[anathematized1]

Alright, pertinent information:
Computer: Gateway DX4300-03
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium X64
Sound Realtek HD Audio (model ??? - features 7.1 surround, front panel headphones/mic)

So, when I originally bought this computer, I had my two channel speakers plugged into the back panel. When I would plug in a set of headphones to the front panel, it automatically muted the sound coming out of the regular speakers and only played through the headphones. Upon removing the headphones, playback resumed as normal through the speakers.

Well, I had to reformat a while back and now, the sound works, I have speakers still plugged into the back panel. The problem is, when I plug headphones into the front jack, the sound still comes out of the speakers. It also comes out of the headphones, but it sounds like there's some other signal coming into the headphones with the audio?

I just today went on their website again and downloaded the drivers they had listed. The funny thing is, before, the driver said "Realtek Semiconductor Corp." or something like that as the author when I was looking at it in device manager, but now it says Microsoft Corporation? And this is the one I downloaded today from Realtek's website... hrm. Also, when I updated to this driver I got today, my Realtek Sound Manager is gone. Odd.

Anyway, I tried updating the drivers and stuff and that didn't help. Maybe I am missing something? I tried to find information on the Realtek website but.. well, I think I'd have more luck navigating an active minefield than their website. >_<

Also if it helps, I've created a system information file: http://www.mediafire...information.txt

This post has been edited by anathematized1: 18 June 2011 - 04:54 AM

[allen2]

That's a realtek setting that allow or not sound to come out of the speaker when headphone are connected.
You need to install the realtek drivers.

[anathematized1]

allen2, on 17 June 2011 - 01:09 PM, said:

That's a realtek setting that allow or not sound to come out of the speaker when headphone are connected.
You need to install the realtek drivers.

I know it's a Realtek setting and that the current driver is not a Realtek driver.

However, just before I updated this driver today with the driver I have now, there is an option where you can check "Disable front panel auto detection." Regardless of whether or not I had that checked or unchecked, it wouldn't work right, however if I didn't have front panel detection disabled, I'd randomly have and not have sound in my regular speakers.

I downloaded the drivers you linked to, I see they're from the Gateway website. That's weird because, back when I first had this problem (and didn't care to fix it other than the day it happened until now), I went to the Gateway website to try and find the drivers that came with this computer, and for my model, they only had maybe 25% of the drivers for this computer listed for download. I am looking at the site now and apparently it's redesigned and they have all the drivers. *sigh*

Anyway, I've installed the drivers that you linked from there and I am going to restart now and see what that does...

And I still have the same problem. I have my Realtek sound manager now, but regardless of whether or not I enable "front panel detection" - when I plug headphones in to the front headphone jack, sound still comes out of the speakers, and nothing comes out of the headphones...

This post has been edited by anathematized1: 17 June 2011 - 04:24 PM

[puntoMX]

anathematized1, on 17 June 2011 - 04:14 PM, said:

However, just before I updated this driver today with the driver I have now, there is an option where you can check "Disable front panel auto detection." Regardless of whether or not I had that checked or unchecked, it wouldn't work right, however if I didn't have front panel detection disabled, I'd randomly have and not have sound in my regular speakers.

That's indeed something you have to look into when you have AC'97 front audio connections, but I presume that Gateway has HD audio, are you sure that you have selected stereo or 5.1/7.1 right?... Else I would say it's some faulty frontpannel connectors, but you say that before reinstalling all was fine... odd...

[anathematized1]

puntoMX, on 17 June 2011 - 04:57 PM, said:

anathematized1, on 17 June 2011 - 04:14 PM, said:

However, just before I updated this driver today with the driver I have now, there is an option where you can check "Disable front panel auto detection." Regardless of whether or not I had that checked or unchecked, it wouldn't work right, however if I didn't have front panel detection disabled, I'd randomly have and not have sound in my regular speakers.

