How can I disable Windows from detecting my HD6870 as a sound device?

Aray said:

Gigabyte X48-DQ6 (Latest BIOS, Realtek ALC889A codec) - The source of the problem really, in the BIOS the bit about the Azalia codec only mentions "Auto" or "Disabled". Auto means it will enable itself if no other sound devices were detected and disabled means...well...you know.

Which basically means you are chasing your tail with everything you are doing in Windows, as none of it will have any affect on the bios settings. I have a feeling that when the onboard does decide to work after a restart is that it is detected and initialized by the bios before it sees the video card.

It doesn't help that Gigabyte went the stupid route and only gave auto and disabled for the onboard options. This is what you can do when the motherboard/computer (HP is also famous for this setting) when it does have the option to enable instead of auto,



and I use all 3 (one at a time) depending on what I want to do; the X-Fi is used with headphones for gaming, onboard for listening to music, and the HDMI/TV for movies and the odd game on my 40" TV.

You can try what is mentioned here,

No sound after new videocard installation.

by Mordor2112, If that doesn't work then unfortunately unless Gigabyte can be convinced to release a bios update that adds the enabled option, the only really viable way around it is to use a sound card.

I'll look into that stormy, thanks.

logicearth said:

Here is the problem, its not Windows. Its the motherboard and the BIOS. You can run around in Windows all day looking for a solution when you should be in the BIOS as that is causing the issue at hand. Nothing in Windows itself will change that. Windows can handle multiple audio devices there is no problem there. However, the BIOS is disabling its built in sound BEFORE Windows even boots up.

Software cannot overcome limitations of hardware.

I think you may actually be right, I'm really not sure. My first restart will always be with my onboard disabled. I then restart a few times and it'll just randomly work. I was just hoping there was a way for Windows to completely disregard the installation of my GFX card as "High Definition Audio Device" (which I tried using that group policy setting to no avail).