installed Windows 7 and my stereo became right speaker only!
Ohioguy
setup: Asus M3A-H/HDMI motherboard with Realtek "Azalia" ALC1200
onboard HD audio
Philco stereo (basic stereo system, with rear "CD in" mini
stereo input jack
(this board has HDMI audio out, a separate S/PDIF out port, plus 6
traditional mini headphone type jacks. Of these 6, there is an orange
for center/subwoofer, black for rear speaker out, light blue for line
in, lime for headphone or speaker<becomes front speaker out in 4,6 or 8
channel config>, pink microphone, and grey for side speakers in an 8
channel setup)
Under Windows XP, there were initially several issues I had getting the
sound to work properly. For example, if you installed the multi
driver/chipset install from the included motherboard driver CD, you got
absolutely no sound at all. The fix from ASUS was to format your hard
drive, and then install your sound drivers first. (in other words, not
use the multi install program they had provided on the CD, and not
install the drivers manually in the order they had it set to do) They
never, as far as I know, bothered to fix the multi install so that the
sound driver installed first. It was a horrid issue that should have
been caught before they shipped the motherboard.
That said, there were still troubleshooting issues at first under XP.
For one, 3 or 4 times a week, the system would tell me that something
had been plugged in or unplugged from a port. (when I had done nothing)
I changed the cables, connected and disconnected them, and it still
continued. (yes, thank you oh so much for giving this thing the "smarts"
to know when a cable is plugged in or unplugged) I ended up having to
disable the digital output, since that was the default selection.
Disabling this enabled me to use my regular stereo speakers. However,
for some reason I had to hook them up to the black port to get stereo.
(this is supposed to be rear speakers in a multi speaker setup) This
worked ok for the past couple of years - all I need is basic stereo.
Now that I've installed Windows 7 64-bit version, I can no longer get
any sound from the black port. In fact, I can no longer find a
selection to disable the digital audio out, which was what I had to do
under XP to get my stereo setup working fine. The only thing I am able
to get is right speaker sound from the lime port. The system seems to
think that everything is set up and working properly, but when I test
the left speakers, I hear absolutely nothing. Frankly, I find myself
wishing I had a standard AC '97 sound chip on here, with line in,
microphone, and 1 speaker out jack - I think it would be a lot simpler.
Troubleshooting steps:
First thing I did was to hook up a pair of headphones, and try to
replicate the problem. Yes, I only get sound in the right ear of the
headphones, just as I am with my stereo. No sound seems to come from
any jack other than the lime green one, where I get right speaker sound
only. Ok, so that would seem to indicate that there is no problem with
the cable connecting the computer to the stereo, and no problem with the
stereo itself, the speaker wires, or the speakers. (unlikely anyway,
since I had stereo sound until installing Windows 7) Since the
headphones have the same issue, I reason that the problem must be either
with the motherboard, or else the sound driver.
I booted into the BIOS, and made sure that there wasn't a setting
that might be messing up the audio. The only choices for the "Azalia"
onboard audio were "disable", and "auto", which I guess means auto
detect. I'm guessing that the disable is meant to use if you add on a
discrete sound card to the system, so I left it set to auto
Next, I went to the Asus website to see if they had an updated
Windows 7 sound driver. Nope.
So then I went to the Realtek website, and they do not have a
specific ALC1200 driver for that board. Instead, they have a generic
"HD Audio Driver" download that is supposed to encompass all of their
"HD AUDIO" motherboard onboard audio chipsets. I decided to give it a try.
After installing the Realtek drivers, I noticed that the provider
listed in device manager was Microsoft, not Realtek, and the date was
sometime back in July - not October, which was when the Realtek drivers
were released. I manually removed the devices, uninstalled then
reinstalled the Realtek drivers, and rebooted.
