Your my last resort....

[NaturalViolence]

I have a problem that I have officially given up on trying to solve on my own, this almost never happens. Basically I cannot get audio to work on windows 7. This may get complicated so for those of you who aren't truly dedicated to helping me you can spare yourselves not continuing.

I have 4 audio chips/chipsets I can use. The integrated realtek audio chipset on my motherboard, an old soundblaster audigy, an x-fi xtrememusice edition, or a startech usb audio adapter. I finally decided to take the plunge and buy windows 7 professional edition. I was previously dual booting windows 7 rc and linux mint 9. I was using my xtrememusic edition card to output audio via 3.5mm to dual rca input on my hdtv which passes it to my speakers via dual rca. It worked perfectly. Now I have installed a retail copy of windows 7 that I bought and so one of the first things I did was download the latest drivers off the creative website and install them. Nothing. It shows up in device manager. Creative control panel and windows sound panel are both configured properly and the volume panel is at max. The volume bar clearly shows that it think its ouputting sound but I hear nothing. I will try and shorten this by not telling you all the little details of everything I tried but the point is I have now tried integrated audio, audigy, xtrememusic edition, and startech usb and they all have the same problem. They seem to be working properly except I hear nothing! Windows audio panel is set to output to speakers so I don't understand what the problem is. But what's really weird is the audio worked perfectly under windows 7 rc with the same hardware, setup, and configuration and audio works perfectly in linux, just not windows.

Any ideas? I;ve been at this for days now and I'de really like some help if anyone can give it. Also if this is in the wrong place I apologize.

Edit: I just tried plugging headphones straight into the usb audio adapter and it worked. This means that their is a problem with it outputting audio to the hdtv, but what doesn't make sense is why linux doesn't have that problem.

 

[strikerP4]

right click on the speaker icon in the corner and click on playback devices. check and make sure it shows speakers are default and check the config. it even has a test option. i've had issues with my laptop with it not switching to and from headphones.

 

[NaturalViolence]

Already tried that. Thanks for the input though. Keep the ideas coming.

 

[strikerP4]

I think windows 7 has issues switching between multple audio outputs. I think it currently set to output to that USB adaptor you have even though it says it might be set to other outputs in the control panel. I would go into the device manager and uninstall all the audio devices and check the box to remove the drivers. Physically remove all the audo devices from you system and reboot, then install just the one you want to use going forward.

 

[NaturalViolence]

Physically remove all the audo devices from you system and reboot, then install just the one you want to use going forward.

Tried that as well. Also disabled integrated audio in the bios. Right now my usb adapter shows up as my only audio device and it works in linux. I figure if I can get it to work with the usb adapter than I can get it to work with all of them since the problem is clearly about audio in general. Once I get it working then I'll try using my other audio devices.

 

[canon.tk]

If you're using coax or toslink with the X-Fi make sure you select the Use Digital output with Stereo Mix in the Digital I/O settings.

 

[magnetik]

also make sure it's not set to a higher bit rate than you can handle. 44/48k is safe. When I switch to 192k my eq has no audio.

 

[canon.tk]

X-Fi cards are sample rate locked in Windows 7/Vista. Mine is locked at 96/24 and I hate it. Receiver only does Prologic II.

 

[NaturalViolence]

If you're using coax or toslink with the X-Fi make sure you select the Use Digital output with Stereo Mix in the Digital I/O settings.

No as I said I'm using 3.5mm to dual rca.

also make sure it's not set to a higher bit rate than you can handle. 44/48k is safe. When I switch to 192k my eq has no audio.

I have tried all sampling rates down to 44KHz on all the audio cards.

X-Fi cards are sample rate locked in Windows 7/Vista. Mine is locked at 96/24 and I hate it. Receiver only does Prologic II.

Mine isn't. I never had that problem with vista or windows 7. In fact by default windows sets it to 48KHz, I always had to go into the sound panel and change it.

Keep the ideas flowing. I'm at my wits here.

 

[magnetik]

Are your speakers on? j/k

 

[ViperGrendal]

some things...

Check your device manger make sure the device in question is working.
In the control panel look for "sounds" (I think, I'm on XP right now) and fiddle with the output options.
Make sure all your output volumes are not muted and/or at full volume (for testing)
Make sure it's not set to digital output.

I would remove all connections and just use headphones to test for sound. Then once you get sound go back and hook up all the other stuff.

Hope that helps

 

[NaturalViolence]

Check your device manger make sure the device in question is working.

I did. Every device I have tried so far is shown and it thinks its outputting volume.

In the control panel look for "sounds" (I think, I'm on XP right now) and fiddle with the output options.

I did. With each device I tried it was set properly. At the moment I have uninstalled my creative drivers, disabled onboard audio in the bios, and removed my audio card to make absolutely certain that it is set to the proper output (this way only 1 output shows up, my usb adapter).

Make sure it's not set to digital output.

Since I disabled my onboard audio it doesn't even show up, so not a problem.

Make sure all your output volumes are not muted and/or at full volume (for testing)

They are at full.

I would remove all connections and just use headphones to test for sound. Then once you get sound go back and hook up all the other stuff.

As I said in my original post, I tried this and it worked. Plugging headphones into my usb adapter works but plugging in my speakers doesn't work. And it works in linux for some reason.



I'm really running low on ideas here. Thanks to everyone that has contributed ideas so far. Anyone else got any more ideas?

 

[canon.tk]

No as I said I'm using 3.5mm to dual rca.



I have tried all sampling rates down to 44KHz on all the audio cards.



Mine isn't. I never had that problem with vista or windows 7. In fact by default windows sets it to 48KHz, I always had to go into the sound panel and change it.

Keep the ideas flowing. I'm at my wits here.

I have a X-Fi Titanium and it doesn't give a rat's ass what I set the sampling rate to, it's at 96 khz.

 

[NaturalViolence]

Alright I figured it out. I decided to try and plug an ipod into the 3.5mm end of the cable that was plugged into my computer and see if it would produce sound, nothing. That tells me that my computer was indeed outputting audio the whole time but for whatever reason the hdtv wasn't receiving it. The hdmi input is linked to the dual rca input so in order to try a different audio port I had to switch to vga for video but it worked! I don't know if the port was faulty but what doesn't make sense it why it worked with linux on that port but not windows.

 

[narlzac85]

if you have you computer connected to your TV via hdmi, then perhaps the TV detects an audio signal coming through hdmi when in windows and tries to play that audio source (nothing at all), but when in Linux, there may not be driver support for the hdmi audio or maybe its not enabled. Then perhaps the TV detects no audio through hdmi and goes into a fallback mode (RCA). Now, the question I have is that if you did have your TV connected to your PC with hdmi, then why not just use the audio through hdmi? Its one less digital<->analog conversion. If you have ATI, then there should be an audio device in the audio panel that is hdmi. If you have Nvidia, then I think you need to connect an SPDIF cable from your motherboard to the header on the card (haven't done this myself).

 

[NaturalViolence]

I have an nvidia card, more specificallya GTX260. My card does not have an spdif header since it's a reference card from evga. Only a couple of brands decided to add that as an extra feature, most nvidia cards don't have it and therefore cannot pass audio out through hdmi.

As for your theory about why this happened I suppose that could be. I think at this point I will take any theory that makes any sense at all. Although I should point out that windows sound panel only shows hdmi as an available output if I enable onboard audio in the bios, when I had it disabled the only output was the usb adapter using 3.5mm spdif and it still didn't work. But your theory makes more sense than anything I can come up with.