TR Forums

I finished my recent build:

CPU: Intel core i7-3770k (OC'd to 4.7GHz)
MB: Asus P8Z77-V Pro (bios rev 1504)
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengenance (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
SSD: Samsung 830 128GB, Corsair ForceGT 128GB
HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB

and after tweaking lots of stuff, starting with Win8, and settling back down on Win7 Professional, I'm just about done. The problem I'm now having is with the sound. I've tried plugging in my headphones to both the front and rear audio jacks and I get a very high pitched squealing sound low volume, and no other audio. I unplugged all the USB connections (I heard there is sometimes an issue with shared grounding), and the squeal goes away, but I still don't have sound.

The onboard audio is a Realtek ALC892 chip. With Windows 8, the audio was fine, but on Win7 I can't get the stupid thing to work... I've tried updating to the latest drivers on Asus's website. I'm at a loss of what to do other than wiping and reinstalling, but since this was a fresh build, with a clean install, I'm loathe to do that. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to get it working for right now, and then I plan on getting an audio card in a month or two..

I'd try updating the BIOS, cleaning out that Realtek driver, and reinstalling the driver. Otherwise I don't know.

edit:Did you try the drivers from Realtek's website? http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... wn=false#1

Bios is the latest one. I've reinstalled the driver..


I'll try the one from Realtek's site.. That's the only thing I haven't tried so far..

Just tried Realtek's driver, and same issue.
It's always audio that gets finicky when I muck around with my computer.. I'm wondering if I'm jinxed..

Do you have any USB audio devices plugged in, which may have stolen the "default audio device" status from the onboard?

Not as far as I'm aware.. The Audio playback panel is defaulting to Realtek Digital Output when I don't have anything plugged in, and "speakers" when I plug in my headphones.

All the motherboard USB ports are plugged with USB connectors, except one which is monitoring the pump and temp for Thermaltake Water 2.0 CPU cooler. The only USB devices I've plugged in are my mouse, and a thumb drive to flash the BIOS (took that out after I was done).

It might be a long shot, but I have seen IRQ conflicts cause similar problems. It seemed more common in older OS's and I have never seen Win7 have a problem like that, but I do have an older PC with XP that I have to tell the OS what IRQ setting to use. It might be at least one more thing to rule out.

Did you try using it without Realtek's drivers? With whatever default drivers that Win7 uses?

JohnC wrote:

Did you try using it without Realtek's drivers? With whatever default drivers that Win7 uses?

Yep.. in that case, the squeal/whine goes away, but I don't have any sound..

ChAoZ wrote:

It might be a long shot, but I have seen IRQ conflicts cause similar problems. It seemed more common in older OS's and I have never seen Win7 have a problem like that, but I do have an older PC with XP that I have to tell the OS what IRQ setting to use. It might be at least one more thing to rule out.

Any idea where to find the IRQ? It's not in the usual places I'd suspect for Win7

druidcent wrote:

JohnC wrote:

Did you try using it without Realtek's drivers? With whatever default drivers that Win7 uses?

Yep.. in that case, the squeal/whine goes away, but I don't have any sound..

No sound at all? That's... weird. I have same codec on my Asus mobo (it's different model), before I disabled it (I have dedicated sound card now) I had no issues with it using the "stock" drivers (whatever Windows 7 installed by default)... Didn't have to play with any IRQ's or anything like this Have you installed latest Intel Chipset drivers?

I installed the latest ones from the Asus website. Are there newer or better ones I should try?

I'm not sure, I never download anything from Asus' site except BIOS updates... Just go to this site and use Intel's "Driver Update Utility" (a browser-based plug-in, you should see the button on this page), it will tell you if there anything new for your chipset: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx?lang=eng

JohnC wrote:

druidcent wrote:

JohnC wrote:

Did you try using it without Realtek's drivers? With whatever default drivers that Win7 uses?

Yep.. in that case, the squeal/whine goes away, but I don't have any sound..

No sound at all? That's... weird. I have same codec on my Asus mobo (it's different model), before I disabled it (I have dedicated sound card now) I had no issues with it using the "stock" drivers (whatever Windows 7 installed by default)... Didn't have to play with any IRQ's or anything like this Have you installed latest Intel Chipset drivers?

To clarify, it wasn't no sound at all.. the staticy squeal disappeared. When I tried to configure the speakers, static noise would come out, like it was trying to play something, but nothing intelligible was heard

...RMA

DPete27 wrote:

...RMA

Sounds like a dead chip to me. This is probably your best choice.

I suppose you could go ahead and get the sound card now if you have the cash, but that wouldn't actually solve the problem on your current board.

That is what I was hoping to avoid.. How long do RMA's take? I wonder if I can talk them into giving me a Xonar instead... that's got to be cheaper than RMA'ing the device right?

druidcent wrote:

:( That is what I was hoping to avoid.. How long do RMA's take? I wonder if I can talk them into giving me a Xonar instead... that's got to be cheaper than RMA'ing the device right?

Not if the seller submits the RMA'd hardware back to the vendor for a refund.