Now I still only have sound in my right speaker. In Device Manager,
this is what I see: under "sound, video and game controllers", I see two
speakers. One is labelled "High Definition Audio Device" - driver
provided by Microsoft, date July 13 2009, version 6.1.7600.16385. It
says it is working properly. The second speaker I see says "Realtek
High Definition Audio" - driver provided by Realtek, date October 6
2009, version 6.0.1.5953. It also says it is working properly.
I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm pretty sure I don't need to
replace my old stereo, as I had originally thought. It seems to work
fine when I am listening to the radio on it, and when I hook up an MP3
player to the audio in jack on the back, I hear the music in both speakers.
Either the driver is not working properly, there is a setting I need
to change somewhere to get stereo, or else the motherboard is defective.
I wouldn't bother with it much, except some of the games my kids play
have stereo, and you can't hear the character talking on the left audio
track. That makes it impossible to play the game, since the left audio
track gives them hints. Also, some songs I have played just sound
strange, without the left vocals.
Anyone have any suggestions? Yes, I've also done Windows update, but
that doesn't make any difference either.
Horst Franke
> Issue: no sound in left speaker after installing Windows 7 64-bit
Sorry Ohioguy
but I don't think this to be a SW problem.
I tend to say HW connection or driver problem.
Was your previous system also a 64-bit system?
> setup: Asus M3A-H/HDMI motherboard with Realtek "Azalia" ALC1200
> onboard HD audio
> Philco stereo (basic stereo system, with rear "CD in" mini
> stereo input jack
>
> (this board has HDMI audio out, a separate S/PDIF out port, plus
> 6 traditional mini headphone type jacks. Of these 6, there is an orange
> for center/subwoofer, black for rear speaker out, light blue for line
> in, lime for headphone or speaker becomes front speaker out in 4,6 or
> 8 channel config>, pink microphone, and grey for side speakers in an 8
> channel setup)
And what of these connections did you use?
Normally there's also one for 2.1 output.
Try orange or black. Should give you stereo output at least.
Also these outputs might be BIOS configurable.
> Under Windows XP, there were initially several issues I had getting
> the sound to work properly. For example, if you installed the multi
> driver/chipset install from the included motherboard driver CD, you
> got absolutely no sound at all.
Looks like an incorrect driver? or HW connected wrong!
> The fix from ASUS was to format your hard drive, and then install
> your sound drivers first. (in other words, not
> use the multi install program they had provided on the CD, and not
> install the drivers manually in the order they had it set to do) They
> never, as far as I know, bothered to fix the multi install so that the
> sound driver installed first. It was a horrid issue that should have
> been caught before they shipped the motherboard.
OK this reflects the sequence of installation.
> That said, there were still troubleshooting issues at first under
> XP. For one, 3 or 4 times a week, the system would tell me that
> something
> had been plugged in or unplugged from a port. (when I had done
Sorry but PNP devices normally does not cover speaker connections.
> nothing) I changed the cables, connected and disconnected them, and
> it still continued. (yes, thank you oh so much for giving this thing
> the "smarts" to know when a cable is plugged in or unplugged) I
> ended up having to disable the digital output, since that was the
> default selection. Disabling this enabled me to use my regular stereo
> speakers. However,
Sorry but I do not see any relation to digital output.
But you took this path and it worked.
> for some reason I had to hook them up to the black port to get stereo.
> (this is supposed to be rear speakers in a multi speaker setup) This
> worked ok for the past couple of years - all I need is basic stereo.
OK why then not to stay with this connection?
> Now that I've installed Windows 7 64-bit version, I can no longer
> get any sound from the black port. In fact, I can no longer find a
> selection to disable the digital audio out, which was what I had to do
> under XP to get my stereo setup working fine.
Did you also install the related Win7 64-bit drivers?
> The only thing I am able
> to get is right speaker sound from the lime port. The system seems to
> think that everything is set up and working properly, but when I test
> the left speakers, I hear absolutely nothing. Frankly, I find myself
> wishing I had a standard AC '97 sound chip on here, with line in,
> microphone, and 1 speaker out jack - I think it would be a lot
> simpler.
