Windows Update Breaks RealTek Audio

DevManView shows the RealTek driver there, enabled, and loaded:

Realtek High Definition Audio Realtek IntcAzAudAddService MEDIA Sound, video and game controllers HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0892&SUBSYS_10438436&REV_1003\4&1dc8007c&0&0001 Internal High Definition Audio Bus 0x00000000 0x00000000 No Yes 12/16/2013 11:27:37 AM 12/16/2013 6:15:56 AM Realtek High Definition Audio 6.0.1.7023 oem69.inf IntcAzAudModel.NTAMD64 8/21/2013 12/16/2013 6:42:02 AM

The Sound window does show two speaker jacks when the headset is plugged in, but I can't get it to see the microphone jack.

Early this morning I re-installed everything from the ASUS DVD. All the drivers are up-to-date in the sense that none of the drivers on the web site are dated later or have later version numbers. I also loaded the Gigabyte DVD and installed the GEForce 660 drivers from it. During testing with DevManView loaded, I tried turning up the speaker volume all the way again and this time I could not discern the test sounds at all. I found that I could turn the headset volume all the way up and could here the "machinery noise" sound there too, and also could not hear the test sounds below the machinery noise. A YouTube video produces only silence, other than the machinery noise.

At this point I'm going to take the advice of you guys and declare the solution to be the sound card, which should arrive late today. I'll disable the Azelia sound in the BIOS and plug in the case wires to the front panel in the sound card. I've got enough electronics and I&T experience to understand that a chip can go bad on anyone, particularly in the first couple of weeks of use. If the sound card resolves all the problems, I'll approach ASUS about what to do about the motherboard, with my preferred solution to get a replacement audio chip. But, I just pulled off the side cover and see only one socketed chip, an eight-pin job that is probably a driver; I couldn't make out the chip number. It could be a stereo audio driver for the headphone jack but that would not be the RealTek audio chip.

I just looked at available sound cards on NewEgg and decided that the one I have coming, an ASUS Xonar DGX, is not top-of-the-line but is more than adequate for my needs. It is 24-bit, 96 KHz max data rate, and has up to Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 outputs. My current planned usage need only outputs for stereo speakers and headphones.

Well, I now have sound, thanks to my new ASUS Xonar DGX, which is perfect for my limited needs for sound, except that it doesn't take a front-panel microphone. However, the microphone in my Logitech C920 webcam *is* enabled and I have worked with that before. With the headset, I can avoid the echo effect without trying to do it with the sound software.

The eight-pin DIP chip is, according to the ASUS motherboard manual, a BIOS chip. The RealTek ALC 892 is on the layout diagram and it is surface-mount soldered, so fixing that is an RMA and a factory rework/rebuild, not something for the customer.

I knew I had won when, after installing the drivers from the sound card CD-ROM, I heard the shutdown sound through the speakers.

I have marked this thread as SOLVED.

UPDATE: ASUS contacted me through the vendor *and* directly and authorized an RMA for a new or refurbished motherboard. The new motherboard has been in place now for about nine weeks and it is solid as a brick. The sound card is available for an old ABIT board for AMD Socked 939 that never did have sound that worked. It's running Debian so that's all you will hear about it here.

"My System Specs" updated some time ago.

I saw an email notice of a reply on this thread with a link to eightforums about using a DMI cable, which would not have helped my bad motherboard. It's weird, referring to post#20, etc.

I also notice that my signature photo is down. That's OK; it was a macro photo of my LGA 771 motherboard, which was replaced with the AMD motherboard that was replaced on RMA - and is now just fine.