VIA HD Audio Deck - Front panel headphone device not producing sound

I built a custom desktop a couple of months ago. I have a Gigabyte Z77X-DH3 mobo inside an Antec Nine Hundred case.

Gigabyte Z77X-DH3 Manual

Nine Hundred Manual

I'm not very sharp when it comes to computer audio, but here's what I'm looking at (I think...). The mobo has integrated audio which uses the VIA VT2021 audio codec. The case also has headphone/mic inputs on the front panel. This is connected to the mobo using the provided High Definition Audio cable (as opposed to AC97). I have speakers connected to the integrated audio, and a headset connected to the front panel headphone/mic ports.

In windows, I am using the VIA HD Audio Deck software. In the advanced options menu, I have the headphones set on the "Independent Headphone" option, which makes the headphones show up as it's own device in the windows playback device menu (which is what I want), instead of showing it as the speakers. The problem is, when I make the headphones the active device, they don't play any sound. The green equalizer bars next to the device in the windows menu show the device is playing, but no sound comes from the headphones themselves. If I switch the setting in the VIA software to "Redirected Headphone", using the same port, it works fine (but it shows up as the same device as the speakers).

In the Device Manager, under "Sounds, video and game controllers", I have 3 devices listed:

• AMD High Definition Audio Device
• High Definition Audio Device
• VIA High Definition Audio

The High Definition Audio Device has the yellow "!" triangle and is showing the following device status: "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". I have tried updating the drivers, which windows reports they are already up to date.
There is also a USB Controller device which has the "!" triangle. It shows an error of no device drivers installed (Code 28). When I try to update the drivers, none are found. When I uninstalled and re-installed the audio device, the USB device also uninstalled/re-installed (which leads me to believe that this is the 2 USB ports on the front panel).

This is all of the info that I can think of to gather. I'm sure the headphone problem is a result of these errors in the device manager, but at this point I'm not too sure where to go from here.

Any help would be more than greatly appreciated!

fireberd said:

But, if you are trying to get two different default audio playback devices at the same time, you can't do that. Windows limits you to only one default audio playback device.

I'm not trying to have two different default devices at the same time. I just want to be able to have both my headphones plugged into the front, and speakers in the back, and be able to switch devices without having to unplug the headphones (lazy, I know).

Hopefully these images can help me to better explain what I'm trying to accomplish:

When I select "Redirected Headphones" below from the VIA HD Audio Deck Control Panel:


...Windows shows my audio devices as such (regardless of whether i'm using the speakers or the headphones):


Now when I have "Independent Headphones" selected:


...Windows shows the speakers and headphones as two different devices:


Under this second setting, the speakers still function as expected. When I switch the default device to the headphones, I get no sound from the headphones. The green equalizer bar to the right of the headphone device in the image above does show sound playing to the device, but no sound is actually playing from the headset.

Hi, people!
I have the same problem witch a Gigabyte Z77X-DH3, when I tried separate audio using front headphones. It did not work. Just install other drivers, tried download driver direct site on VIA, but nothing! Anybody know what do I have to do to play it correctly? I think to buy more one sound card. Uhhhhhh, bad gigabyte solution!!!!

fireberd said:

When you select the headphones as default playback device there is no sound module to generate the audio thus you don't get any sound.

Forgive my inexperience here, but I don't understand what you mean by there not being a sound module to generate audio. Also, why would the software give me the ability to make the front panel it's own device if I am unable to use it as such?

And if this really isn't possible given the available hardware, would adding another sound card such as this allow me to do it?

Adding another card wont do what you want. The only way to do what your talking about is to have a switch and then manually flip the switch or push a button to switch between the 2 devices...if your wanting to keep them both connected and fucntioning at the same time. Other wise by default, windows and your audio driver are set up to fucntion as one device working at one time...hence when redirected is enabled in audio manager, then plugging in headphones becomes the default listening device and when headphones are unplugged the speakers become the default listening device.

I understand that you can only have one default device. I have a small program that allows you to switch which of the devices is the "default". Audio Switcher Program. I don't want them to be operating at the same time, I just want the rear output to be recognized as a different output device then the front input panel, so that using the program from the link above, I can switch which device is the "default" one.

Using the "Independent Headphone" setting in the VIA CP, they do show as two devices in Windows (as shown in the earlier post). I just can't get the headphones to produce any sound under that setting.

In your 3rd and 4th pictures, in that setup, click on the headphones and set that as your default device and see what you happens.

That way when the head phones are plugged in, they will be your default listening device and you should have sound and when unplugged your speakers will take over.