I think of HW connection problem (3,5 plugs are very sensitive,
especially in a smokers environment).
And also of a driver conflict.
> Troubleshooting steps:
> First thing I did was to hook up a pair of headphones, and try to
> replicate the problem. Yes, I only get sound in the right ear of the
> headphones, just as I am with my stereo. No sound seems to come from
> any jack other than the lime green one, where I get right speaker
> sound only. Ok, so that would seem to indicate that there is no
> problem with the cable connecting the computer to the stereo, and no
> problem with the stereo itself, the speaker wires, or the speakers.
NO, I still think of a connection problem or missing driver.
> (..., since I had stereo sound until installing Windows 7)
> Since the headphones have the same issue, I reason that the problem
> must be either with the motherboard, or else the sound driver.
I will tend to say "the driver".
The motherboard is transparent to the used OS (like win7 in your case).
> I booted into the BIOS, and made sure that there wasn't a setting
> that might be messing up the audio. The only choices for the "Azalia"
> onboard audio were "disable", and "auto", which I guess means auto
> detect. I'm guessing that the disable is meant to use if you add on a
> discrete sound card to the system, so I left it set to auto
Yes, the auto setting should work.
Disable should mean to use an external audio card.
> Next, I went to the Asus website to see if they had an updated
> Windows 7 sound driver. Nope.
> So then I went to the Realtek website, and they do not have a
> specific ALC1200 driver for that board. Instead, they have a generic
> "HD Audio Driver" download that is supposed to encompass all of their
> "HD AUDIO" motherboard onboard audio chipsets. I decided to give it
> a try.
I also checked Realtek and didn't found anything for ALC1200.
> After installing the Realtek drivers, I noticed that the provider
> listed in device manager was Microsoft, not Realtek, and the date was
> sometime back in July - not October, which was when the Realtek
> drivers were released. I manually removed the devices, uninstalled
> then reinstalled the Realtek drivers, and rebooted.
OK this will happen by conflicting drivers or Win not able to see
the current ones.
May be also that the Realtek drivers were NOT installed.
Not sure but believe there're no Win7 drivers avaliable yet.
> Now I still only have sound in my right speaker. In Device Manager,
> this is what I see: under "sound, video and game controllers", I see
> two speakers. One is labelled "High Definition Audio Device" - driver
> provided by Microsoft, date July 13 2009, version 6.1.7600.16385. It
> says it is working properly. The second speaker I see says "Realtek
> High Definition Audio" - driver provided by Realtek, date October 6
> 2009, version 6.0.1.5953. It also says it is working properly.
This looks like double installation. Deselect/disable one of them.
I would prefer to start from scratch and delete all of them. Then retry.
> I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm pretty sure I don't need to
> replace my old stereo, as I had originally thought. It seems to work
> fine when I am listening to the radio on it, and when I hook up an MP3
> player to the audio in jack on the back, I hear the music in both
> speakers.
What does this mean?
Even under Win7 you're able to hear stereo output?
> Either the driver is not working properly, there is a setting I need
> to change somewhere to get stereo, or else the motherboard is
> defective.
NO I don't think of a motherboard defect.
Looks still like a setup problem with the drivers.
I never heard of such a problem (right speaker only operating).
> I wouldn't bother with it much, except some of the games my kids
> play have stereo, and you can't hear the character talking on the
> left audio track. That makes it impossible to play the game, since
> the left audio track gives them hints. Also, some songs I have
> played just sound strange, without the left vocals.
Why then not to go back to your BACKUP?
And retry win7 at a later time after updates will be provided?
> Anyone have any suggestions? Yes, I've also done Windows update,
> but that doesn't make any difference either.
You don't have a Windows SW problem - besides possible setup.
Go into device manager and deinstall all audio devices/drivers.
Then reinstall these drivers.
Win7 should not be used until after the 1st update is available
(theory for all new operating systems).
Use the backup of your previous system.
Horst