Problems with new HTPC

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 18:46

Hello,
I constructed a new HTPC with Core i3, H55 and Windows 7 x64.

Unfortunately theres a serious problem with the soundcard, a Xonar DS 7.1. When I tried to plug in the front speaker cable the speakers produced a lot of static and the screen froze. I've now noticed it isn't completely frozen and refreshes very, very slowly with nasty graphical corruption :mad:

:
http://img812.imageshack.us/i/img0001do.jpg/

Either the soundcard is trashed or the drivers aren't working. There is no soundcard control panel except the Windows one.
Which one is it ?

RJC · 13 Sep 2010 at 18:49

Does not sound good - (sorry no pun indented) are you running the latest drivers, motherboard sound disabled in the BIOS.

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 18:53

You think that there could be hardware damage ?
Theres no corruption upon restart.
It crashed while downloading updates. The sound drivers were the latest I could find.

RJC · 13 Sep 2010 at 18:57

Uninstall the sound drivers and remove the sound card and reboot and does the graphical problem still exist.

Are you using a separate gpu on onboard.

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 19:01

I'm using the onboard GPU.

Is the latest driver V.12.8.1777 ?
Shouldn't there be an Xonar control panel or something?

Edit:
Installing the drivers through device manager didn't help. I'll try using the setup.exe instead.
I'll try to be extra careful when plugging in the speakers this time.

RJC · 13 Sep 2010 at 19:15

I'm not sure, as on all my pc's I use onboard sound and my HTPC uses HDMI with sound through the gpu.

I would at least expect a control panel in the task bar.

I am trying to check the Asus website to double check the divers but as usual it's slow, very very slow...

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 19:53

I've managed to get the "Audio Centre" and I've plugged in the front speakers without a hitch.
The problem is the remaining speaker cables are 3 channel (centre/sub/side, rear/rear/side) but the Xonar only supports 2 channel cables (centre/sub, rear, side). I suspect they will short out and it'll crash again.

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 20:39

It works!
Remaining problems: speaker cables are a mess, the center speaker is in the way of the TV infrared and the HTPC doesn't quite fit in the stand.

chipps101 · 13 Sep 2010 at 20:39

did you install the manufacturers drivers for the motherboard or let windows install them automatically ?

i've had nothing but trouble with intels drivers with an h55 (msi) and a g41 (zotac) mobo and have had to go back to the manufacturers own drivers for both, but my problems were gfx related with any driver apart from the manufacturers resulting in a black screen

Cold_And_Miserable · 13 Sep 2010 at 20:53

The Intel GMA video drivers are up-to-date using Windows Update. I've reached the fiddling with codecs and aesthetics stage.

chipps101 · 13 Sep 2010 at 20:57

the shark 007 codec pack is excellent, i use it in my htpc and it allows playback of everything i have thrown at it through media centre

what brand is your mobo btw ?