Did you reconfigure the hardware at all in between the working Win8 install and the non-working Win7 install? A shorted pin could also do something like this. If you're using a front-panel audio port, check that for problems, too.

druidcent wrote:

With Windows 8, the audio was fine, but on Win7 I can't get the stupid thing to work... I'm at a loss of what to do other than wiping and reinstalling, but since this was a fresh build, with a clean install, I'm loathe to do that.

Didn't catch that before for some reason. Think of it this way: If you RMA, you're essentially going to have to reinstall Windows 7 anyway. If it was working fine with Windows 8, the audio chip is functioning properly. So unless you bent a pin somewhere like ludi mentioned, all physical ailments are out. If it's a new build, you should still have your backups handy, do a clean reinstall of Windows 7 before you start paying shipping to RMA and going without your motherboard for a week or two.

Can you get your hands on a spare drive that you could try installing another copy of W7 or even W8 on again? It would be worth the hour or two in my mind vs. completely tearing everything down to RMA the board. Even then, for the $20-30 to buy a xonar that would give you better sounds anyways (and something you're considering trying) vs. paying for return shipping and being without a PC for at least a week or two... I think I would want to know if it was just a software/driver issue vs. hardware. If you've got something wrong with the hardware, you can decide if an RMA is worth the hassle - if you've had one chip go bad, it's possible others might be on their way out as well if it was caused by something like a surge, etc.

ludi wrote:

druidcent wrote:

:( That is what I was hoping to avoid.. How long do RMA's take? I wonder if I can talk them into giving me a Xonar instead... that's got to be cheaper than RMA'ing the device right?

Not if the seller submits the RMA'd hardware back to the vendor for a refund.

Did you reconfigure the hardware at all in between the working Win8 install and the non-working Win7 install? A shorted pin could also do something like this. If you're using a front-panel audio port, check that for problems, too.

Yeah.. after I got the base configuration WiFi working, I added the HDD, and connected a couple case fans. I can't remember if I did anything else, but I may have swapped some USB connectors around to clean up the cables. Any suggestions on how to check the front-panel audio port for problems? All the pins looked fine, and the header attached cleanly (I didn't force anything to connect).

I originally bought it from Microcenter, but the location I got it from closed a couple weeks back . I've been in contact with Asus, so the only thing I can do is wipe the Win7 install and start again.. Or just buy the Xonar sound card.. or suck it up and do the RMA.. I'll probably call them and see what can be done to minimize down time.

druidcent wrote:

Yeah.. after I got the base configuration WiFi working, I added the HDD, and connected a couple case fans. I can't remember if I did anything else, but I may have swapped some USB connectors around to clean up the cables. Any suggestions on how to check the front-panel audio port for problems? All the pins looked fine, and the header attached cleanly (I didn't force anything to connect).

First, do the easy check: see if a vendor-supplied software audio control, and the Win7 default controls, are working at cross-purposes.

Second, pull all of the front-panel headers (including USB, eSata, etc.) and look for bent or broken pins, then with everything still disconnected, try getting audio from the rear audio jack.

ludi wrote:

druidcent wrote:

Yeah.. after I got the base configuration WiFi working, I added the HDD, and connected a couple case fans. I can't remember if I did anything else, but I may have swapped some USB connectors around to clean up the cables. Any suggestions on how to check the front-panel audio port for problems? All the pins looked fine, and the header attached cleanly (I didn't force anything to connect).

First, do the easy check: see if a vendor-supplied software audio control, and the Win7 default controls, are working at cross-purposes.

Second, pull all of the front-panel headers (including USB, eSata, etc.) and look for bent or broken pins, then with everything still disconnected, try getting audio from the rear audio jack.

The second check sounds easier I've tried the Win7 default driver, the Realtek driver, and both the Asus driver on the CD and the update from their website, all produce the same results.

druidcent wrote:

The second check sounds easier I've tried the Win7 default driver, the Realtek driver, and both the Asus driver on the CD and the update from their website, all produce the same results.

Here's the scenario I'm envisioning: the Win7 driver didn't work for some reason, while the Asus or RealTek driver should have worked. However, the Asus and RealTek drivers were attempting to install their own volume/source control applet that was then fighting with the default Win7 control applet, instead of disabling it.

Worth a second check. I've not seen this occur in Win7 yet but it was one of those off-the-wall troubleshooting tactics for XP and earlier.

Ok.. how do I remove the Win7 driver? I know how to remove the Asus and Realtek ones...

You can't "remove" the default Microsoft audio driver. What you can try is to disable the built-in audio completely in BIOS, reboot into Windows, then enable it again in BIOS, and see what happens. Don't install Realtek's version of drivers (either from Asus or from Realtek's site) - the basic stereo audio should work fine with default Microsoft's audio drivers...
If nothing will help - just try to re-install the Win7, it's free and takes less time than RMA'ing the motherboard After the re-installation, try the audio WITHOUT installing anything by Realtek.

Looks like it's RMA time.. did everything, but no luck

You reinstalled Windows 7 and that didn't work?

Yep..