Failure to get onboard sound working on a7n8x

[burat]

Please help: I just installed an A7n8x Deluxe/ 1Gb Crucial PC3200/ Barton 2500 GHz/Maxtor 160 Gb HD/ATI 9600 PRO sytem. Initially, I was planning on using the on-board sound, but I can't get it to work
I made sure all conections are done; the BIOS is enabled for AC-97 CODEC; the drivers are loaded from the ASUS CD. I can't even get system sounds to play!
What am I doing wrong? Device manager shows question marks on USB 2.0 and RAID, otherwise everything else is fine.
For the record, I then used a Santa Cruz sound card, and this works fine.

 

[DeeTees]

Does your board do verbal post?

I believe that would confirm that the audio circut is functional.

 

[burat]

Actually, yes--- and tha's what's strange. the verbal post is fine, but no other system sounds.