AC-97 Audio problems

[Jza]

Does anyone use the AC97 audio? It's integrated on my EPoX 8KHA+ Mobo but it's acted weird and it's pissing me off.

It sounds fine when i have my speakers hooked up, but as soon as I put in some headphones, everything sounds like crap. No bass and very high treble...i don't know what the is wrong with it, but I know I didn't have a sound change going from speakers to headphones back in Win98SE w/ older sound than the AC97

When i hook my speakers back in, it sounds fine.

 

[osage]

driver perhaps ?

 

[Jza]

I believe i have the newest drivers. I first used the drivers that were given on WindowsUpdate...now I went to EPoX page and downloaded their via audio codec. If there is a better place to find drivers for this integrated sound, please direct me to it.

I hook my headphones to the SPEAKER's headphone jack and sounds fine...again, speakers alone sound great...but when i plug any headphone directly to the mobo sound outlet, all bass dissappears and treble gives ya a freaking headache!

arrrgh...

 

[Jza]

^ could i get some more advice please? It's confusing me and also very frustrating.

 

[kursplat]

had a mb with that chip, just sold it , (ha ha ha ha ). tinny, crappy sound. had to put a card in it. it sucked...

 

[Jza]

The sound isn't crappy...at least not on speakers. Like i said, i've used an older onboard sound before and had no problems...and i didn't have problems w/ my AC97' until i hooked up headphones only for a LAN party :-(

Please provide some more advice/feedback...i am clueless as to why it changes like this. I've tried like 5 diff sound drivers, all sound as bad on headphones directly

 

[ssanches]

The problem is the line-out of most soundcards / mobos with sound is NOT amplified. That's the cause of your woes. The speakers are amplified, but headphones usually don't have any amplification. What you can do is connect your normal speakers to the line-out and if you want to use headphones, you could use the 1/8 inch socket on the speakers, if it has one.

 

[Jeff7]

Get the drivers for the sound chip right from VIA's website; those are probably more up-to-date than those on Epox's site.

 

[colonel]

Are you overclocking? AC97 does not like it.

 

[Jza]

Nope, no overclocking...yet ;-)

But ssanches' explanation sounds right. I don't see any physical damages what so ever and the amplifier stuff seems to be a reasonable explanation to my problems.

But tell me, how is it that i had a 4yr old PC w/ ESS onboard sound that worked correctly w/ my headphones? Seems like older hardware would give me the problems.

 

[ssanches]

It HAS to do with amplification. I've seen this problem stated by many others who use headphones which aren't amplified on line-outs. The ESS cards (186* and all) have amplified line outs. I too had owned an ES1868 approx 4 yrs back

 

[Jza]

Wow, you make me feel so much better

I've been trying to find the problem for a while...this makes sense!

ssanches: what if i purchased a SB Live! card, would those cards have amplified line-outs for headphone use? If not, what are my options to get it to sound right?

 

[ssanches]

No, all modern soundcards do not have amplified line-outs. That's done to reduce THD levels for analog connections. The Live too doesn't have amplified line-outs. Only option is to use amplified speakers which have an EP connection on them and plug the headphones into their EP socket. Else some older creative PCI-128's have amplified line outs

BTW I really hated my ES-1868 soundcard . It was good for it's time though

 

[Jza]

Hmmm, i went to test out my bro's system. He has a SB Live! Value 5.1 card and uses the logitech z560s (they rock)

I unplugged speakers and plugged in headphones...*gasp* it worked! I could tell a lot of difference from mine and his.

...seems to work great on that card, i might buy the exact card just to be sure then

 

[ssanches]

That could be the case. But your AC97 isn't bad at all. It's just the amplification is too low. I've seen this issue on many mobos using AC97. I'm not too sure about the Live 5.1's amplification, but I'm sure it's low as well.

Did you try connecting a speaker system with an EP socket and connecting the headphones to it?