Dear Gurus, My new PC has a soundmax audio controller for audios in and audios out. After about two switch-ons of my PC, I suddenly discovered that the Microphone was dead, and that I could no longer skype to my friends. Fault finding with the soundmax wizard is basically checking the mike is plugged in to the correct hole ( choice of front and back) and that it is not broken. Also that the sound is being controlled from soundmax as the preferred ( controller? or sub system?) Well as I was getting nowhere I did a search on previous queries in the Computing net help petitions. There is a whole bundle of queries not just no MIKE but also no LOUDSPEAKERS. I went through some of the most recent pleas and basically the general complaint is caused by a) It never worked. b) It worked then it stopped working I did a quick internet search and found even more people bitching. Strangely I couldn't find a solution that was any more useful than the ones given here in Computing.net. Now I don't believe in flogging a dead horse and I would like to a) Kill off the soundmax controller or card or whatever you call it. b) Install a different audio card that is know to work ( I used to have a Creative card) Looking at a), killing off the soundmax control. Surely the basic windows XP can control the sound as well. I'm not looking for hi-fi just telephone quality. Is this possible? B) The b) idea is more expensive. I have to buy another card---- but and here is the rub--- Will it be able to over-ride the soundmax or do I have to cut and slash to knacker the soundmax six back 3.5mm jacks as well as the two on the front panel? If someone asks why not take it back to the shop? well I think I'd have to waste too much tome in the soundmax Q. I would appreciate any help Bye and Thanks Fred, Madrid PS . The basic motherboard is P5K Premium Rev 1.xx Asus board date:- 17th Aug 07

I don't know if this will help. I was a little confused by your post. But you can have multiple sound adapters on a PC. If you go to the Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio tab, you can select which device to use.

There are many different SoundMax (ADI) chipsets. - You must use the right drivers for the chipset. The right ones are on the CD that came with your mboard, or on the website of the mboard manufacturer in the driver downloads for your model. If you get SoundMax drivers from elsewhere, there's a very good chance they will not work properly. - you must install the SoundMax drivers the right way: SoundMAX FAQ http://forms.analog.com/Form_Pages/... Including, partial quotes: "7 How do I install audio drivers? There are two ways to install the audio driver software for your computer. Best Install Method: Run the Setup Program The most effective method to install the driver software for your computer is to run the "Setup" program that comes with the driver software. Not the Best Install Method: Let Windows Find It If the audio driver software for your computer is not installed, Windows may find it and attempt to find the driver software. If you install the software using this method: You won't get any additional SoundMAX features if they are provided in the driver software. Windows might not actually find the driver software. You won't be able to use the Add/Remove Programs feature in the control panel to remove the driver software later on. " ...... If that doesn't help, you often have more than one program besides the main Windows sound mixer that can control the volume of a mic and whether or not it is muted - sometimes one of those programs is not properly written and turning down the volume too low or muting the mic in that program affects the mic in other programs even when the offending program is not being used. Check all such programs to see whether the volume is set too low or the mic is muted. E.g. WinAmp, Dragon Naturally Speaking, etc., anything in which you can set the volume of the mic or mute it. It is NORMAL for the mic to be muted in your main Windows sound mixer you access by clicking on your speaker icon in the taskbar - what is supposed to happen is any program that needs to use the mic will automatically unmute the mic when the program is used, and mute it again when you close it. Other things? Do you have more than one mic? E.g. some webcams have a built in mic, but it is turned on only when you are using the webcam software. Make sure you have the mic set to the right one in your Sound or Multimedia properties in Control Panel.

