SB61g2 - Audio Problems / Dead USBs

I just assembled my first Shuttle system:

Shuttle SB61g2
2.4 P4 w/800fsb
2 x 512 corsair DDR400
80gb SATA seagate HDD
LG CRRW/DVDROM and a floppy

Installed latest drivers. Ran sisoft sandra burn-in... everything
seems great EXCEPT:

1) Front panel mic input and headphone jack are NOISY. Actually, much
more noise and distortion than actual sound. Anyone have suggestions
on how to troubleshoot this?

2) Front USB ports are DOA. (rear 4 ports are fine) Is there something
I was missed in the install? Or some activation step?

OR could these problems be related?!?

Thanks in advance for any help...

 

re: USB Ports.
I'm not acquainted with your Shuttle board; I have a couple of AK39N
boards that I really like. I will assume (correctly I hope) that the
4 USBs on the rear are installed and active on the mainboard itself. I
will also assume that the front panel ports openings are in your case
itself. If so, that means that you must run a USB cable from the
front two ports and plug them in to the mainboard USB sockets. IF
it's like the 39N, you must purchase an optional cable, install the
two USB sockets into the receiving "holes" in the front of the case,
run the cable back and plug the plugs into the USB extension socket
mounted on the mainboard. Follow the directions in your manual.

Also, you mentioned installing "drivers". Be sure that you installed
the latest chipset drivers, as the chipsets control your USB ports. I
would assume that you did since your rear ports work.

I've done a lot of assuming here, and it reminds me of "long Kiss
Goodnight":
"Assumption make an ass out of you and umption."

re: your headphone probs. I remember someone in a forum had that
problem, and I can't remember exactly what the remedy was, but it had
something to do with disabling a setting in your Control Panel/Audio
that was causing interference.
If I can remember exactly what it was I will post back.

 

If the rear ports (sound & USB) are fine I would suspect pinched or bad
cables to the front ports as they are all tied together.

You did not specify video (unless it's just the onboard Extreme graphics),
there is a known issue with the onboard audio on the SB61G2 and Radeon
9500/9700 cards that causes bad audio.

 

(The SB61G2 is a shuttle small form factor bare bones system.... and
yes, I'm using onboard video.)

Thanks for the suggestions... the front USB was a cable problem.
Just reseated the connector and now it seems okay.

The audio noise still has me baffled... tried about every possible
setting in the AC97 audio manager, but still getting audio garbage.

I'm gonna keep fiddling, but I welcome more ideas.

Thanks!

 

I've had similar problems. The front USB were working and then died.
I'll try reseating the cables as suggested.

On my machine, the audio seemed to work and now is completely dead.
I've reinstalled the Realtek drivers, but nothing from either the
front or back panel. So, I don't have any ideas for you. I can see
that Media Player thinks things are player. Frustrating.

 

howdy all. I can confirm about the audio problems..I set up my own
machine with a radeon 9800 and i get the noise...its better if i plug
my headphones in the back port for some reason. I am setting up
another SB61G2 with a radeon 7500 AIW and it sounds great...

hope they get a fix out for this

PS I thought the audi was hosed, no jacks work sat all, then I noticed
the FRONT internal audio connector was unplugged..actaully the rear
was unplugged to , but I noticed that right off the bat when
installing stuff...

hope this helps!

 

nevermind...this one has it too just not as bad as my first SB61g2

seems like a hardware problem, so a bios update wont fix it...or will it?

seem pretty shoddy to sell something for $320 with that bad of audio quality...

if I didnt like it so much , I'd send it back!!-lol