Speaker/Headphone jack disabled after using HDMI audio.

[TheMeanestGuest]

Hey guys, stupid problem here.

After connecting my PC to my TV via an HDMI cable I found out afterwards that the normal audio no longer seems to work. I recall reading about this years ago, and I've scoured around trying to fix it, but it seems that the 3.5 mm jacks are actually somehow disabled and I honestly have no idea how to get them working again.

The audio device manager is reporting that I actually have no speakers 'plugged in' so I can't set them as the default device.

I've likewise uninstalled and reinstalled both the Realtek audio drivers for my motherboard and the AMD Catalyst package, but no luck. The only thing I can report is that the 3.5 mm speaker jack is still physically functional, as I get a half second of static while installing Realtek drivers, but then it just stays the way it has been.

Motherboard is an ASUS M5A97 R 2.0.


I'd really appreciate a solution if anyone has one!

 

[Ketchup]

Whenever I switch audio to HDMI I always have to go to volume mixer and set the appropriate default device.

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

Right. But the problem is that the devices in question are no longer listed in the mixer or in the audio device manager. So I can't switch it back.

 

[Ketchup]

Is your sound card still in device manager?

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

Yes, and it says it's enabled.

 

[Ketchup]

Hmm, I would like to see a screenshot of your playback devices screen if you can.

 

[Paperdoc]

The problem is "devices", but not exactly how you are looking at it. It's not the jacks, speakers, etc. It is the device that creates sounds.

Your system has two possible sound output devices - the mobo's Realtek system, and the audio output system built into your AMD video output card. In order for the video card to send audio out on the HDMI cable, it has its own audio output device built in. When you installed that card and installed its drivers (via the AMD Catalyst software suite), it also adjusted a setting in Windows that makes it use the audio system on the video card as the default audio output device. Windows can only use ONE audio output device at a time. So now the system built into your mobo is NOT being used by Windows to generate sound. Hence, anything (speakers or headphones) plugged into the jacks on the mobo system does nothing! All sounds are coming from your video card.

So, what to do about that? Four possible routes.

1. Check the back of the video card for audio output jacks. Plug your speakers or headphones in there, and use the vid card's system as the default audio output device. It will feed both to your TV via HDMI and to your (whichever) plugged into the jacks on it back. This is the best option if you can do it.

2. Manually switch things when you need to. Click on Start at lower left, select Control Panel, and there select Sounds and Audio Devices, then the Audio tab. In the top section there's a drop-down selector to choose the one thing in use as the Default Audio Playback Device. Select the system in your AMD video card when you want to send sounds out via the HDMI cable. Select the Realtek system (on your mobo) when you want to send sounds out from the mobo jacks to speakers or headphones. Click OK at the bottom and back out.

3. Try for a more permanent arrangement. Try connecting a pair of audio patch cables between the stereo (front speaker) jacks on the back of your computer's panel and the audio input jacks of your TV. Set your computer to use the mobo Realtek system for sound output. Now see if you can adjust your TV's inputs so that it will show you the video from the HDMI cable, but use the audio input jacks for its sound source. If that works, you could even place splitters in the audio patch cables so that it also could be fed to a set of speakers or an amplifier even when the TV is turned off.

4. See if your TV has an audio output jack on its back. This usually sends whatever audio it is receiving back out to whatever you connect there - amp, speakers, headphones. Then you can feed audio to the TV via HDMI, using the AMD vid card's audio system for output device. Problem is, you need to have the TV on to get sound out of that TV jack.