Windows 7: HD graphics card killed my audio.

Just upgraded to an ATI Sapphire HD 4670 512MB vid card, from an ATI Sapphire X1550 256MB.



I installed the card and the drivers from the provided disc. I plugged everything in an booted up, everything worked. Except sound.

Now my sound icon in the system tray has a red X on it and Windows troubleshoots it when I click it, to no avail. There are now no sound devices detected, except HDMI HD Audio Device, which reads as unplugged. I'm not using the HDMI on my graphics card at the moment, or for a while to come. No matter what is plugged in, the HDMI device is the only detected device. I still have my NVidea Realtek HD Audio drivers installed. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, uninstalling the ATI software, and still the HDMI audio device is the only one detected. Even plugging into the headphones jack gives me nothing.

Halp plx.

are you using spdif (coax or optical connection on your soundcard) ? - if so when you removed the old graphics card did you notice a small 2 core wire connecting the graphics adapter to the motherboard ? - this is for the spdif to connect to the hdmi on the graphics card - now i had a hp computer & for some reason when this wire is not connected it also kills the spdif on the soundcard as well (dont know why just does) now most cards exept for oem cards dont have this connection so you cant reconnect it - so either put the old card back in (not really an option as you have spent hard earned cash on a new one) or else the only way i got around it was to use the standard two speaker jacks instead (no multichannel unfortunately) or invest in a new soundcard - only way around it

well, a new sound card might not be that bad a choice in terms of bang for buck (including time spent on the issue, too). I have an HP Compaq computer so I'll look into this... can you elaborate on what you mean by a "2 core" wire?

I'm opening up my computer to start shuffling cards around and reinstalling the whole thing, starting with just using my integrated vid card and reinstalling my Realtek HD Audio Manager.

In terms of connection, I'm using a single jack audio output/input cable...so it's just a single wire with two male ends, one that plugs into my speakers, one that plugs into my audio out jack.

also checking BIOS for anything concerning sound.

Resolved it.

In the BIOS under Audio I turned "Use Onboard Audio" from Auto to Enabled. Then Ran windows Updater, got newest Realtek Drivers (had uninstalled them and every other audio driver to find out problem, so presumably the drivers were not the issue at all, but still had to update), and audio now works.

Seems the problem was that the HD4670 really wanted to control the audio and use only HDMI...for some weird ass reason. Because even if the HDMI cable was used and plugged into my monitor or TV...how would that have affected my audio?

couldnt really say - hp are strange animals in the way they are constructed - i think they do it so when you lose the spdif (wich you are not using anyway) they want you to pay them to get sound back by installing a new soundcard

when i said 2 core i just meant that the connector has only 2 wires on it
glad to see you have solved it

only reason i can think for the radeon wanting to control the audio is if its one with the actual hdmi connection you can route all the sound through there instad of soundcard ( can be handy) but of no use if you use dvi to hdmi connection as no audio is supported by dvi - just get unplugged dialogue in sound manager - this is where that smal 2 core wire comes in - it enables audio through the hdmi as spdif - its a good idea untill you want to replace the graphics card then your screwed as far as digital audio is concerned as when the wire is removed it not only cuts the audio from the hdmi (fair enough) but also kills the digital audio from the realtek spdif outputs (not good) this is where the radeon soulution is far better as as long as the hdmi port is on the card - ther is no need for ths wire setup as the card does it through the pcie slot & drivers

Joy. Thanks, man.