U50A - Audio not working though driver is installed

I am trying to figure out what is going on here. I think sound chip must be bad?

Windows detects the audio device, and the driver is installed, it also shows that something is playing on the mixer when I try to play something, but I don't hear anything. I have also tried connecting headphones and I hear nothing there either.

I went to ASUS support and downloaded the audio driver and installed that, but it is still doing the same thing.

I went into the BIOS and enabled the start up sound and I don't even hear the POST sound it is supposed to play, so it appears it is not just a Windows problem.

I pulled the keyboard and the speakers are plugged in under there.

Any other ideas?

 

You could try a linux livecd like ubuntu to test the sound. But if it's not playing a startup sound and it's supposed to have one, maybe your speakers are dead or the audio card itself is dead since you get nothing out of the headphone jack.

 

Trying ubuntu 11 right now. I also checked and it has the latest BIOS 208.

It is really a shame though. Everything else is working fine, so now because of a bad sound chip it is probably going to need a stupid USB plug to get audio, and just through headphones.

 

You aren't under warranty? That's a shame... the only thing I can think of besides the audio chip dying is that the output path is shorted somehow, maybe you can try the headphone plug without the speakers connected - I'm not sure how it's wired though.

 

Sound test in Ubuntu failed - though it does detect the device, just cant hear anything.

 

The only other thing I can think of is to reset your BIOS to user defaults and then to take out your battery + ac adapter for 30+ seconds to clear the EC.

I have no idea how that would help for the audio. It's a stupid guess.

 

Ill try it. I tried un-pluging the speakers and trying the headphones, but still wont work.

Still nothing. Guess it is just a bad part. Oh well.

Thanks for the help though.

 

Try ebay. Here's one I just found: ASUS U50 U50A U50VG I/O SOUND BOARD WRTY | eBay

 

Well, if the speakers were working, but the headphones were not, then that would be a good option, but that doesn't have the actual sound chip, so I don't think that would work.

Thanks for looking though. I think the whole mainboard would need to be replaced to fix this.

You can see the Realtek chip resides here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/GENUINE-NEW-ASU...otherboards&hash=item56445d7089#ht_752wt_1144

 

Yeah if that's the case it's definitely the mobo. You could try disconnecting that board just for giggles though.