That's indeed something you have to look into when you have AC'97 front audio connections, but I presume that Gateway has HD audio, are you sure that you have selected stereo or 5.1/7.1 right?... Else I would say it's some faulty frontpannel connectors, but you say that before reinstalling all was fine... odd...

Well, this computer does have HD audio, at least the back panel does anyway. I tried searching for this problem before coming here and from what I can gather (though the sources don't really seem all that reputable), even if you have HD audio, the front panel headphone and/or microphone jacks will be AC'97?

I did check and make sure that in both the Windows settings and the Realtek Sound Manager settings, I had Stereo selected, as I don't actually have a 5.1/7.1 speaker set up. I also opened the Windows playback devices, right-clicked on speakers and went to properties, and under jack information, it lists the back panel jacks (L/R, Rear L/R, Center/Sub, Side L/R), but it doesn't have the front panel headphone jack listed. Obviously I am missing codecs for the front jack.

Now, I went to the Realtek website and I went under the tab for the AC'97 codecs from the download page and it has you check a box to agree to some legal mess and then click a button to go to the download page, however after clicking it, it comes up with a blank page that says something like "Object moved to -> here" (where here is a link, which when you click it, takes you to a page like what you were previously on, and going through the process again takes you to that same page). However, just now, I went back to their website again, and clicked the downloads tab and right on the front, under "Hot Downloads" it had AC'97 codecs listed and I clicked that and was able to finally get the download from Realtek.

I've installed these, and I'm restarting now, I will update this reply as soon as my computer boots back up and I can see if it works. *fingers crossed*

Alright, so, after installing those AC'97 codecs... I still have the same problem. If I go back to speaker properties, it still doesn't list the front headphone jack in the jacks section, and if I open the Realtek manager, I don't have "disable front panel jack detection" checked and I plug headphones in, the sound still comes out of the speakers and not out of the headphones, and if I have that option checked, then it comes both out of the speakers normally, and out of the headphones at the same time, but only the right one of the headphones. >_<

EDIT: I clicked on the information button in my Realtek Audio Manager and the codec version is ALC888S - from the documentation I read on the Realtek website, the coded I need is ALC850 to ALC861, which are the only ones that support AC'97 front headphone jacks? Anyway, I looked ALL over the Realtek website and I can't find a download for that specific codec at all, so I did a Google search for the codec and I'm really unsure of how reputable these sites are but, I downloaded one and I'm going to try that now.

And of course, none of the ones I downloaded would work.

Anyway, from what I read, I need the ALC850 or ALC861 codec. Those are the only ones on the Realtek website's documentation that are for 7.1 HD audio with AC'97 front panel headphone. The problem is, there's nowhere on the Realtek website to download those. The downloads on there have the ALC888S codec, which doesn't support the AC'97 front headphone jack.

So, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I guess I'm going to contact Realtek about this issue and see if I can actually get some help from them. I don't have much hopes for this though as usually when I try to contact a product manufacturer for support, even through the proper support channels, I never get help, and it seems like every time I do, I actually know more about their products than their support staff does... *

This post has been edited by anathematized1: 18 June 2011 - 02:18 AM

[anathematized1]

Well, now I feel like an id***, ha ha ha.

I was going to contact Realtek and ask them, but I decided to take a look at their FAQ first.

Poorly Created Official Realtek Website said:

Q1: Could you please advice me which driver I should download for my sound card?

A1: We are a chip supplier, not a motherboard manufacturer. Please read the model number of the AC'97 audio CODEC on your motherboard. The model number starts with "ALC" and a number follows (e.g., ALC201).

So, I opened up my computer to look. I find the Realtek chip and guess what the model number was? ALC888S. That's the codec I was using before that didn't work. So, I decided to see if there was any other information on the motherboard where the front panel audio connects to it.

Alright, back story time. Back when I reformatted, I decided to take apart my computer and do a thorough cleaning. By that I mean, I completely disassembled it. Keep this in mind as I tell you what I did today just now.

