't lying, the sound really does not work at all

What are the possible causes of this? I have installed the drivers for it (Realtek ALC855)

It would be a really great PC if the sound worked!

Thanks in advance ^_^


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## erocker (Dec 29, 2009)

If your friend heard a bang, check the motherboard for a blown capacitor.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

Apologies, it's the Asus P5N32 SLi (SE) Deluxe *like it makes a difference lol*

Erm, well visually looking at the motherboard I see nothing out of the ordinary

I can give you pictures if you really feel that's what it could be 

But yea, everything looks pretty solid

Anything else it may be?


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## erocker (Dec 29, 2009)

A capacitor could be one of those larger cylindrical things or it could be something tiny that looks like a transistor or resistor. I wouldn't expect the onboard sound to work ever again, especially since it stopped working after a bad noise. You could just go and find the cheapest sound card possible to stick in it.


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## Phxprovost (Dec 29, 2009)

are the TRS jacks on the mobo broken or damaged in anyway? i know thats normally the cause of sound not functioning *IE over use of jacks*


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

Hm he also said it started to crash a lot and was quite unstable (he never overclocked it or anything). Apparently it just generally started to get slower...

However using it at this current time I don't feel as though anything is wrong


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## erocker (Dec 29, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> Hm he also said it started to crash a lot and was quite unstable (he never overclocked it or anything). Apparently it just generally started to get slower...
> 
> However using it at this current time I don't feel as though anything is wrong



Perhaps he has bad RAM or a bad CPU.


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 29, 2009)

A friend of mine on Steam has 2 identical Alienware systems in his household with Pentium D processors and ASUS P5ND2-SLI motherboards. I helped him reformat the systems and find the right drivers and such, and the sound on his brother's PC has quit working, while his computer's sound still works fine. I had him install the same software on both PCs, including the NVIDIA Forceware drivers which include the ALC850 driver, as well as Realtek's AC'97 driver to no avail. The one that has non-functioning sound is missing the audio device in Device Manager (I think it's called nForce audio codec or something of that nature.)


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

erocker said:


> Perhaps he has bad RAM or a bad CPU.



I'm using the same RAM as he was, like the same that came from his system, but not the same CPU

I noticed in my other motherboard, with the Core 2 (from his system) kinda sucks a bit. Maybe it is the CPU, as with the Pentium D in this board it seems okay. It's just a lot of hassle to swap the CPUs over 



Jstn7477 said:


> A friend of mine on Steam has 2 identical Alienware systems in his household with Pentium D processors and ASUS P5ND2-SLI motherboards. I helped him reformat the systems and find the right drivers and such, and the sound on his brother's PC has quit working, while his computer's sound still works fine. I had him install the same software on both PCs, including the NVIDIA Forceware drivers which include the ALC850 driver, as well as Realtek's AC'97 driver to no avail. The one that has non-functioning sound is missing the audio device in Device Manager (I think it's called nForce audio codec or something of that nature.)


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

P.S I get higher FPS in CoD4 at the same settings with X850XT and Pentium D, than with Core 2 Duo and 7950GT SLi

SO all you people who were bullshitting me about my system not being able to handle it, obviously didn't trust there is a serious problem here, if my poo system is BETTER at running the game than the good one

So thanks, for not beliving me and telling me my system couldn't handle it...

I'm gonna try the 7950GTs in SLi with the Pentium D now.

If my frames are still higher, then it's either the modded drivers on the other board, or the CPU

We shall find out soon enough


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## erocker (Dec 29, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> P.S I get higher FPS in CoD4 at the same settings with X850XT and Pentium D, than with Core 2 Duo and 7950GT SLi



Makes sense to me. THe 7950GT SLi is buggy and Nvidia never made a good driver for it. You upgraded to the wrong card. Theoretically it should have better performance, but it doesn't and never will. The X850XT was a great card, and the 7950 was a joke. You are banging your head on this and it's not going to help. Put the X850XT back in, sell the 7950 to somebody you don't like and start over.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

erocker said:


> Makes sense to me. THe 7950GT SLi is buggy and Nvidia never made a good driver for it. You upgraded to the wrong card. Theoretically it should have better performance, but it doesn't and never will. The X850XT was a great card, and the 7950 was a joke. You are banging your head on this and it's not going to help. Put the X850XT back in, sell the 7950 to somebody you don't like and start over.



Well I've discovered a problem with this board I never thought I would encounter

On the P5N32 SLi SE Deluxe, the E6600 won't boot at 3GHz whatsoever, even with the voltage cranked right up etc...

But on the P5W DH Deluxe it had no sweat doing 3GHz

So I'm thinking whatever made this 'bang noise' may be something linked to whatever it is on the motherboard that aids the CPU

Cos it won't boot at 3GHz no matter what I do. Also tried raising NB voltage too, and memory voltage/frequency

Any suggestions now with this new discovery as to what might be wrong with the board?

And indeed erocker, I swapped out the X850XT for a single 7950GT and the frames remain the same :/

Gonna try the SLi in a sec, and then swap back to Pentium D and see wa gwan

Please if anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Tried just about everything :/


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## erocker (Dec 29, 2009)

The motherboard is physically broken. Nothing you can do.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 29, 2009)

Ergh, even the SLi is slower on this board

And it's built for it!

Gah, what can ya do eh :/


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## d3fct (Dec 30, 2009)

lol, thats what's great about using sli on a p45 it destroys an nforce board in comparison in sli benches. sry to hear about the board takin a dump, i don't think i woulda plugged anything of mine into it after your buddy said it made a big bang sound!


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

d3fct said:


> lol, thats what's great about using sli on a p45 it destroys an nforce board in comparison in sli benches. sry to hear about the board takin a dump, i don't think i woulda plugged anything of mine into it after your buddy said it made a big bang sound!



