XFX cards and HDMI issues

[rudy]

I am currently running an xfx 7950 in the HTPC. I have been having 1 HDMI issue after another.

The first item is more of a public service announcement since I already solved it. For a long time it seemed like the card just did not want to sit well in any of my cases (silver stone and 2x lian li) So I was flipping a computer with an xfx 7850 into a new case and that damn card would not sit well either so I start looking for the problem. I find out that the xfx card has 2 screws that are holding the metal back plate on the card way up near the top and they protrude a little out the back of the card. They actually impede flush mounting of the card. So I took a dremel and cut chunks of metal out of the case and fixed the problem.

I looked at some other cards and noticed that they don't have any screws on the back, they hold the metal in wats that keep the screws inside the case or directly use the retainers for ports like vga/dvi.

So if anyone else is having trouble check that out.

So then I moved the HTPC computer with 7950 into a giant full tower lian li case and found the same problem with that card, solved it the same way and figured it would sove a problem I had with HDMI cords constanly popping out. But I still had trouble, I noticed the HDMI port just seems a little loose. I tried several different HDMI cords and nothing seemed to solve the problem I had where I would get video but the sound would not work. Sometimes the sound would have small pops or cracles through the speakers but mostly just not make any sound.

So I really started messing with it today and I noticed something strange. If I play music from groove shark through chrome, I get no sound, but if I switch to IE I get sound, but then if I minimize IE I get no sound, then maximize and sound returns. Its messed up. So after all that maybe I am not looking at a hardware problem but rather a software problem. But I cannot figure it out, sometimes I can solve it by restarting the computer. I just updated to 12.10 catalyst but have not had enough time to test it well.

Anyone know what is causing this.

 

[timta2]

If you are using the audio over HDMI, did you disable your motherboard's built-in audio via the BIOS? Usually when you hear someone say "pops, crackles in audio" that's usually the cause, not always, but usually. When I started using audio over HDMI I was having some audio problems and that fixed them instantly.

I have a XFX 6450 in my HTPC and haven't experienced a single problem with it. Didn't really have any installation issues like you mentioned so maybe it's limited to certain cards/designs.

 

[rudy]

I cannot disable the onboard audio, or do you mean the intel HDMI audio (if they have that?) The reason is because this HTPC doubles as an office PC and we have to switch between sound at the office and sound in the home theater. In addition this same computer used to be fine with a GTX460 and the exact same setup. Your card seems to retain the plate with the DVI screw downs it is a much smaller card, my guess is that the increase in DP / HDMI ports that do not have the screw downs has moved them to trying different retaining methods.