HP a1040A Realtek sound Faded away

Sorry for the long post but this is driving me crazy.

I've have sound but its at about 20% of the normal volume. The
digital audio is greyed out and at a lowish setting on the
volume control panel. This happened following a number of
changes:

a) Installation of Sony Ericsson Image Studio
b) Swapping my USB Cable modem connection for a ethernet cable
connection.
c) Installing the Creative Software Updates for the Creative
Zentouch MP3 player.

I tried a system restore and swapping back to USB but that
didn't help. I have also uninstalled and re-installed the
Realtek sound and drivers but I still have very low volume. The
volume controls on the sound effects panel etc are all set at
max. The plugs are in the correct sockets and correctly
inserted.

I have both a flat panel with speakers and Logitech speakers
connected. Swapping there plugs around just confirms it's not
speaker related. I have also plugged both sets of speakers into
a MP3 player and they work nice and loudly with that.

Found this http://www.pcmech.com/show/troubleshoot/743/. It
suggest a cause but a somewhat impracticable solution as I need
my front panel outputs. I also have no spare slots for a sound
card. I thought I could try jumpering then unjumpering and if
that works wire a switch to replace the jumper but there seems
to be no such jumpers on my mobo (the manual for it is here
http://www.ctechinfo.org/manuals/pufferm_manual.pdfZ). But the
new ethernet card sits over the Realtek chip and we are getting
warmer weather here now so perhaps it's a heat related problem.



--
Regards
Blue

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This does not speak well for Realtek audio, does it? Creative remains the
somewhat premium audio option. ADI audio finds its way onto Intel brand and a
few other motherboards as the built-in budget-priced option... Ben Myers

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 02:08:37 GMT, "aussieblu" <> wrote:

>Sorry for the long post but this is driving me crazy.
>
>I've have sound but its at about 20% of the normal volume. The
>digital audio is greyed out and at a lowish setting on the
>volume control panel. This happened following a number of
>changes:
>
>a) Installation of Sony Ericsson Image Studio
>b) Swapping my USB Cable modem connection for a ethernet cable
>connection.
>c) Installing the Creative Software Updates for the Creative
>Zentouch MP3 player.
>
>I tried a system restore and swapping back to USB but that
>didn't help. I have also uninstalled and re-installed the
>Realtek sound and drivers but I still have very low volume. The
>volume controls on the sound effects panel etc are all set at
>max. The plugs are in the correct sockets and correctly
>inserted.
>
> I have both a flat panel with speakers and Logitech speakers
>connected. Swapping there plugs around just confirms it's not
>speaker related. I have also plugged both sets of speakers into
>a MP3 player and they work nice and loudly with that.
>
>Found this http://www.pcmech.com/show/troubleshoot/743/. It
>suggest a cause but a somewhat impracticable solution as I need
>my front panel outputs. I also have no spare slots for a sound
>card. I thought I could try jumpering then unjumpering and if
>that works wire a switch to replace the jumper but there seems
>to be no such jumpers on my mobo (the manual for it is here
>http://www.ctechinfo.org/manuals/pufferm_manual.pdfZ). But the
>new ethernet card sits over the Realtek chip and we are getting
>warmer weather here now so perhaps it's a heat related problem.
>
>
>
>--
>Regards
>Blue
>
>Remove Z from email address to reply directly.
>

Yes at some point I will have to resort to contacting HP as it's
still under warranty plus an extended retailer's warranty. It
will be interesting how the respond to this if it is just an
unsolvable quirk of Realtek.

--
Regards
Blue

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This is interesting; I wonder if this could be a fix. But HP
don't offer it as such
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;888111

--
Regards
Blue

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After asking for clarification HP said the following which I
have tried but I still only have barely audible sound.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng


http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng

--
Regards
Blue

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If your system is out of warranty and if your system has an available PCI slot,
it is time to dump the Realtek audio (disable all the drivers) and install even
a cheaper Sound Blaster PCI card. With integrated motherboard audio being all
the rage, a freestanding PCI audio card is a cheap and easy solution, with lots
of perfectly useful cards being pulled from older systems which have been taken
out of service.

If you were not standing on your head in the other hemisphere and looking at
strange and wonderful constellations in the sky, I would offer to sell you a
Sound Blaster from my pile of cards. ... Ben Myers

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 09:12:49 GMT, "aussieblu" <> wrote:

>After asking for clarification HP said the following which I
>have tried but I still only have barely audible sound.
>
>http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng
>
>http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng
>
>
>http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...sional&lang=eng
>
>--
>Regards
>Blue
>
>Remove Z from email address to reply directly.
>

It's still in warranty (and the idea of putting it back to it's
original state i.e remove second hard drive ethernet card, USB
card etc etc packing it of to HP for god knows how long and
reinstalling every thing isn't appealing) and it has no spare
slots ....unless I take my cable modem back from ethernet to
USB.

--
Regards
Blue

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Worse yet, when you ship a system back to HP (or any other name-brand company)
for service, there is no guarantee you will get the same system back with the
same hard drive contents. Back up youy hard drive before you send out the
system, should you choose to do so. Better yet, see if HP will ship a spare
motherboard as a replacement, and do it yourself... Ben Myers

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 14:01:49 GMT, "aussieblu" <> wrote:

>It's still in warranty (and the idea of putting it back to it's
>original state i.e remove second hard drive ethernet card, USB
>card etc etc packing it of to HP for god knows how long and
>reinstalling every thing isn't appealing) and it has no spare
>slots ....unless I take my cable modem back from ethernet to
>USB.
>
>--
>Regards
>Blue
>
>Remove Z from email address to reply directly.
>

Yes; I had a HP printer go under warranty and they gave me a
refurbished replacement. I am still hoping it's somehow a
software problem but I think the chances are rapidly declining.

--
Regards
Blue

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HP don't appear to think it is an issue, but I wonder if the
fact that the High Definition audio shares the IRQ 16 as follows
could give me this low volume issue. What do others think?

IRQ 16 Intel(R) 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GE/GL PCI Express Root Port -
2581 OK
IRQ 16 RADEON X300 Series OK
IRQ 16 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM PCI Express Root Port - 2660 OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B
OK
IRQ 16 Agere Systems PCI Soft Modem OK


--
Regards
Blue

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