On board RealTek High definition sound card dead

[Gymguy]

I posted on "build your own" but got no replies. Maybe you guys can help here.

Just finished building my first PC. Booted with BIOS and checked basic stuff just to get running (sound card was checked "enabled"). Hardware appears to work fine based on hardware manager and my observation. I loaded drivers from ASUS motherboard disk including sound card. I then loaded Windows XP.

There is no sound coming out of any of the audio ports. The on board speaker gives a beep on boot up but that is the only sound. I downloaded the latest driver for my on board sound card from ASUS website. I tried to update sound drivers but got an error. I tried to uninstall current driver but got error saying the sound driver was either corrupted or was necessary for boot up and was not uninstallable. I'm stuck. Please help. Thanks.

[glc]

How do you install drivers before you install the OS?

Wipe the drive and start over - and install XP with no peripherals connected except keyboard and mouse. Install chipset drivers, then device drivers, then start connecting your peripherals.

[Gymguy]

Sorry, I got the sequence wrong. I loaded XP got no sound. I then checked hardware manager and noticed that windows had not loaded all the drivers, one of which was the sound driver. I then installed the ASUS drivers along with the other missing drivers from the motherboard disk. I still had no sound so I went through the windows troubleshooter which advised to uninstall the driver. I tried that but windows gave the message that it couldn't uninstall sound driver because driver might be used for boot up. I realize I could format and start over but I might get the same problem if the driver is corrupted on the ASUS disk. Maybe I could use the downloaded driver from the ASUS website. It seems a shame that there isn't a way to uninstall the corrupted driver without reformating.

[shadowpr]

try the newest driver from the asus website.

it might help

[glc]

Try installing the updated web driver on top of the original driver.

[Gymguy]

Tried the downloaded driver from ASUS website but got the same results. On newegg, comments on my this motherboard someone else said they had the same problem but said the fix was easy he said: "Go into device manager-->System device and disable UAA driver bus for HD audio. Then uninstall and restart system". I don't know what he means since when I disable UAA driver bus for HD audio, the RealTek card disappears from the device manager menu. I don't see how you can uninstall a driver in XP without being able to see it in device manager. Anyway I restarted and the Realtek device is not there unless I re-enable the UAA driver bus for HD audio. Then the problem is back again.

When i click on the Realtek HD audio device--->General: "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing (code 39)". But if I click on Properties and then General I get a message: "Status: Driver is enabled and functioning properly".

[glc]

You uninstall it with add/remove programs, not device manager.

[Gymguy]

Thanks, I am trying that now.

[Toaster]

Hello folks,
If this is a new system board with Hi-Def audio -and- you are using XP, this sounds like the HD-BUS audio update is needed. This update may or may not exist on your support CD and will not load by default if in fact it does. This problem is VERY common with DIY'rs and laptops.