Dear Aegis; Basically my problem is, I have the loudspeakers functioning correctly but my initially working mike no longer connects ( this is a typical soundmax complaint from many others) i.e the mike sound sound is not being routed internally to anything I didn't go into to detail because I'd just be rehashing 100 previous threads on this site. The general thrust would seem to be that the soundmax XP combination is pretty ropey and no one seems to have a solution as to why the mike or the loudspeakers stop working, Analogue Devices proclaim on their site..... The Sound of Performance Based on a new generation of 32-bit Audio CODECS, SoundMAX® adheres to the same high standards as premium home theater equipment. It faithfully reproduces DVD content with more than 100 dB SNR over a full 76.8 kHz bandwidth—delivering the fullest and richest listening experience in PC history. Acknowledged industry wide as the world leader in high performance audio signal processing technologies, Analog Devices has been a premier supplier of integrated, motherboard audio solutions since the advent of AC '97, shipping hundreds of millions of CODECS in recent years. The company's award-winning SoundMAX audio solutions ship in most major brands of PC desktops, notebooks, and motherboards.................. I'm sure this is true as I have designed with several of their chips and I have had no problems... but not this chip which would seem to be the AD1888 or similar. Looking at the diagram it looks a great chip to eliminate audio switches and wiring; as using the uC control bus you can select just about any combination of inputs and outputs. However I don't want to reinvent this particular wheel. Three big companies are involved. Also the soundmax system has been around for 10 years. I'm just wondering if those complaints are that old in some cases as well. Too many people accusing for it all to be finger trouble. I'll steer clear. Re your answer to my problem ************I don't know if this will help. I was a little confused by your post. But you can have multiple sound adapters on a PC. If you go to the Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio tab, you can select which device to use.*********** According to a program like Aida32 I do have audio codecs for the loudspeakers but not for the microphone. But this is not the real problem as I see it. All the bells and whistles are on the soundmax chip. Meaning physically that all audio routing to and from outside the PC box dies on those little 3.5mm jacks and my quiestion was and still is... Q. How do a get audio to the PC from an external microphone? That is why I thought of a new card like Creative. Apart from mic i/p and LS o/p it plugs directly into the PC bus and also give me the needed jacks to connect to the outside world. If you have any thought on possible card conflicts or other nasties, or even a simple do this and your mike will be connected to the intrnal audio system... then please stop me rushing out to buy the latest whizzBang card. Bye Fred

"How do a get audio to the PC from an external microphone? If your drivers are installed ok, and if your speakers are working, that would be a pretty good indication that the drivers are ok. I assume that you have double clicked on the speaker in the small tray in the bottom right of the screen and checked to make sure the mic record and playback volume controls are turned up and not muted. One problem I have run into is mics with a stereo plug. They will not work if plugged into a sound adapter with a mono jack. Sound adapters that accept microphone stereo plugs are pretty rare.

Dear Tubesandwires, Yes you pointed me in the right direction. I have the mike working again. Very briefly. 1 I reinstalled from the Asus PC disk soundmax. no change, still no mike. 2. First I removed the soundmax with the uninstall which is on their DVD Then I reinsalled, still no mike 3. I thought I'd let windows have a go to install the hardware. It found the installation DVD and pronounced that the drivers might be incompatible. I ploughed on and to my surprise windows announced, new hardware installed. I was even more surprised to find that microphone (needed to slot in those extra 20db) was now working. As I said earlier in the thread it is just for voice for the telephone so I'm not to fussy on the quality. Played back it sounds OK. Thanks a million. Bye Fred Madrid

I assume you are saying the mic worked briefly at first but it now works all the time - if that's your case, then we're glad you have fixed the problem. After you install the right SoundMax drivers the right way, you are often if not always prompted to reboot to have Windows fully accept the drivers - it is okay to let Windows automatically find the drivers while booting before the desktop fully loads in that case because the proper drivers and info about them have been installed by the proper Setup or Install program. It isn't just SoundMax (ADI) drivers that have to be installed correctly, using their proper Setup or Install program. I have found many other sound drivers, video drivers, dial-up modem drivers, etc., etc., often won't install properly if they aren't already built into Windows unless you run the proper Setup or Install program first. I think we tend to get more posts about problems with SoundMax drivers simply because of the sheer numbers of mboards that have built in ADI chipsets - e.g. many Asus mboards have them, many laptops have them, etc. You can have similar problems with many Creative sound cards or built in chipsets since they also use many different chipsets. In some cases Windows will automatically install built in drivers for the wrong Creative chipset.