K7S5A install sound issues?

[John Prophet]

Ok, Ive had this K7S5A sittin around for over a year, never built it till now.

Its a k7s5a ver 3.1 (how would I know if its a 3.1b ??)


So first off I install xp pro....goes without a hitch...I notice onboard sound isnt working which I thought was funny..figured xp would have the driver.

Then I realized I meant to install xp home...so I started that install....halfway though I go to the other room..I come back and the comp is off....Im like, hmm, whats up here? Well, I try to turn it back on...nothin....then I noticed that the power supply was sitting with the one fan facing downward on the table....oops...its an exhaust fan so I dont know if that is anything that would hurt it or not...anyway, I switched supplies and it rebooted and finished the install.

So again the sound said it had no driver.

So I dl'ed the driver from the ecs website, the cmedia driver...hmm, it installs but still has a yellow exclam saying it has some issue??


Is this some well known thing?? Do I remember hearing about ecs using 2 different types of sound chips?


Thanks, JP

[jmebonner]

JP, I had a similar prob w/ the PRO version. Ended up having to disable the onboard and throw in an $8 sound card. Hope you have better luck than I

[John Prophet]

found this

"The board can have a couple of different sound chips based on the manufacture date.
Mine had the Avance Logic ALC100P chip. This company was acquired by Realtek and I've found that the SIS 7012 Chip driver worked.
Be careful because the C-Media driver will also install for the device and look like it is working.
My only complaint is that the volume is a little low for headphone use. Maybe that is ok, from a health perspective."



I have heard the sound aint that great even when it is working, lol.

[Peter M]

Right. No matter what _revision_ the board is, there are two _versions_ regarding the sound. You might have the 4-channel C-Media 9738 codec, or some Realtek stereo codec (ALC100 may well be correct). The sound engine always is the chipset's own SiS 7012.

Now, SiS' own driver does not support the CMI codec, but works fine with the Realtek. Now both CMI and RTL have their own audio drivers, both usable on the SiS chipset as well.

Find out what codec you have in there (look for a small square chip near the audio connectors), and then go with the driver choices you have. For the CMI codec, the best driver is obtained through Windows Update - the one on the CMI web site is much older.

[Peter M]

Oh, and regarding the headphones usage: The CMI codec has headphone amplifiers, the RTL doesn't. And even with the CMI, you need to set the drivers to headphone mode to get the amplification.

[John Prophet]

ok, ive got the realtek rtl820 (or whatever) chip on the board. At windows update I see a multimedia driver for SIS7012....so thats the one I need?

or do I need to find the "realtek" website?

Thanks, JP

[John Prophet]

Ok, I just got the driver off the windows site, it works.

Thanks, JP

[Peter M]

Sorry to disappoint you ... the RTL8201 is the physical interface chip for the onboard LAN. Look again

[John Prophet]

oh, well, no big deal cuz I got it working.....how could I be dissapointed? Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Speaking of ignorance though...how is it that they have nothing on ecs website to help the person who has bought the brand new board where the sound has no driver? Of course the driver cd wouldnt run on XP either.

Anyway, the driver from windows update worked (talk about irony, lol)

JP

[Peter M]

The current drivers CD does very well work on Windows XP. Yours, given your board has been sitting on a shelf for a LONG while, might not.