- Jul 28, 2004
- 2,617
- 5
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Install your sound card drivers.
Reinstalled Win7-64 with my recent acquisition of a 7850.
My video card is set up to output audio/video through HDMI to my receiver (RGB 4:4:4 and 5.1 PCM), it decodes the audio itself but passes video along through to my TV.
This card is a full 3 generations after previous 'legacy' 4890 and required new Catalyst drivers, 13.1, and these seem to have a peculiar quirk - if I turn off my television or receiver while the computer is still on, then come back later and turn my equipment on again, it will revert to stereo and not allow me to change to 5.1 in the Sound properties window. There will be no options for anything besides stereo.
A restart enables multichannel PCM again. Very annoying; I did not have to restart my computer every time I turned off my TV with my old Catalyst drivers.
I decided to go back to analog 5.1 for the time being, so I installed the Realtek 270 drivers that go along with the ALC899A codec on my board. Strangest thing - with the audio device installed, I never lose 5.1 Multichannel PCM from my 7850 now. From what I can tell, the Realtek drivers do absolutely nothing (all audio through them was working before) but now that it's installed, it seems to remind Windows that my computer is indeed capable of outputting 5.1, analog or not, from my Realtek or AMD device.
Anyway, live and learn. Install your dedicated sound card drivers all the time, even if you plan on using HDMI passthrough on the video card. That is all.
Reinstalled Win7-64 with my recent acquisition of a 7850.
My video card is set up to output audio/video through HDMI to my receiver (RGB 4:4:4 and 5.1 PCM), it decodes the audio itself but passes video along through to my TV.
This card is a full 3 generations after previous 'legacy' 4890 and required new Catalyst drivers, 13.1, and these seem to have a peculiar quirk - if I turn off my television or receiver while the computer is still on, then come back later and turn my equipment on again, it will revert to stereo and not allow me to change to 5.1 in the Sound properties window. There will be no options for anything besides stereo.
A restart enables multichannel PCM again. Very annoying; I did not have to restart my computer every time I turned off my TV with my old Catalyst drivers.
I decided to go back to analog 5.1 for the time being, so I installed the Realtek 270 drivers that go along with the ALC899A codec on my board. Strangest thing - with the audio device installed, I never lose 5.1 Multichannel PCM from my 7850 now. From what I can tell, the Realtek drivers do absolutely nothing (all audio through them was working before) but now that it's installed, it seems to remind Windows that my computer is indeed capable of outputting 5.1, analog or not, from my Realtek or AMD device.
Anyway, live and learn. Install your dedicated sound card drivers all the time, even if you plan on using HDMI passthrough on the video card. That is all.