Any HDMI experts on the Forum?

[awemawson]

I have a PC (HP Z800) whose graphics I have recently upgraded for use with CAD / CAM packages. This is now quite a beast of a PC as it has 48 Gb of RAM twin Xeon 5500 CPU's and this Asus GTX 660 graphics card with 2Gb on board RAM.

Now installing the graphics card and it's drivers has disabled the on board audio which was perfectly adequate for my needs, but the graphics card squirts it's audio out via HDMI and / or Displayport outputs, but my monitors don't have speakers so all stays silent 

Short of getting a monitor with built in speakers is there any other way I can intercept the audio ?

[David Jupp]

Andrew - try typing 'audio' into the windows search bar - it should offer Manage Audio Devices  (you can also get to this via the control panel).

It looks like you can set any of the installed devices as the default.

[AdeV]

Andrew,

You should be able to re-enabled the onboard audio drivers, as David says, search for "audio" at the start menu (assuming Win7+). If it's XP, I can check tomorrow when I'm back at work & have an XP VM to look at.

[awemawson]

Thanks David but it only lists the four Nvidia outputs from the graphics card. All say 'Not Plugged In' as the monitors have no audio.

In the BIOS the internal speaker was disabled and I have re-enabled it, but the on board audio device was/is enabled.

In Device Manager the on board audio device shows as enabled and working OK

But as I say, it doesn't feature in ' Manage Audio Devices' 


(edit : Ade thanks but it's Windows 10 Pro )

[vtsteam]

Andrew, does the video card have an internal audio jack and cable? Is there a driver/user-manual CD ?

[awemawson]

Steve, I'll power down later and pull the graphics card, but at the moment there is nowhere for the GTX 660 to play audio even if it has an input jack. I'll do a bit more physical investigation after super.

(This card is really intended for gaming, but I'm using it for 3D scanning using an Xbox 360 Kinetic sensor amongst other things like Fusion 360.)

[John Swift]

Hi Andrew

if you can not get the onboard audio working for some reason

try looking for an inexpensive HDMI audio adaptor

        John

[awemawson]

Well it's all very odd 

Steve, no sign of any audio connectors on this humongous card. Other than the 6 pin auxiliary power input connector giving a meaty 12 v supply and the PCi-E slot there are no connectors other than those on the rear  (2 x DVI , 1 x HDMI and 1 x Displayport). The thick paper 'manual' has a single page of English of no relevance essentially just saying plug it in ! The manual on CD has 331 pages and the words 'sound' and 'audio' don't occur at all 

John, that sounds a good approach, but my understanding is that the audio is digitally encoded on an HDMI connection - googling "HDMI audio adaptor" I come up with what seem to be just cable adaptors, but presumably the 'far end' needs some intelligence to convert back to  analogue audio 

The internal speaker features in the list of devices under Device Manager, and under 'properties' says no drivers are loaded, however if I go into the driver part it says that the device is working properly. If I tell it to update the drivers it says that I have the latest ones  The on board audio device says it's working and has the latest drivers. If I disable the Nvidia audio devices then 'Audio Manager' says that there are no audio devices - I was expecting the on board one to spring into life 

Why is life so complicated 

[John Swift]

Hi Andrew

a search for HDMI headphone adaptor

my first result was this from amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Upgraded-VicTsing-Gold-Plated-Converter/dp/B016I34422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498505426&sr=8-1&keywords=hdmi+to+headphone

it gives you both audio and VGA outputs for £6.59

    John

[David Jupp]

Win10 generic drivers don't work well with some devices.

I'd check for Win10 drivers from either download site for the Motherboard, or from the web site of the audio device manufacturer.

[awemawson]

Thanks John - ordered 

David, the drivers for the on board audio and speaker are from HP (it's an HP Z800) 

[vtsteam]

Why is life so complicated 

Smart connections and limited user decision options getting you down Andrew? Don't worry, help is around the next smart street corner.  https://www.wired.com/2014/07/in-20-years-most-new-cars-wont-have-steering-wheels-or-pedals/

lessee that was 3 years ago, so 20 minus 3 is, uhhhhhhh, hmmmm, Alexa, what is twenty minus three?

Alexa, what is my expected lifespan? Will I be outta here by then?

[JD]

Andrew, I have "Snail Driver" a free piece of software that makes sure all your drivers are up to date.
I run this on all my PC once a month and have had no problems.
John

[David Jupp]

Long shot - try right click on the loudspeaker symbol in system tray, click volume mixer.  Probably won't appear there either, but no harm looking....

EDIT - Don't rely on Windows to find latest drivers - check the manufacturer web sites.  Not everything gets submitted to Microsoft.

[awemawson]

Thanks David, but that just gets me to the same utilities accessible through control panel etc. I did try uninstalling the onboard audio device, then re-installing it, but it hasn't changed anything.

With any luck the HDMI Headphone Adaptor suggested by John will at least allow the sound out of the box 

[DICKEYBIRD]

...I'm using it for 3D scanning using an Xbox 360 Kinetic sensor amongst other things like Fusion 360.

Wow, I just Googled that & was amazed!  Someday even frugal Luddites like myself will have no excuses not to be 3D printing!

[awemawson]

Dickey, Upping the ram to 48 Gb, adding a fast graphics card and an extra Xeon cpu made an enormous difference to the ease of use. Before that it was quite flakey and kept loosing where it was, now that rarely happens 

Skanect is the software I use - quite amazing.

[awemawson]

Well Amazon delivered that little gizmo:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Upgraded-VicTsing-Gold-Plated-Converter/dp/B016I34422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498505426&sr=8-1&keywords=hdmi+to+headphone

Sadly when plugged in it blanks the two monitors and I can only recover by rebooting without the adaptor 

So as an experiment, having got myself an HDMI cable, I temporarily stole the small TV from my wife's motor home (Shush ..... ) which has HDMI input, and successfully plugged it into the same HDMI port the the  gizmo failed in, and ended up with it as a third monitor AND SOUND 

Thus proving not only that the HDMI port on the graphics card is OK, but also that the audio output from it works.

I think that the correct solution is to try and source an HDMI equipped 24" monitor with internal speakers, meanwhile the motorhome Telly has been snuck back 

[AdeV]

I think that the correct solution is to try and source an HDMI equipped 24" monitor with internal speakers

If you don't need the extra resolution that a monitor brings, the cheapest way to do that is almost certainly to buy a no-brand 1920x1080 TV... Some half decent looking stuff on eBay for less than £100...

[awemawson]

I've got a 'best offer' pending on an Iiyama ProLite B2483HS 24 inch LED Monitor on eBay - we'll see what happens