Audio problem

Hi.

Im having problems with the audio in a computer i just built. My motherboard has built in sound, called Realtek AC'97 audio for VIA audio controller. Ive installed all the drivers and the device manager says it is working correctly. Im using a pair of headphones for speakers, the same type you would use with a diskman or mp3 player. They arent broken because i plugged them into my tv and sound comes out. Im plugging them into the green line out port on the back of my motherboard. The volume is not mute. Windows media player will play sound files but no sound comes out of the speakers. Bare in mind that this is the first computer ive ever built, is it possible that i didnt plug somthing into the motherboard properly?

 

Several points occur,

Check your BIOS, make sure the sound is turned on. This is an option that could be overlooked, and there could be sublties in the setup that need examined.

There are several configurations associated with sound, for example in a 5.1 configuration one of the input jacks can be reprogrammed as another set of speaker outputs. This is not common on all motherboards, but it is out there.

One of my personal favorites, I still do it. There are three sets of jacks, make sure you're connected to the right one. Most often it is the light green jack. Just in case, have the speakers turned all the way up, Windows could have the volume turned way down. Once you know you have sound you can look at the mixer and volume controls within Windows (another one of my favorite mistakes).

Hope this was of some help. You might give us the make and model of the mother board, it would help eliminating some of the things I mentioned. If you have it a link to the manual could help too. My dad taught me real men don't read instructions, but then, he's never build a computer.

 

Go to 'sound and multimedia devices' in the control panel and make sure that you AC97 is selected as the palyback device on the audio tab.

Also make sure that on the on the properties tab of the properties section of your cd found in device manager that enable digital audio is selected

Your headphones may not be sensitive enough to hear anything except the faintest playback - that's why amplied speakers are used for pcs.


Studio T

 

Thanks for the help guys. Today in one of my lazyier moments i decided to bypass any potentially painful thinking and bought some usb speakers. They work fine. Which makes me think that i wasent plugging the speakers into the right jack, even though i put it into the one the motherboard said was line in. Im thinking that the problem was with my audio software which thought that the line in jack was the top one, but its the middle one. Who knows confused but anyway the speakers looked to cool to pass up. There shaped in an egg and when you pull them apart they become two speakers, with two usb ports and a card reader inbuilt.

 

I'm glad to tol us which socket you plugged into.

The standard for pc audio is

Microphone pink ........ you plug a microphone in

Line in blue...............you plug an audio source such as an ipod in

Line out green.............you plug a sensitive headphone or powered speakers


note IN means into the pc.

Hope you enjoy your new system now it's working. Well done for builing it.

Studio T