Jeff Liebermann writes:

On 08 Nov 2009 20:08:26 -0500, (Samuel M.
Goldwasser) wrote:

Hmmmm. I'm not sure I'm THAT determined to save $7 on an eBay sound
card.

Sigh. It's probably easier to just cram in a different sound card.
Still, it's worth spending a few minutes with a scope trying to
determine the cause. Your time, you decide.

Well at my normal hourly rate of $0.10, it might be worth it.

Besides, you know what a rats nest it is inside a PC tower
trying to get a scope probe in there!

Sure. If I'm doing motheboard repair, I need access to the bottom of
the board, which requires running everything outside the box. I have
a plywood fixture for doing that.

A broken trace is certainly possible, but wouldn't it have to be at least
two broken traces?

Good point. However, if there's a common audio power amplifier or a
broken sweat solder job on the output connector, it's possible to
break both at the same time.

True enough.

Incidentally, did you ever try the sound INPUTS to see if the chip is
alive and well? Plug in a microphone and use the Windoze sound
recorder for testing.

I guess I need to do this.

Also, this is kinda dumb and obvious, but might be the problem. The
chip has multiple outputs which can be switched in software. Go unto:
control panel - sound and audio - advanced
or just double click the speaker icon in the system tray.
That should display a list of "playback devices". Make sure nothing
is muted, none of the controls are set to zero, and that all the
outputs are correctly enabled (not muted).

The Reaktek control panel recognizes a mic being plugged in but doesn't
enable the associated controls for it???? Sounds recorder doesn't seem
to capture anything.

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