No windows audio - but I do get TV audio

[diggityDawg]

This is very strange, and I am stumped trying to figure it out... I just rebuilt my media center PC with a new mobo, CPU, etc. It's running Win 7 Pro/64. The motherboard is an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4, which has the RealTek audio chipset. I'm going out of the Toslink digital audio output from the mobo to my Pioneer VSX-1123k receiver. I'm also going out from the HDMI output to the same receiver. So theoretically, I have two audio sources coming into the receiver from the HTPC.

I've got everything setup and working, except windows audio. Media Center starts up and there's no startup sound. No sound effects at all coming through. But when I watch TV or recorded shows I hear everything just fine. I've gone into every sound configuration screen I could find and everything is turned all the way up and enabled. There are no "undetected" devices in device manager. When I setup audio in WMC the test works and hits all 5.1 speakers. When I do a test from the RealTek audio panel screen, nothing. I tried unplugging the toslink cable, and I can still get audio through the HDMI for TV shows, but nothing else. BTW, I wouldnt care so much about sound effects, etc. except that I also get no audio in MediaBrowser, Netflix, or anything else that relies on Windows audio...

Any ideas? Thanks SO MUCH for your help!!

Eddie

[newfiend]

Since HDMI carries both Audio and Video data I see no need for the Optical Cable. Start testing by removing the cable. (optical).

Have you installed all the latest Drivers for your motherboard?

Also are you using the latest BIOS for your motherboard?

Check your BIOS settings for Audio and set any options accordingly to utilize the HDMI output.

In Windows Open Control Panel > Sounds and set the HDMI connection as the default audio connection. Click Configure and set it to 2.0 stereo. (even if you have 5.1/7.1)

Open Media Center > Tasks/Settings > General > Windows Media Center Setup > Set up Your Speakers. Run through the settings and set it to 5.1 or 7.1 depending on your speaker configuration.
Test save and exit back to the WMC main menu. Exit then Re-open WMC. ( do not set Windows audio to 5.1 if you use the HDMI for audio or you may end up with errors in WMC during playback, it's a common problem with WMC. setting the audio to stereo in windows and 5.1 in WMC will bypass this error and get you surround sound in WMC.)

It sounds to me like maybe an option in Control Panel > Sounds doesn't know what the default audio output should be for windows... Hopefully setting that correctly (and removing the optical cable) will help or you have a missing driver or BIOS configuration error.

Good Luck.
newfiend~

[diggityDawg]

Yes, the HDMI carries both audio and video, so I did remove the optical cable. It was a remnant of my old HTPC that had component out of the video card going to the receiver...

So I updated the Realtek audio drivers, tried older drivers, went back and forth with different forums for a couple days. Then I found a post where someone suggested updating the Intel HD4000 video drivers. I assumed I was using the latest drivers, but I found a page on Intel's website that tests your system, and that installed an updated video driver. I rebooted and the audio and video both came through. I never would have though the video driver was causing the audio issue, but like you said, HDMI is carrying both, and it's being controlled by the video driver. Weird, but true.

Thanks for the help!

[newfiend]

Glad you got it sorted. I know it sounds funny that a video driver would affect that but since the cable carries both video and audio it is important to update it. I use a NVidia graphics card for my HDMI output and it installs the HD Audio driver which allows for audio output over HDMI for my own system so it makes sense that your video driver would need the latest version as well.
Congrats on figuring it out.
newfiend~

[Space]

Yes, for HDMI, the "video drivers" control both video and audio. The Realtek drivers are only for the on-board audio, which is not used when you use HDMI audio.