Realtek AC'97, No rear sound

Hi all, my problem is as follows:

Currently running Windows 7 Professional 64, with an Asus A8N SLI Premium, which features the Realtek ALC850 (AC'97) audio chipset. Back when I had XP Pro, the 5.1 speakers I have worked fine. After upgrading, the rear speakers refuse to work. Checking the playback device options, when I run the speaker configuration, I set it to 5.1, and only the front left and right speakers work. The center, rears, and subwoofer are all quiet as the little soundwaves taunt me on the screen. I've tried updating the drivers, uinstall and reinstall, all to no avail.

My specs should be in my profile. If further questions, please ask, I'm stumped.

Driver versions I've ran are 6305 (the latest) and currently running 6241 (what 7 downloaded for me after I uninstalled the driver).

Although you have uninstalled, etc. Suggest you uninstall the RealTek in the Device Manager and ALSO check the box to uninstall the drivers. In the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the RealTek and then LEFT click Unisntall (and also check the box to uninstall the drivers). Then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall (or try to reinstall) the sound. Do not let it install any drivers and then manually install the 6305 (latest) drivers and see if that fixes the problem.

Alright fireberd, I did exactly as you did, and I think you're on to something. After uninstalling the device and drivers, I restarted, didn't let windows update it, manually installed, and restarted once more. After this happened, I jumped into the speaker configuration utility through the speaker icon in the lower right, as well as the sound manager from realtek. After testing the speakers through the windows utility, I was miffed to find the same problem persisted. But I checked in the realtek utility, and sound came out of the center channel once. Afterwards, it reverted to it's previous state.

The 6305 is the "latest and greatest" for Win 7. Does the motherboard have chipset drivers? Most do and if you haven't reinstalled the chipset drivers do that and see what it does. You may have to reinstall the sound drivers again after installing the chipset drivers and restarting the PC.

One of the prime things the chipset drivers do is define (identify) all the hardware devices on the motherboard. In Dell desktops, the chipset drivers must be installed before the device drivers on an install or some devices, including the sound, will not work or even be found. This is also the case on other motherboards. I havd an Intel motherboard and had to install the chipset drivers before devices too.

Tried installing latest NForce4 chipset drivers, along with reinstalling latest audio driver, problem persists.

Out of curiosity, what happens if you change the speaker type to 7.1 in the Speaker setup? I'm grasping at straws, but I wonder if you can get all the speakers working with a different setup.

I tried that on each driver revision/uninstall/reinstall all to no avail

I've got the same problem with pretty much the same config (Asus A8N-SLI SE mobo). If anyone knows where the nest nForce4 chipset drivers are, that may help as I was searching high and low and found bits and pieces so don't have massive confidence in the chipset drivers I did install.

Many thanks.

I know you have probably already been there, but at the top of this forum look at the Realtek HD Changing Jack output reassignments ( FIX ) thread.... do this exercise found on page 12 (on my browser), by unforseen... this should tell if your chipset is finding the devices. Just a suggestion.

Quote--------
Navigate to the following key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\Settings\Drv6050_DevType_0889_SS80863a3e"

Here is the pin combination:

Pin01 (green jack - front speakers) 04 00 00 00
Pin02 (black jack - rear speakers) 05 00 00 00
Pin03 (orange jack - center/sub) 06 00 00 00
Pin04 (brown jack ) 07 00 00 00
Pin05 (pink jack - microphone) 01 00 00 00
Pin07 (blue jack - line in) 00 00 00 00

--snip-- (much very usefully stuff)

You will just need to find which pin# are assigned to what.
To do this - if you plug these items in one at a time, you can see what pin assortment is assigned in the registry. If you already have pin values, delete the Pin# files and then unplug and replug each item in and you will see what values are assigned to each jack on your motherboard. F5 key refreshes the values so you can see what registry value is being added. So.. delete the values after you have removed all plugs, plug 1 item in at a time, press f5 in REGEDIT, and take note of your values.

End quote------

This worked great for me as I was troubleshooting my sound jacks.
Jim

Just thought I'd mention that I now have 5.1 sound again with Windows 7 x64 (ASUS A8N-SLI SE motherboard). Although I believed I had all of the latest drivers, Driver Detective for others which worked. It cost $30 but well worth it to keep my sanity (and check all of the other drivers on my system) It wasn't perfect as it keeps thinking I need to upgrade my Epson Stylus Photo RX560 with RX580 drivers (there's an article on Epson's web site about which drivers to install on Windows 7). But for the Realtek AC'97 surround sound, it worked a treat. (It was the 6305_Vista_Win7_PG537 driver that was updated to, for the record.) Hope this helps others...