Sound problems

[Jushak]

First to clarify the situation:

During my holidays at my parent's house I managed to fry my motherboard. I took my computer to local computer store, and just got it back. The motherboard was beyond saving so they had to replace it. To my annoyance I found out that I have no working sounds. Normally I would take the computer back to the store to get it fixed, but I'll be going back to my student apartment next morning and need the computer for studies there.

Problems:
- No sound. Not in games, not using WMP nor AvRack. When opening *.avi files the WMP complains "Error loading codec" and proceeds to play the file with no voice or picture.

I've spent few hours trying to figure out what the problem is. This is what I've tried thus far:

* Checked that I haven't accidently muted sound.
* Configured - from AC97 Audio Configuration - that I use headphones in the middle socket with "line in" and "mic in" on the sides, which is what I use.
* Double-checked that I don't get sound from the frontal sockets either.
* Searched for new audio drivers via windows update.
* Checked for drivers using MSI Live Update Online. Found older drivers but installed anyway and as they didn't help re-installed newer drivers via windows update.
* Checked what Everest and Belarc Advisor have to say.



Belarc Advisor output:

Operating System
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 (build 2195)

Processor
2,00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64
256 kilobyte primary memory cache

Main Circuit Board
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7135 1.0
Bus Clock: 201 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 09/08/2005

Controllers
Standard floppy disk controller
NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller (2x)
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

Bus Adapters
D347PRT SCSI Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD PCI to USB Host Controller

Multimedia
Realtek AC'97 Audio

That should be all the more or less revelant information from Belarc.


From Everest:

Multimedia
[ Windows Audio]
midi-out.0 0001 0066 Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
mixer.0 0001 0068 Realtek AC97 Audio
wave-in.0 0001 0065 Realtek AC97 Audio
wave-out.0 0001 0064 Realtek AC97 Audio


[ PCI / PnP Audio ]
Realtek ALC655 @ nVIDIA nForce4 (CK8-04) - Audio Codec Interface PCI

Followed by list of codices for audio and video as well as MCI.

Checking device manager I can't find anything that isn't "working properly".

Any suggestions?

[Jushak]

A small update: Checked BIOS to see that the card is enabled. Don't know if it means anything but on "AC97" there were only options "auto" (which was selected) and "disable". As I didn't find anything else that set of alarms in my head, I let the settings be.

All in all my comp keeps acting like the audio card works but I get no sound, anywhere.

[Jushak]

Another small update: Checked system information, and found something that might be at least a part of the problem. While checking Computer Management->System information->Hardware Resources->Conflicts/Sharing I found out that I have 6 entries sharing IRQ 20:

Standard OpenHCD PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Realtek AC'97 Audio
Nvidia nForce4 Serial ATA Controller (twice)
Nvidia Network Bus Enumerator

Sadly my knowledge regarding IRQs is limited to say the least so I have no idea wrether this is normal or not.