No sound from PC output, but onboard speaker works. How now?

[danny_galaga]

So I've been setting up this PC for mame (very slowly!) and just relying on the tiny onboard speaker for sound while fiddling. Today I decided to try my PC speakers on it to see how they sound. No output. I thought I'd take the lid off and maybe reseat the sound card. But it's onboard sound only. I'm surprised that the onboard speaker is working, but not the sound output as I imagined they would use the same onboard sound circuitry on the mobo.

I figure maybe I should just get a sound card. It has one PCI-e slot which will be for the arcade VGA. What are these slots called that is next to it? Just PCI?

[Gatsu]

yep those are regular PCI slots.

I'd suggest downloading the latest audio drivers for your motherboard off of the manufacturers website and see if those work.

If you install them and reboot and it still doesn't work, maybe the onboard audio is bad and either replace the board or buy a dedicated audio card. Just something to try.

[big10p]

Excuse the dumb questions, but first things first: you are using powered (amplified) speakers plugged into the green audio socket, right? Check Device Manager isn't reporting a problem with your sound hardware/driver. Also, go to Control Panel -> Sound -> Properties and check all is as it should be. Check mute isn't on.

[JDFan]

IF using windows they have very cheap USB souncards that work fine I bought 3 of them for old MOBOs with broken onboard audio and they wound up being plug and play and use pretty much the same chipset as the onboard audio (realtek) so work fine with a set of PC speakers.

IF you have time to wait for them to come from CHINA ( about 3 weeks) they are only about $1 each. ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Audio-Headset-Microphone-Jack-Converter-Sound-Card-Adapter-FE-/331427372076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2a9c5c2c ) If you need one faster send me a PM with your shipping info and I'll send you one of the extras I have (bought a couple extras when ordering since they were cheap.)

[mgb]

I've used those before. They are good and cheap solution.

[Malenko]

also make sure the sound card is enabled in the PC BIOS.   On-board speaker for the beeps and bloops isnt the same thing.

[danny_galaga]

Thanks guys. Good ideas there. I hadn't even thought about the USB dongle, even though I bought one some time ago to get around a similar problem! (must be getting old).

Regards properties in Control Panel, everything seems ok. Like I say, it has an onboard speaker (and not a beeps and bloops one Malenko!). That speaker on its own would be enough for say a barcade.

[JDFan]

Thanks guys. Good ideas there. I hadn't even thought about the USB dongle, even though I bought one some time ago to get around a similar problem! (must be getting old).

Regards properties in Control Panel, everything seems ok. Like I say, it has an onboard speaker (and not a beeps and bloops one Malenko!). That speaker on its own would be enough for say a barcade.

That little speaker is usually hooked up to a different output and only plays the BIOS beep codes - the regular audio output would be a different connection on the MOBO.

[danny_galaga]

Thanks guys. Good ideas there. I hadn't even thought about the USB dongle, even though I bought one some time ago to get around a similar problem! (must be getting old).

Regards properties in Control Panel, everything seems ok. Like I say, it has an onboard speaker (and not a beeps and bloops one Malenko!). That speaker on its own would be enough for say a barcade.

That little speaker is usually hooked up to a different output and only plays the BIOS beep codes - the regular audio output would be a different connection on the MOBO.

[ark_ader]

Turn off on-board audio.  Odds are that your sound card is using the same IRQ and DMA as the on-board audio.  If that doesn't fix it, swap the card into another PCI slot.  I had the same issue with a SB Audigy Gold card just recently.

[Malenko]

if the integrated speaker is working, pull the sound card and plug the speakers into the PC's speaker port. 

[danny_galaga]

if the integrated speaker is working, pull the sound card and plug the speakers into the PC's speaker port. 

Now THERE'S a thinkin' man!

[nexusmtz]

Any chance you have a front audio connector on the board, and the cable connected to the case uses a different pinout? (HD vs. PC97) You might not notice a mismatch until you plug something into one of the jacks.

Check the BIOS setting for the front audio (if there is one)

If you're using something other than the basic windows drivers, check the software's jack configuration. Some driver sets have utilities that let you reassign the ports for different speaker configurations. (This is unlikely to be the problem, because green is almost always front left and right, even if the other jacks are switchable)

Also, look in the motherboard manual and see if there's a jumper to enable the jack instead of the speaker. My Lenovo desktops autoswitch like a laptop would, but it's possible that yours uses a jumper.

[bradx]

run a jumper off the internal speaker to whatever you are planning on using for sound, just make sure the volume is set low, like 15 or 20% and it will be close to line level.  that's what i would do...

[danny_galaga]

IF using windows they have very cheap USB souncards that work fine I bought 3 of them for old MOBOs with broken onboard audio and they wound up being plug and play and use pretty much the same chipset as the onboard audio (realtek) so work fine with a set of PC speakers.

IF you have time to wait for them to come from CHINA ( about 3 weeks) they are only about $1 each. ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Audio-Headset-Microphone-Jack-Converter-Sound-Card-Adapter-FE-/331427372076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2a9c5c2c ) If you need one faster send me a PM with your shipping info and I'll send you one of the extras I have (bought a couple extras when ordering since they were cheap.)

I bit the bullet and instead of waiting for 3 weeks + for my $1 dongle, I paid 300% more for a local one. Works a treat (",)

Now of course Im stuck on the video front

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,144908.msg1506552.html#msg1506552

[eds1275]

I dunno if you de-cased the PC, but this one time in band camp I decased a PC and took off all the unneeded parts including a cable that went to the front mounted, auto-sensing headphone jack. I realized, after much frustration, that I needed to put a jumper over the part where the headphone jack would connect to the motherboard otherwide the rear port wouldn't be getting sound.