Help with A8N-SLI Premium audio

  • Thread starter Thread starter milleron
  • Start date Start date
M

milleron

mobo: A8N-SLI Premium, BIOS 1004 (onboard sound enabled in BIOS)
3500+ Venice
1 GB Corsair 1024-3200C2PT

I built my computer in June and had NO trouble whatsoever, getting
onboard audio to work. A couple of days ago, I got a "no-system-disk"
error. (It seems to have resulted from a BIOS setting that somehow
changed the order of my SATA HDs, but I never entered BIOS -- details
to anyone interested). I didn't discover that until after I tried to
restore C: from a True Image 8 backup which turned out to be corrupt.
It appeared that all was lost, so I reinstalled Windows and started
over. This was not a very big deal because all my data and programs
are on a different drive, but I couldn't get onboard audio to work
after the reinstall.
I installed the AMD processor driver and the nForce chipset drivers.
I installed a couple of different versions of the ALC850 driver (the
latest from Asus and the latest WDM driver from Realtek) and software,
and the AC '97 device showed up in Device Manager where it was said to
be "working properly," but I could never get any sound device to be
recognized in Control Panel/Sounds or by any sound application. I
uninstalled the device and allowed it to be redetected a few times --
no joy.

I ended up restoring a valid Ghost image that was 14 weeks old, and
sound works in the restored installation, but I'm wondering if anyone
else had trouble getting this device to work (a Google search turned
up only one unanswered post). I had no problem the first time in
June, but insurmountable trouble now.

I wracked my brain for two days, but I can't figure out what I did
wrong or what I did differently from the first time.


Ron
 
I have noticed with the same board that you have that the boot sequence in
BIOS may change spontaneously, resulting in the "no systm disk message". I
then have to load BIOS, and change the boot sequence back to the original
order again. All is then well. This seems to be a random BIOS error that
occurs infrequently with some of these boards. I wonde if the problem may
be related to current instability or spikes, but i dont know. If you are not
aware of the problem, you may well loose all contents on the hard drive,
trying to rectify.

HT
 
mobo: A8N-SLI Premium, BIOS 1004 (onboard sound enabled in BIOS)
3500+ Venice
1 GB Corsair 1024-3200C2PT

I built my computer in June and had NO trouble whatsoever, getting
onboard audio to work. A couple of days ago, I got a "no-system-disk"
error. (It seems to have resulted from a BIOS setting that somehow
changed the order of my SATA HDs, but I never entered BIOS -- details
to anyone interested). I didn't discover that until after I tried to
restore C: from a True Image 8 backup which turned out to be corrupt.
It appeared that all was lost, so I reinstalled Windows and started
over. This was not a very big deal because all my data and programs
are on a different drive, but I couldn't get onboard audio to work
after the reinstall.
I installed the AMD processor driver and the nForce chipset drivers.
I installed a couple of different versions of the ALC850 driver (the
latest from Asus and the latest WDM driver from Realtek) and software,
and the AC '97 device showed up in Device Manager where it was said to
be "working properly," but I could never get any sound device to be
recognized in Control Panel/Sounds or by any sound application. I
uninstalled the device and allowed it to be redetected a few times --
no joy.

I ended up restoring a valid Ghost image that was 14 weeks old, and
sound works in the restored installation, but I'm wondering if anyone
else had trouble getting this device to work (a Google search turned
up only one unanswered post). I had no problem the first time in
June, but insurmountable trouble now.

I wracked my brain for two days, but I can't figure out what I did
wrong or what I did differently from the first time.
Click to expand...
Worked straight-out-of-the-box for me following a motherboard upgrade
and Windows XP repair install.

Peter Finney
Liphook
Hampshire
England
 
I have noticed with the same board that you have that the boot sequence in
BIOS may change spontaneously, resulting in the "no systm disk message". I
then have to load BIOS, and change the boot sequence back to the original
order again. All is then well. This seems to be a random BIOS error that
occurs infrequently with some of these boards. I wonde if the problem may
be related to current instability or spikes, but i dont know. If you are not
aware of the problem, you may well loose all contents on the hard drive,
trying to rectify.
Click to expand...

I have seen a similar same thing happen with my wife's PC which has a
PCChips motherboard. (minimum cost machine bought from Novatech). Go
into BIOS and find that Boot disk has been set to 'none' rather than
'auto' - correct BIOS and all is well. This has happend twice - no
obvious reason, but our mains supply is flaky here and the is no UPS
on that machine.
Peter Finney
Liphook
Hampshire
England
 
I have noticed with the same board that you have that the boot sequence in
BIOS may change spontaneously, resulting in the "no systm disk message". I
then have to load BIOS, and change the boot sequence back to the original
order again. All is then well. This seems to be a random BIOS error that
occurs infrequently with some of these boards. I wonde if the problem may
be related to current instability or spikes, but i dont know. If you are not
aware of the problem, you may well loose all contents on the hard drive,
trying to rectify.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's pretty much what happened to me. I follow this problem
pretty closely, but I've never seen this glitch reported before. I'm
glad to know I'm not alone.

I'd still like to know why I couldn't re-enable sound after
reinstalling XP.

I'd still like to know why I'm now getting several BSODs per day when
I NEVER got them before this problem. Sometimes they have no specific
message. Others report the "driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal" error, and
one reported the "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" error. So far, I've disabled the
Roxio Drag-to-Disk driver, deleted and then recreated virtual memory,
and relaxed the RAM timings back to "Auto" (the only change I'd made
from "Auto" was to set the memory bus to 400MHz).
The next things I'll try are increasing the RAM voltage a little
(already ran MemTest86 for 11 hours without a single error, though)
and reinstalling the Catalyst 5.6 driver.
HT
Click to expand...

