Member Avatar for Zolookas

A friend asked me to reinstall windows for him, so i did, but it appears that neither nForce audio drivers (4.62), neither realtek ac97 drivers work fine (tested old version in manufacturers site and new WDM_A406). Only when i set maximum volume on pc and speakers i can hear some sound (and it is barely audible). Any ideas?

Motherboard: Abit KN8 Ultra
Chipset: nForce 4 Ultra AMD
Windows XP

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

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Building on the earlier replies from and , the checklist below targets hardware and wiring causes that are often missed when an AC97-equipped board produces very low output. It assumes basic driver and mixer checks have already been attempted and focuses on isolating the audio path so the real cause can be identified without guesswork.

  • Disconnect the front-panel audio cable and retest using only the rear green line‑out jack with a known-good powered headphone or active speaker. If level returns, the front-panel jack or its wiring/pinout is interfering.
  • Try a cheap USB audio dongle or a PCI sound card. If those produce normal volume, the onboard analog amp or codec output stage is likely faulty.
  • Boot a Linux live USB and play a test file. Matching low volume in Linux points to hardware; normal volume points back to Windows drivers/settings.
  • Visually inspect the PCB around the audio codec for bulged or leaking electrolytic capacitors and for cracked solder joints near the audio caps and jacks.
  • Do a clean driver reinstall: remove the audio device in Device Manager (delete driver files if possible), reboot, then install the vendor-supplied package. Also confirm "Onboard Audio" is enabled in BIOS and that the front-panel header is set for the correct pinout (AC97 vs HD-Audio).

If the board amp or caps have failed, practical fixes are: replace the faulty capacitors or have the board serviced, or use an external USB sound adapter / cheap PCI card as a reliable workaround. Replacing caps requires soldering skill; the external adapter is the fastest low-cost solution.

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Member Avatar for hotmatrixx

1. silly question:

did you set sound on MAX on the sofware you were using? WMP starts on half, for eg and can be hardly audible.

2. have you tried another set of speakers? maybe the ones you have a re bung.

3.google for the Realtek AC'97 Codec version A3.49 I have installed this on over 40 PC's and works perfectly.

Member Avatar for jbennet

What service pack you on?

Member Avatar for hotmatrixx

hey, jbennet, nice pic - I like it! I am not sure who you are asking, but I am running xp (all flavours) with SP3 (always) when I install those codecs.

Member Avatar for Zolookas

That was hardware problems. Thread can be locked.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yeah its just that i need to have SP2 installed for my intel chipsets Sigmatel HD sound to work. I need to do SP2 then apply a hotfix which i have to request , then i can install my drivers. Annoyingly i cant slipstream SP3 for this reason as it doesnt include the hotfix, and it wont intall on it.

and yeah i like that album

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