Audio amp blowing out analog audio port on motherboard?

[mattsoft]

This is about an arcade cabinet build, but pertaining to audio -- sorry if this is the wrong forum.

So...I have gone through 2 motherboards now, and will be ordering a 3rd soon... Here's the situation:

I am using a Gigabyte GA-H81N mini ITX motherboard for my arcade build and a DROK 12v mini amp (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C4MT274?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s02) for audio. I'm connecting the motherboard to the amp with a regular 'ol mini plug. The amp is powered by the ITX power supply (12v).

1st time around, audio worked fine for a few hours, then stopped. I was stumped! I could take then send of the audio cable from the motherboard and plug it into my iPhone and the amp/speakers worked fine, but the motherboard would not output audio anymore (to headphones or my receiver). I reinstalled Windows, no luck.

I RMA'd the motherboard and get the 2nd one. Hooked it up and got audio again. Huzzah! I must have fried the first motherboard's audio port. Huh. After 10 minutes or so, the audio stopped working. Huh. Same debugging as motherboard #1. I cannot get audio out!

Is it possible the amp is frying the motherboard? Anyone heard of anything like this? The amp is powered by 12v from the mini-ITX power supply and everything is grounded.

I don't want to try this with a 3rd motherboard, so I have ordered a USB to audio adapter and will try that.

FRUSTRATING!!!

[johnyfroes]

Hi, I would suggest you to use a pci soundcard, get a cheap one, instead of buying a whole motherboard, also, rhe OS has nothing to do, in you installing windows again, what you should try instead is to re install the Mobo audio drivers again, from the drivers CD the Mobo came with.