Ron
 
I have seen a similar same thing happen with my wife's PC which has a
PCChips motherboard. (minimum cost machine bought from Novatech). Go
into BIOS and find that Boot disk has been set to 'none' rather than
'auto' - correct BIOS and all is well. This has happend twice - no
obvious reason, but our mains supply is flaky here and the is no UPS
on that machine.
Peter Finney
Liphook
Hampshire
England
Click to expand...

Extremely interesting to me at this time. I don't have trouble with
steady mains power, but I do have a UPS that's getting along in years.
I may try taking it out of the circuit for a test. Thanks.

Ron
 
milleron said:
mobo: A8N-SLI Premium, BIOS 1004 (onboard sound enabled in BIOS)
3500+ Venice
1 GB Corsair 1024-3200C2PT

I built my computer in June and had NO trouble whatsoever, getting
onboard audio to work. A couple of days ago, I got a "no-system-disk"
error. (It seems to have resulted from a BIOS setting that somehow
changed the order of my SATA HDs, but I never entered BIOS -- details
to anyone interested). I didn't discover that until after I tried to
restore C: from a True Image 8 backup which turned out to be corrupt.
It appeared that all was lost, so I reinstalled Windows and started
over. This was not a very big deal because all my data and programs
are on a different drive, but I couldn't get onboard audio to work
after the reinstall.
I installed the AMD processor driver and the nForce chipset drivers.
I installed a couple of different versions of the ALC850 driver (the
latest from Asus and the latest WDM driver from Realtek) and software,
and the AC '97 device showed up in Device Manager where it was said to
be "working properly," but I could never get any sound device to be
recognized in Control Panel/Sounds or by any sound application. I
uninstalled the device and allowed it to be redetected a few times --
no joy.

I ended up restoring a valid Ghost image that was 14 weeks old, and
sound works in the restored installation, but I'm wondering if anyone
else had trouble getting this device to work (a Google search turned
up only one unanswered post). I had no problem the first time in
June, but insurmountable trouble now.

I wracked my brain for two days, but I can't figure out what I did
wrong or what I did differently from the first time.


Ron
Click to expand...

The only driver that is required to get the audio working on this
motherboard is the nVIDIA nForce Audio Driver that you can get from
nVIDIA's download site. The latest version is 4.62 released back on August
23, 2005. This audio driver is also included in the nForce4 AMD Platform
drivers, latest version is 6.70 released on October 26, 2005.

I have found that I did not need to use the Realtek drivers on this
motherboard.
 
The only driver that is required to get the audio working on this
motherboard is the nVIDIA nForce Audio Driver that you can get from
nVIDIA's download site. The latest version is 4.62 released back on August
23, 2005. This audio driver is also included in the nForce4 AMD Platform
drivers, latest version is 6.70 released on October 26, 2005.

I have found that I did not need to use the Realtek drivers on this
motherboard.
Click to expand...
Yes, that does work. I fell back on it, but I'm still wondering why
the Realtek drivers don't work. Some have said that the sound is
better with them, and I know that many, many users install only the
Realek version. It's a mystery to me why I can't make it work.

Thanks for the reply.


Ron
 
milleron said:
Yes, that does work. I fell back on it, but I'm still wondering why
the Realtek drivers don't work. Some have said that the sound is
better with them, and I know that many, many users install only the
Realek version. It's a mystery to me why I can't make it work.

Thanks for the reply.


Ron
Click to expand...

I just downloaded version A3.78 of the Realtek AC'97 WDM Audio CODEC from
Realtek's web site and installed it. It works fine for me.

This driver version was posted on October 17, 2005.
 
Realtek is the most prone chip maker (IMO) to have OEM products where
realtek drivers *won't* work reliably. SIS is next on that list. SIS caused
me havoc once with a NIC...

I have no idea why - you would think a driver from the chip vendor (audio,
NIC etc.)would always work, but alas no. One would expect degraded
performanceor missing "featurees", but not IRQL errors, spurious problems,
and no shows.
 
I just downloaded version A3.78 of the Realtek AC'97 WDM Audio CODEC from
Realtek's web site and installed it. It works fine for me.

This driver version was posted on October 17, 2005.
Click to expand...
That's one of the two new drivers I used -- no joy. Clearly my
hardware and motherboard are fine because sound works great on the
setup I'm using now (restored the entire installation from a Ghost
image from July).


Ron
 
Realtek is the most prone chip maker (IMO) to have OEM products where
realtek drivers *won't* work reliably. SIS is next on that list. SIS caused
me havoc once with a NIC...

I have no idea why - you would think a driver from the chip vendor (audio,
NIC etc.)would always work, but alas no. One would expect degraded
performanceor missing "featurees", but not IRQL errors, spurious problems,
and no shows.
Click to expand...

I think I got rid of the IRQL errors by relaxing the DRAM timing to
"auto," so that part of the scenario doesn't seem to be caused by the
sound problem. I still cannot understand why I could install the
drivers without a hitch (both Asus and Realtek versions) but still not
have any audio device detected by either control panel or the sound
applications. It remains a huge mystery, especially when it all
installed flawlessly in June and the hardware has shown to be working
fine..

Ron
 
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