Lost Audio via HDMI after installing DirectX?? or??

yikes I need HTPC help, I guess... not sure where to post since MG doesn't have a dedicated Media folder.

This has to do with a little HTPC rig I made from a HP DC7600, equipped with Windows XP Pro, a notebook HD, and a Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 low profile card. Everything worked beautifully until I installed both Media Player Classic Home Theater, and [as a consequence of MPC wanting it] MS Direct X runtime ... whichever version is current on MS website now. I think the release was marked april of this year.
After installing those two the audio on my system was rerouted to the PC speaker :-D, and gone from HDMI !!!! :cry

Should I:
A. Reinstall the ATI drivers? hoping to overwrite something that got overwritten?
B. UNinstall DirectX?
C. Uninstall MPC?
D. Setup a huge microphone in front of my PC Speaker and pipe it to my surround sound ?:major

Seriously I dunno what clobbered what...

Prior to this fiasco things worked really well. I was mainly using VLC Player since WMP was lacking its codec's & such, which raises another question: what's the "surefire" way to get all the right codecs for WMP? K-Lite mega pak???

thanks friends
Z

 

Hi,
Try disabling the onboard sound card in the BIOS, as the media player has probably using the onboard chip as its out put.

iain.t :major