No sound from headset/3.5 mm jack?

Fenster

I use the Turtle Beach Ear Force X12 headset, and there is no sound going to it from my 3.5mm jack in Windows.

Here's the head-scratcher: The headset works perfectly fine. I've tested it in my Linux installation, on my iPhone, on an Apple Macbook, and a second Windows PC.

Here's the head-scratcher-er: This problem began in Windows 8, and has followed me to Windows 7 through a partition wipe. I checked the headset in Linux about ten minutes ago during a reboot for Windows Update, and it works fine.

Volume Control Options: No headset detected.
Playback devices: No headset detected.

Windows records sound just fine through the 3.5 mm input jack. I am totally confused by this, and I have no idea where I should start debugging.

This is a clean Windows 7 installation from this morning, with the previous Windows 8 partition completely deleted.

bumper234

Start, control panel, system and sounds. Click on speakers change the one that is set as default to the other one ( right click) this should fix it.

Fenster

Nope. Only the laptop's external speakers show. I'd put a screenshot up now, but my machine is currently at a standstill running updates.

Torqay

After you installed Windows 7, did you install the audio driver from the manufacturer or was the sound chip auto-detected?

Fenster

I feel done with Windows. I finally dipped into Linux to find out what card I have because Windows doesn't offer up any more information that "HD Audio" (emphasis mine):

[mark][~] # arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: __ALC269VB__ Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

My sound card is a Realtek ALC269VB. Realtek (and Intel) drivers that I install, install parallel to the sound card. They install for new, dud, sound device in the Device Manager, and not for the onboard card.

The driver that Windows 7 picks for the ALC269VB does not detect the outbound 3.5 mm sound jack. The 3.5 mm works perfectly fine.

I'm writing this from Linux through my headset, which works perfectly fine here.

Torqay

Fenster wrote: »

because Windows doesn't offer up any more information that "HD Audio" (emphasis mine)

I'm pretty sure it does, if you dig a little bit deeper into the device properties you should find such valuable information as the device ID and the hardware vendor ID.

Anyway, go to the Laptop manufacturer's website, download the latest Intel chipset driver and audio driver for your model.

Microsoft's generic HD audio driver does not always support all functions.

yoyo

You can get the proper audio driver from either the Realtek website or else the manufacturers site as Torqay mentions. The Windows generic drivers for video and audio are fairly poor, which is why it's important to install all the driver packages for your device. Even installing the chipset drivers (that a lot seem to skip) can provide valuable performance boosts

Nick

Fenster

Torqay wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it does, if you dig a little bit deeper into the device properties you should find such valuable information as the device ID and the hardware vendor ID.

Oh probably. I'd just rather run one commands than taff with a mess of menus.

yoyo wrote: »

You can get the proper audio driver from either the Realtek website or else the manufacturers site as Torqay mentions. The Windows generic drivers for video and audio are fairly poor, which is why it's important to install all the driver packages for your device. Even installing the chipset drivers (that a lot seem to skip) can provide valuable performance boosts

Nick

That's not working. Any driver I select and install installs for a nonexistent device. If I try to install them manually, Windows believes they are the incorrect driver for the device-and I am using the first-party Realtek drivers for Windows 7, as downloaded from their site.

yoyo

Fenster wrote: »

That's not working. Any driver I select and install installs for a nonexistent device. If I try to install them manually, Windows believes they are the incorrect driver for the device-and I am using the first-party Realtek drivers for Windows 7, as downloaded from their site.

That's quite odd. What is the Device ID attributed to the sound card? You'll find this under the hardware tab and then within the drop downs (device properties in device manager). www.pcidatabase.com is good at finding out the actual device you have.
It could be you need to use a driver custom built/tweaked by the laptop manufacturer, but this would be quite rare for the likes of audio devices (well I've not come across it yet!).

Nick

Capt'n Midnight

love the way you can just type lsusb in linux and you get an unambiguous ID that you can look up on the interweb and the device name

This gets you the ID in windows - can't remember where I downloaded it from

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/more-troubleshooting-with-microsoft-usb-view-and-other-usb-utilities/

Fenster

It's Saturday, and I'm apparently in bed sick, so why not? According to Windows:

Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0x2805

Vendor ID resolves to Intel, and the device ID doesn't resolve.

The Realtek drivers install for:

Vendor ID: 0x10EC
Device ID: 0x0269

Vendor ID resolves to Realtek, and the device ID resolves to "Realtek High Definition audio". So neither device precisely resolves to the "Realtek ALC269VB" that Linux tells me I have. I've attached two screenshots that illustrate the issue under Windwows 7. I'll give the problem a good crack this morning, and update as I go.

Fenster

This feels more and more like some kind of weird Windows problem. I found the specific for-my-card Realtek drivers on a Lenovo website, and they still installed for a separate device.

Both Intel and Samsung (Samsung NP300V3A-NL) offer "High Definition Audio Driver" that fail to add support for the jack.

Torqay

There is no "phantom device", the High Definition Audio Device is Intel's HDMI audio chip which sends the audio signal over HDMI to a TV or monitor with integrated speakers.

Capt'n Midnight

Vendor ID: 0x8086 - That's Intel's ID

8086 processor easy to remember

in the Linux world you'd google 10EC:0269 for details

Fenster

Torqay wrote: »

There is no "phantom device", the High Definition Audio Device is Intel's HDMI audio chip which sends the audio signal over HDMI to a TV or monitor with integrated speakers.

Apologies; I'm not a hardware person. It is still the only device through which I have sound.

As of now (midday), the sound is fixed, although I'm still at a loss as to explain why. As far as Windows is concerned, sound is only coming from the HDMI/High Definition Audio device. I reinstalled the stock Samsung driver (for the ~fourth time), but now it works.

Ugh, Windows. -_-

Torqay

Fenster wrote: »

Apologies; I'm not a hardware person. It is still the only device through which I have sound.

Not if the laptop speakers work. The Intel HDMI HD Audio device only links to the HDMI port, The speakers depend on the Realtek HD Audio device (as does the headphone jack).

Glad you got it sorted now.

Fenster

Yeah, this again. Windows 8 64-bit retail-I bought a Windows 8 license and reformatted to make use of it.

I am currently using the latest offical Realtek driver (R2.71) for my card. My headset simply has not worked at all under Windows 8, and again I need to stress that this is not a problem with either my headset, or my laptop's hardware-the headset works perfectly fine on my laptop when I boot into Linux, and it has worked fine on three other computers in the last day.

The connection is getting detected by the Realtek software, as evinced in the attached screenshot, but Windows itself doesn't do anything with it. Sound cuts off when I connect my headset, and not much else occurs.