Audio On Monitor Not Working

[X79]

TL;DR: No sound on PC. The PC desktop practically freezes upon switching to HDMI Audio (the Monitor has speakers).

Hello,

So I recently helped a friend assemble a proper gaming PC.

i5-4690K CPU

Asus Direct CU GTX 770 GPU

Asus Maximus 4 Ranger Mobo

16GB G.Skill Trident.X 1600Mhz RAM

1TB WD Black and 120GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD

CM Storm Trooper Case

Corsair CX 750W PSU.

Win 8

The works.


However we've had issues with the audio. The PC turns on, all the ports like USB
3, 2, HDMI, DVI and so forth work fine. However there's no Audio on the Samsung monitor
or the PC - until a pair of earpieces are plugged into the audio jacks and you use the monitor/TV remote to switch to HDMI.

At this point the desktop practically freezes, while sound flows through the earpieces. It's possible to click things and maneuver around with the use of the keyboard; yet no programs open. They all simply show up on the quickstart menu line, where you normally see open programs. Otherwise they don't respond when clicked.

Thoughts?

I remember having plugged in HD audio on the motherboard too; though I didn't plug anything into "ROG_EXT" on the motherboard, if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance.

 

[darkbreeze]

Couple of things. Make sure you didn't plug the AC 97 connector to the HD audio header. They are both on the same cable but you can't use the AC 97 on the HD header or you'll have problems unless you use a special dongle.

Also check the bios for audio settings. You may need to make some changes there.

Driver files may be the most likely issue, but I cannot find an ASUS Maximus IV Ranger. Are you sure it's a IV and not a V or maybe not a Ranger but an Extreme or Gene-Z? I am seeing the Maximus IV models but not the IV Ranger. What is the exact model number of the motherboard? In fact, according to their website there is no such board made as seen here:

http/www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/AllProducts/

 

[X79]

My bad, it's the Maximus Ranger VII.

http/www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_RANGER/

Yes I'm 200% sure I didn't use the AC connector, but used the HD audio one.

I couldn't find any audio settings in the UEFI actually, even with Advanced view and nothing got plugged into the ROG_EXT plug either, as I didn't know what it was. One thing is certain though, I doubt we're getting the sound performance we should be getting, as we ended up connecting the monitor to the PC via HDMI and thereby getting sound from the monitor. So the problem is *solved* per say, but I don't know how satisfactory it truly is. I also did get some drivers. Some RealTek ones, but that didn't help either. I updated pretty much everything.


Thank you for posting.

 

[darkbreeze]

I wouldn't use either the windows or any Realtek drivers downloaded from the Realtek website, at least not at this time. Neither are correct for the ASUS version of the sound chipset as ASUS customizes it to suit their needs. I would uninstall any drivers related to the sound that are currently installed, reboot and the install these (And then reboot again):

http/dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/audio/Audio_Win7-8-8-1_V7272.zip