Ha well, might as well take a chance eh

No point living without risks and whatnot 

Just using it as a goony poo rig tbh

Pentium D, X850XT Crossfire Edition, 2GB Generic Ram (Haven't put that in yet, I assume it'll work)

This isn't a P45, it's an i975X. Was designed for Crossfire rather than SLi

You'd think an nForce board made specifically for SLi at the same time those cards came out would serve them justice

I dunno, maybe it's just cos it's slightly broken

Who knows!

Waiting for the 195 modded drivers to come out so I can try this SLi on more updated drivers

Just wanna be rich so all these problems go away, cos then the rig would just be all brand new!

Job interview in a couple weeks, if that goes well, then these problems WILL go away 

Saaaaaaafe!

If not then err... :'(


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## d3fct (Dec 30, 2009)

gl


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## Mussels (Dec 30, 2009)

realtek AC97? easy!


odds are, the case used to have front panel audio hooked up to the mobo. If that is removed, you're supposed to place jumpbers on the port to get the rear audio working again.

Short version: Front audio plug off without jumpers = no front or back audio.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Mussels said:


> realtek AC97? easy!
> 
> 
> odds are, the case used to have front panel audio hooked up to the mobo. If that is removed, you're supposed to place jumpbers on the port to get the rear audio working again.
> ...



So you're saying I just randomly take a jumper from somewhere and place it on that particular part of the port?

Cos there are no jumpers anywhere near that port apart from the CMOS ones. That's all there is anywhere on the board

Are you suggesting I remove one of those and bootup with it over that specified pin, and then replace it?


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## Mussels (Dec 30, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> So you're saying I just randomly take a jumper from somewhere and place it on that particular part of the port?
> 
> Cos there are no jumpers anywhere near that port apart from the CMOS ones. That's all there is anywhere on the board
> 
> Are you suggesting I remove one of those and bootup with it over that specified pin, and then replace it?



it needs two jumpers, you can see them in the image i provided earlier, and in the one i'm posting below


you cant just steal them from the board, as any on the board are likely there for a reason. you could also try connecting your front audio again, and see if that works.








look at the far left of that image, you can see the location of the two blue jumpers


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Mussels said:


> it needs two jumpers, you can see them in the image. its one either side of the 'missing' pin (thats how i remember it)
> 
> 
> you cant just steal them from the board, as any on the board are likely there for a reason. you could also try connecting your front audio again, and see if that works.
> ...



Well I'm gonna have to steal them from somewhere cos to be honest with you there are zero jumpers lol

And I have tried connecting the Front Panel Audio jacks from my old case to the board already (yes I checked they were AC'97 and not HD Audio). There was still absolutely no sound whatsoever

I think whatever banged, banged hard 

I'm still really really interested to know what happened though, this is an interesting thing to happen... Nobody seems to be able to pinpoint it

Plus on top of that the terrible overclocking performance and awful SLi performance in comparison to a Crossfire board that isn't even supposed to be able to do it!

yes, something isn't right

But I wanna know WHAT IT IS!


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## Mussels (Dec 30, 2009)

well, since someones gone and stolen all the jumpers off the board, who knows


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Mussels said:


> well, since someones gone and stolen all the jumpers off the board, who knows



I swear down there aren't any jumpers!

There's nowhere for them to go

Honestly, I don't think this board has jumpers for the Audio...


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## Mussels (Dec 30, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> I swear down there aren't any jumpers!
> 
> There's nowhere for them to go
> 
> Honestly, I don't think this board has jumpers for the Audio...



i showed you a picture a few posts up, showing where they go.

here it is, again, with a red circle


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Mussels said:


> i showed you a picture a few posts up, showing where they go.
> 
> here it is, again, with a red circle
> http://img.techpowerup.org/091230/Capture345.jpg



Hmm but surely this is as a replacement to plugging in the Front Panel Audio? Cos I tried that and it didn't work, so this probably won't work either 

I shall have a scrounge around for a spare mobo and take the jumpers and use them for this, but don't really hold any high hopes


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## Mussels (Dec 31, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> Hmm but surely this is as a replacement to plugging in the Front Panel Audio? Cos I tried that and it didn't work, so this probably won't work either
> 
> I shall have a scrounge around for a spare mobo and take the jumpers and use them for this, but don't really hold any high hopes



if the front audio for the case is damaged/broken, then it wouldnt work regardless.

If speakers were plugged in at the time and say, one of the wires broke - it would explain the loud noise described earlier (a really loud pop/bang through... through the speakers!)


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## MikeTyson (Dec 31, 2009)

Mussels said:


> if the front audio for the case is damaged/broken, then it wouldnt work regardless.
> 
> If speakers were plugged in at the time and say, one of the wires broke - it would explain the loud noise described earlier (a really loud pop/bang through... through the speakers!)



Nah the front panel audio I plugged in defo works cos I took it straight from my other computer that has sound, and I was using those ports the whole time (Y)

Guess this mobo is just a gonner, but I still wanna know why


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## MohawkAngel (Dec 31, 2009)

If you take example on ormal motherboards the jumpers are there if you want to plug in the front panel audio instead you have to remove the jumpers and plug in the case wires as stated in the manual of the motherboard manufacturer. Look on the first picture you sent bro....there are blue jumpers. you should take them from a dead motheard or even look at the back of old CD driver and old hard disks. When the disks and cd player had to use those jumpers to determine the MASTER and the SLAVE.

Send me a private message with your email i exactly cut the image in your motherboard manual so you know exactly where to place those jumpers. Ill send you this image.
If thatdoes not work then just buy a 15$ cheap sound card and plug it in. works on pci slot and 5.1channel.


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