No sound, but eq is moving

[cookie fiend]

I recently cleaned my graphics card (reseated) and tower with compressed air ofc for a computer a while back. When I put it back together, everything seemed fine, but sound was not coming out of the speakers from either front or back panel. What confuses me is that when I do anything that should make a sound (testing the device, adjusting volume bar, playing mp3), the green bars light up in the eq (or whatever it's called).

I followed some suggestions from other posts with similar problems, but nothing seems to help. Here's what I've tried so far:

• Confirmed Speakers working properly (tested on my phone)
• No sound devices are muted
• Uninstalled and reinstalled video and audio drivers in safe mode (also used driver sweeper)
• Unplugged and re-plugged in speakers (which Realtek Audio Manager confirmed plugs are recognized)
• Reset bios (did both jumper method and battery method separately)
• Formatted and reinstalled win7 64bit (UGH )
• Installed Manufacturers Drivers (Mostly cd's)
• Checked "Disable Front Panel Detection" and "Make front and rear output devices playback..."
• Updated audio and video drivers

Here are some of my specs

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name COOKIE-PC
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 940 @ 2.93GHz, 2934 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 1402, 8/9/2012



My mobo is asus sabertooth x58, and my monitor is using HDMI, but doesn't have speakers. I'm just using analog speakers through back panel.

I feel I'm at my last straw after this reinstall. I'd appreciate any help at this point.

 

[cookie fiend]

Just tried this, but no change

I wonder if this has to do with HDMI overriding my onboard sound. I just don't know how to fix that. I've tried setting speakers to default, but no luck.

Thanks for reading this, and any suggestions are welcomed.