Sound Card Woes

[Gafgarionn]

So, my old headphones connected to my computer via USB, but those ones broke. The new ones I ordered just came in today, but have the traditional green and pink plugs, for sound out and mic in, respectively. The trouble is, even with the drivers installed and my sound card in properly I can't get any sound to work with the new headphones. My computer essentially can't detect them, even though they're directly connected to the sound card. Any advice?

[Ichthyos]

audio devices connected to your sound card via the minijacks don't have to be "detected" -- usually the sound card is driving the circuits that they're connected to even if no devices are hooked up.

do you hear anything when you hook up speakers to the card? if not, then double check that any on-board sound card on your motherboard is disabled in bios, check that the right drivers are installed correctly, make sure you see the sound card in device manager, and check the windows volume control to make sure things aren't muted.

[Gafgarionn]

audio devices connected to your sound card via the minijacks don't have to be "detected" -- usually the sound card is driving the circuits that they're connected to even if no devices are hooked up.

do you hear anything when you hook up speakers to the card? if not, then double check that any on-board sound card on your motherboard is disabled in bios, check that the right drivers are installed correctly, make sure you see the sound card in device manager, and check the windows volume control to make sure things aren't muted.

Nothing detects that the headphones are hooked up. Like, when I open iTunes I get a message basically saying sound won't work. I didn't have this trouble with the old USB headphones. I should've mentioned before that the sound card came with the motherboard but isn't exactly on-board. I'm certain that the drivers are installed correctly because I had sound before and when I just tried reinstalling the drivers I got a message stating they were already found. Oh, and I can't adjust the volume at all because it's grayed out, like it doesn't detect any sound device.

[Ichthyos]

well, i haven't used usb headphones before, but i'm pretty sure windows sees them as a separate sound device from any sound card (onboard or otherwise) that is in your computer.

the fact that itunes and the windows volume controls don't seem to think there's a sound device connected make it seem to me that the sound card isn't seated / connected properly, or that there's a bios setting that's preventing the system from seeing it.

you said it isn't really on-board. is it a pci expansion card, or does it just have a small circuitboard with a connector that goes to some pins on your motherboard?

[Gafgarionn]

it's pci, but there's a specific slot for it on the motherboard and it only fits into that one.

It's also seated properly and everything

[Ichthyos]

can you find it in device manager? (if so, does it show up without the caution icon?)

weird that there's a specific slot that it fits into. what makes it specific? is it shorter/longer than normal? what's the make and model? did it come with your motherboard?

[Gafgarionn]

can you find it in device manager? (if so, does it show up without the caution icon?)

weird that there's a specific slot that it fits into. what makes it specific? is it shorter/longer than normal? what's the make and model? did it come with your motherboard?

I'm kind of noob to computers so I'm not entirely sure where to look in the device manager, plus I'm running a shitty beta version of XP so it's not even called device manager. However, under audio and sound devices everything is apparently working properly. The slot it fits into is shorter than the rest of the PCI slots by about half. It came with my ASUS SLI motherboard, which is weird, considering my other ASUS mobos have all had literal onboard sound as opposed to the separate card that came with this one.

[Gafgarionn]

Oh, and sound is enabled in BIOS.

[Ichthyos]

hmm ok, i'm not on a windows box right now but go to device manager (what's it called on your xp build? lol) and list the items under "sound, video, and game controllers" and "other devices", especially anything with a caution sign/exclamation mark.

also, what model is the motherboard?

[Sigi]

It sounds like you have an Audio Card riser... (funny shaped slot after the pci). It also sounds like the card itself might have gone crispy. I would go ahead and spend the $20.00 for a Creative sound card (could be more, but you could get a decent one for about 20 bucks). This way you get a better sound card, and you eliminate the bozo ACR.

[diemos]

I have to agree, if your sound card isn't accepting inputs and your volume controls are greyed out, then it's probably b0rk3d.

[Gafgarionn]

Sorry about delayed response. I just ordered a 20 dollar sound card online, and it should get here around tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the old one is borken too