SOLVED No Audio from speakers/headphones after clean install of Windows 10

[Ben Sewick]

Hey all,

I've got quite the interesting issue. A few days ago I had restarted my computer to run updates and some how lost display. Long story short, it turned out to be my bios. I flashed it and everything went fine, or so I thought. I noticed I wasn't hearing the Windows notifications anymore, so I checked my audio devices and sure enough, they weren't playing anything. I tried every trick in the book to get my speakers/headphones working again (i.e. disable/enable device, unplug speakers, uninstall and reinstall drivers, etc), but nothing fixed the issue. Eventually I caved and decided to wipe everything and start over. I finished installing Windows and all the drivers for my ASUS P9X79 LE motherboard (Audio drivers are by Realtek) and now everytime I boot up the computer I get a message from Realtek stating "You just plugged a device into the audio jack" followed quickly by "You just unplugged a device from the audio jack." The messages do not repeatedly pop up, just once after boot up (I have seen people have the messages pop up repeatedly). I still do not have audio and when I click on the Realtek Speaker icon in my tray it says " You are seeing a blank page because there is no audio device plugged in the system. To activate GUI, please plug an audio device in the system." My Speakers are a 5.1 setup and plug directly into the back analog plugs of my board. The front connectors do not function either. It may be worth noting that I do have audio through HDMI. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have found zero articles pertaining to this issue.

 

[Wolfie]

ASUS P9X79 LE motherboard

Hi Ben,

have you also tried resetting the CMOS master jumper on the motherboard?:

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/414948/Asus-P9x79-Le.html?page=39

 

[Ben Sewick]

I have indeed tried that. I will try it again to be sure.

 

[Wolfie]

Have you pulled any cables from the sockets on the MB recently or in the past?, are they sitting in the correct sockets/pins?, have you knocked the PC at all which might have loosened a cable or the snug fit of the PCI soundcard (if it is indeed via a PCI slot)?.

 

[Ben Sewick]

Have you pulled any cables from the sockets on the MB recently or in the past?, are they sitting in the correct sockets/pins?, have you knocked the PC at all which might have loosened a cable or the snug fit of the PCI soundcard (if it is indeed via a PCI slot)?.

I did remove my processor and replace it with my older 3820 (when I was troubleshooting the video issue) and then put my 4930K back in, as well as unplugged the graphics card, power cables, RAM, etc. My speakers go directly into my motherboard. No Expansion card.

 

[Wolfie]

See section 12 of chapter 2 (also section 2.3.8) for the sound settings for the front panel here, make sure that you have them all seated correctly (watch out for plus/minus connections!):

http://kb.stonegroup.co.uk/index.php?View=afile&CategoryID=56&EntryID=23

 

[Ben Sewick]

See section 12 of chapter 2 (also section 2.3.8) for the sound settings for the front panel here, make sure that you have them all seated correctly (watch out for plus/minus connections!):

http://kb.stonegroup.co.uk/index.php?View=afile&CategoryID=56&EntryID=23

Yup. All front I/O is connected. Like I said, this is a weird one. In all my years as a technician, I've never had this happen. Now that doesn't mean the port couldn't have gone bad from the Bios issue, but it's a stretch. I may try to do another clean install, but on Windows 7 with the driver disc.

 

[Ben Sewick]

So after a long process of removing/re-adding components, reinstalling Windows, driver updates, flashing the BIOS, and other tricks, I admitted defeat. I ended up buying a sound card for around $30 and installed it in my tower. My guess is that the chip on the board for the audio simply went bad. I really don't know how or why, but what's done is done.