So I'm looking and I notice the plug from the front panel says HD Audio on it, which threw me for a loop because this whole time I was assuming the front panel jacks were AC'97. I then started to look on the actual motherboard to see if there was anything printed on it regarding that and I notice something. The plug is an 8-pin (four over four), and I'm looking and on the left side of the plug, I see 4 pins sticking out of the motherboard, so then I look on the right side of the plug and I notice that the right half of the plug isn't actually plugged into anything. O_o

Reminds me of that computer term you learn way back in junior high, GIGO (garbage in - garbage out), and also reminds me that ≈99.9% of all computer errors are PICNIC (problem in chair, not in computer)/ID-10T/PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair)/user interface error...

Anyway, I properly connected this plug, got the correct driver/codec and guess what, PROBLEM SOLVED!

Man, I feel like such an id*** now.

[Tripredacus]

anathematized1, on 18 June 2011 - 04:17 AM, said:

Poorly Created Official Realtek Website said:

Q1: Could you please advice me which driver I should download for my sound card?

A1: We are a chip supplier, not a motherboard manufacturer. Please read the model number of the AC'97 audio CODEC on your motherboard. The model number starts with "ALC" and a number follows (e.g., ALC201).

Yeah I had called Realtek once before regarding a NIC issue. They don't really have the software or drivers for specific (actual) boards like you'd think they would. I had managed to get a NIC ROM from their engineering department, but it didn't work out exactly as you'd expect, since the stuff they have are specific only to their chips. So it doesn't take into account for HOW their chips are being used in whatever piece of hardware you are using. In the end, its always best to go to the board manufacturer to (hopefully) solve whatever the issue is, rather than going directly to Realtek.

[anathematized1]

Tripredacus, on 20 June 2011 - 08:26 AM, said:

anathematized1, on 18 June 2011 - 04:17 AM, said:

Poorly Created Official Realtek Website said:

Q1: Could you please advice me which driver I should download for my sound card?

A1: We are a chip supplier, not a motherboard manufacturer. Please read the model number of the AC'97 audio CODEC on your motherboard. The model number starts with "ALC" and a number follows (e.g., ALC201).

Yeah I had called Realtek once before regarding a NIC issue. They don't really have the software or drivers for specific (actual) boards like you'd think they would. I had managed to get a NIC ROM from their engineering department, but it didn't work out exactly as you'd expect, since the stuff they have are specific only to their chips. So it doesn't take into account for HOW their chips are being used in whatever piece of hardware you are using. In the end, its always best to go to the board manufacturer to (hopefully) solve whatever the issue is, rather than going directly to Realtek.

Indeed, the only problem with that is the board manufacturer, as far as I can tell, is Gateway? Yeah, and they have practically no support for this particular model of computer.

Example, it game with a Gateway Elite FX KB-0817 keyboard right out of the box, yet if you look up this computer on their website under the driver downloads, you won't find the drivers for this keyboard, as well as many other things this computer has that it came with factory installed out of the box not custom at all. It's ridiculous, ha ha ha. I have to look up like 5 different models of computers on the Gateway website just to get all the drivers for this computer. *

Needless to say, I will be building my own computer the next time I get one, since support is so sparse and inconsistent with pretty much every brand I've tried so far, which have only been the major ones. I've not tried anything by like say, Asus yet, but I was looking at some Asus computers back when I bought this one and the towers were as big as my **** room. O_o

[noguru]

Are you sure you have the right driver? You need the high definition driver, not the AC'97.


http://218.210.127.1...3&GetDown=false

[anathematized1]

noguru, on 21 June 2011 - 01:48 PM, said:

Are you sure you have the right driver? You need the high definition driver, not the AC'97.


http://218.210.127.1...3&GetDown=false

I don't mean to bust on you or anything, but did you not read the thread before posting? I mean, the title says "solved" and I even posted what the correct drivers were (that they were the 888S HD codecs, not the AC'97), and what the actual problem with the computer was (which was a hardware issue, not driver/software).

I appreciate the help man but, this problem has LONG been solved.