HP Compaq DC7800 SFF - No Sound since fitting HP FX380 Video Card

[Naughty_Nigel]

The above machine was working perfectly until I fitted an HP FX380 graphics card.

I wanted to improve graphics performance as it was slow when using Adobe Photoshop, and did not support OpenGL. My monitor resolution (1920 x 1200) also seemed to challenge the on board graphics chip.

I purchased an HP NVIDIA Quadro FX380 (512 MB) video card thinking that using an HP card in an HP computer was a guarantee of success, but it was not to be!

Fitting the FX380 was easy, but there is only one PCI-Express slot in the DC 7800, so I had to remove the original graphics adaptor, (a Silicon Image AD02-N dual pad x 16 card). As far as I can see, there is no audio function on this card.

When I rebooted the new graphics card was recognized correctly, and I was able to install the video drivers without any problem. Graphics performance was also much improved, whilst system memory was released, and I have enabled OpenGL support in Photoshop. So far so good!  

However, I received an error message saying the SounMax (sound drivers) should be reinstalled, and there is no sound other than the default system beep.

I have tried to reinstall the SoundMax software from various sources, including the recovery partition, but I always receive the message "The audio driver files do not support your computer hardware".  

Looking in Windows XP Device Manager and selecting Sound, Video and Game controllers, the only audio functions I can see are several "NVIDIA High Definition Audio" drivers. There are no yellow asterisks.

I have spent several hours online to an HP Chat agent, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. I even allowed the agent to take control of the machine for a while, but we still have no sound! I have also updated the system BIOS to v 1.28.

The obvious answer seems to be that I don't have the correct sound card drivers, but nobody knows what these should be. I don't even know whether I have a sound card any more, or whether the NVIDIA card has somehow taken over from the system sound card?

Does anyone know if there is an issue using the HP FX380 card in the DC 7800 SFF, or am I missing something somewhere?

Would it be possible/worthwhile to fit a sound card in the vacnt PCI slot? If so, any reccomendations?

Any advice welcome.

NN

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I can tell that your new video card has an HDMI out port because of the new nVidia HD audio that is now taking the place of your onboard audio. That is why you have no sound (unless you hook up to a TV or something).

Anyway, the fix is simple (I hope).  As you know the dc7800 is a business PC and is not intended for use as a home theater and at the time of its manufacture there were no video cards with HDMI out supported in these business class desktops.

I am hoping that when you installed this new HDMI video card, a new BIOS audio setting appeared in your system setup in the Advanced menu.

So, please go in there and see if there is an onboard audio setting you can change from Auto to Enabled. If so, do that. Hit the F10 key there and upon exiting the BIOS, save settings and exit.

That should allow both audio devices to function independently.  You have onboard audio when an HDMI cable is not plugged into a TV and you have HDMI audio when a HDMI cable is plugged into a TV.

Please let me know if that is the case.

Paul

[Naughty_Nigel]

Thank you Paul. That has fixed it!

What confused me was that I was uable to configure any sound devices, even though the drivers were installed for the NVIDIA card.

I had wondered whether the NVIDIA card provided sould output, but there was nothing. I am using a DVI cable with my iiyama monitor, which has speakers, but there ws nothing from that, and of course the headphone socket on the PC didn't work.

Given the number of PC's with onboard sound cards it might be worth making this advice more avaialble, as we have spent at least a day trying to resolve the problem, and the HP Chat people didn't know about it.

Anyhow, thank you again.

Kind regards,

Nigel.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Nigel:

You are very welcome and I am glad that my theory was correct.  I have a dc7800 with the integrated graphics adapter and I know there is no BIOS audio setting of any kind in my BIOS right now.

So, that is why if you were to check the manual there is no mention of an audio setting.

I'm sure it is hard for HP to keep up with all the changes in technology, and what happens when folks add new hardware devices to machines where that hardware was not supported (or even existed) at the time.

Lucky that you found this forum.  By the way, adding a PCI audio card would not have solved the issue either. 

The HDMI audio trumps all other audio devices.

Paul

[Naughty_Nigel]

Thanks again Paul.

Out of interest, which devices would support HDMI audio? My iiyama E2607WS monitor has built in speakers, with both DVI and HDMI inputs, but I think the audio is purely analogue, so it cannot play sound from the NIVIDIA card.

I was also interested to see that no audio devices were found when I clicked on (say) Volume Control. Presumably this would have changed if a HDMI audio compatible device were connected?

For what its worth, I am a great fan of HP Compaq SFF machines. Expansion potential may be limited, but I have found them very good and reliable over ten years or more. I am currently running the DC7800 (2.66 GHZ), and have just bought a new DECADE with 3.0 GHz CPU, which is fairly quick. Now I have solved the problem with sound on the 7800 the 7900 will be getting a new graphics card very soon!

Thanks and kind regards,

Nigel.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Nigel:

So, what I am reading is that the card you installed does not have an HDMI output jack but just has an HDMI audio chip?

If I am understanding correctly, I guess nVidia uses one board for all cards of that model with or without HDMI.

That being said, if you had an HDMI out jack on your current video card you would be able to plug it into an HDMI port on a TV or your iiyama E2607WS monitor and get digital audio,and HD video out of the HDMI port. You should be getting HD video anyway from your DVI cable.  DVI is digital or HD depending on your monitor's capability. It just doesn't carry audio.

So, if you want, on your dc7900 you can get a card with HDMI out, change the audio setting in the BIOS, and you should be fine.

Yes, because you had no HDMI cable plugged in, there were no options in your audio settings.

I have the exact opposite opinion of you. I am a great fan of the HP CMT versions and have had quite a few different models since the d510.  I've had a d510, d530, dc7100, dc7600, and now just treated myself to an 8200 Elite CMT. I like them because they are easily expandible, and I don't have to fret too much about video cards being low profile or too much for my power supply, or the heat dissipation issues with a SFF case.

The nice thing about a SFF is you can keep it on your desk and it won't suck up as much dust off the carpet like a CMT does. But I clean out my cases twice a year and that never becomes an issue for me.

The CMT form factor allows me to install fanless video cards because there is plenty of room to get rid of the warm air. I just upgraded my Elite 8200 to the ATI Radeon 6570 1 GB fanless video card.

No heat issues, dead quiet needless to say,  and it runs great. It also has HDMI, and I was ready to have to go into the BIOS and change the setting but I guess these new models have updated BIOS, which automatically recognize the HDMI, and I had no lost onboard audio after I installed the card. In the sound manager it showed both the Realtek onboard audio and the ATI HD audio that indicated NO HDMI cable was plugged in.

Paul

[Naughty_Nigel]

Hi Paul

The HP FX380 card has both DVI and HDMI outputs (the big rectangular one with lots of pins, and the one which looks like a big USB or Firewire socket). I am using the DVI cable.

Nigel.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

OK, so it does...

Just get an inexpensive HDMI cable and test it out on your monitor. You should get both video and audio out of the cable and through your monitor speakers.

You may have to go into your control panel and select the Audio device to use and I heard there is a protocol for plugging in an HDMI cable--like you have to make sure one of the two devices are turned off and one is on, or both have to be on at the same time...I don't know. Or you plug the HDMI cable in a certain device first...At least that is what I have read.  I forgot what I read. 

Paul

[Naughty_Nigel]

Thanks Paul, I will give that a try.

I assume the HDMI connection is fine for high resoltion still images, and not just video?

NN

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Nigel:

It should work no differently than a DVI cable with the exception of additionally carrying the HD audio signal.

Paul