Computer Audio

[Eppie.gov]

There was a giant lightning storm today here in PA.
I just built my new PC literally two days ago. And lightning seems to have fried the sound output of my computer. It worked before the storm, it doesn't work now. And yes, the computer was on during the storm. Any suggestions?


On a side note, congratulations on your 19,000th post Gamepin.

[Dyndrilliac]

It seems unlikely that a power surge would damage only the sound oriented hardware and nothing else. Have you considered that it may have simply damaged the speakers (computer speakers unless they are several hundred dollars are not designed to take lots of power input, whereas computers nowadays practically need nuclear powered slave generators), and that the computer itself is fine? Try connecting headphones directly to the sound cards output port, bypassing the speakers.

[Eppie.gov]

The speakers I was using before are connected directly to the TV I was using. I did try using the headphones directly, both in the rear audio ports, and the front audio ports. I don't have a separate sound card, I was just using the ports that are directly on the motherboard. I have a DFI BloodIron P35.

Also, during the storm, the picture on my TV kept going out. We didn't lose power, but it go off for about 3-4 seconds then come back.

[Dyndrilliac]

If the power surge damaged the audio capability of the motherboard, then it seems unlikely the audio would be the only loss of functionality. Does your motherboard come with some sort of diagnostics tool in the BIOS? If so, that would be where I would start looking for answers, and if the audio is the only thing lost, I doubt the motherboard was damaged (due to the fact that motherboard damage would result in critical system failure).

[Eppie.gov]

Well then what else could be damaged that would cause the audio to fail?
I will look for BIOS diagnostics now.

[Dyndrilliac]

My initial speculation is that it might be due to some complex situation that ultimately resulted in driver corruption, like a horribly abnormal shutdown. Try reinstalling your sound drivers.

[Eppie.gov]

That is what I am doing now.
I am running on XP Black, so that comes with Realtek drivers which seemed to work fine. But now I am downloading DFI's drivers from their site. And it is taking forever. So I will keep you posted.

[Indefinite]

If it'll come down to changing the audio output indeed, I personally recommend those Asus' Xonar sound cards.
They give a really good punch and sound way better than Creative does. Usually they're cheaper too.

[Eppie.gov]

The driver reinstall didn't work. I rebooted after the installation, Windows came up (for some reason resized to 800x600) and I tried rear and front again. No luck.

I do have a couple extra sound cards lying around already, but thanks for the advice Indefinite.

Edit: W00T I put one of those sound cards in a PCI slot and it works! I used the Colbert Report to test it... so nice to hear his voice again.

Well I would still like to be able to use the front audio ports on my case. Any ideas?

[Indefinite]

Check if the card has output pins on the PCB.
If it does - you just re-plug your front audio panel from the mobo to the card.
If it doesn't - you're fairly screwed.

[Eppie.gov]

The audio cable from the case is 9 pins - a row of 5 and a row of 4.
The PCI card seems only to have inputs for some sort of 4-pin cable.

[Indefinite]

Check the card's technical specs?

[Eppie.gov]

I pulled it out of a Gateway E-4200. That is a 450 MHz PIII computer I found in the trash. I don't have technical specs,

[Indefinite]

You can still find some, as long as you know exactly what card is it.