How to detect onboard (asus board) sound?
Forum: Hardware Talk
Topic: How to detect onboard (asus board) sound?
started by: mikshaw
Posted by mikshaw on May 25 2008,01:37
I recently got a second-hand asus motherboard with an athlon XP 2000+ processor and 1gb ram attached. It has an onboard sound card that DSL doesn't recognize. I tried adding the soundblaster pci card I had previously used, which DSL detects, but the system freezes whenever audio is required, so I pulled the soundblaster out. I assume there is a conflict between the two cards. I can't find anything in the bios to disable the onboard audio as I did on my previous board.Is there an app I can install in DSL that will let me discover what the onboard sound is so maybe I can load the appropriate driver? I didn't get any manual with the board of course, so I don't know anything about it other than the brand. I don't see anything in sysstats.lua that gives me a clue, but I'm guessing it may be via?
Thanks for any help.
Posted by chaostic on May 25 2008,01:57
| Quote (mikshaw @ May 24 2008,21:37) |
| I recently got a second-hand asus motherboard with an athlon XP 2000+ processor and 1gb ram attached. It has an onboard sound card that DSL doesn't recognize. I tried adding the soundblaster pci card I had previously used, which DSL detects, but the system freezes whenever audio is required, so I pulled the soundblaster out. I assume there is a conflict between the two cards. I can't find anything in the bios to disable the onboard audio as I did on my previous board. Is there an app I can install in DSL that will let me discover what the onboard sound is so maybe I can load the appropriate driver? I didn't get any manual with the board of course, so I don't know anything about it other than the brand. I don't see anything in sysstats.lua that gives me a clue, but I'm guessing it may be via? Thanks for any help. |
Wouldn't that require a bit of a catch 22?
Anyway, I assume you already tried google and the motherboard model number right? Can you find a model number, so I can give it a shot.
Edit: If no model number, is the south or north bridge uncovered on the board? Can you remove the bridge heatsink to see, if it is covered? Or what does sysstats say for the bridge?
Posted by curaga on May 25 2008,08:03
I'm surprised a motherboard this new still has an ISA sound chip..
Posted by mikshaw on May 25 2008,13:52
Looking at the board now, it's Asus A7V333, which apparently uses (according to a quick google) VIA 8233A sound (AC97?)EDIT: another search came up with this:
C-Media 8738 6-channel PCI audio controller
Maybe I should update the BIOS in hopes of having the ability to disable this controller?
In any case, DSL forums may already have an answer here, now that I have a better idea of what to search for (didn't find much just searching for asus and sound).
Posted by mikshaw on May 25 2008,14:19
| Code Sample |
| dsl@bungle:~$ dmesg|grep 8233 <6>VP_IDE: VIA vt8233a (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1 dsl@bungle:~$ dmesg|grep 00:11.1 <4>PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:11.1 <6>VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:11.1 <4>PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:11.1 <6>VP_IDE: VIA vt8233a (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1 dsl@bungle:~$ |
I have no idea if this is the audio, but it's the nearest I've come so far to finding anything with dmesg. Also no idea what that "interrupt pin A" message means.
| Code Sample |
| dsl@bungle:~$ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333] 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP] 00:09.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 50) 00:09.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 50) 00:09.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 51) 00:0e.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems LT WinModem (rev 02) 00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge 00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) 00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23) 00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti 4400] (rev a3) dsl@bungle:~$ |
On an unrelated note, the lucent winmodem I had been using on the other board wouldn't work on this board, so I swapped it for an older(?) model.
Posted by humpty on May 25 2008,17:09
since you don't see ;00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev xx)
then it looks like it is not detected.
I used to have an Asus board. Does it look like to have a jumper that can enable/disable the onboard audio ?
edit: also found this;
< http://www.bcom.de/ftp/treiber/Asus/Hanb%FCcher/a7m266-104.pdf >
(i guess you already tried < http://www.cmedia.com.tw/?q=en/driver) >
Posted by curaga on May 25 2008,17:15
Try a bios update, and then these boot codes ->acpi=noirq
irqpoll
pci=biosirq
pci=usepirqmask
pci=routeirq
found from google..
Also check if changing the "Plug and play OS" option in bios affects anything.
Posted by chaostic on May 25 2008,17:58
It's a via combo bridge. I have a similar via based board| Code Sample |
order*dsl@srp:~ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Transmeta Corporation LongRun Northbridge (rev 03) 00:00.1 RAM memory: Transmeta Corporation SDRAM controller 00:00.2 RAM memory: Transmeta Corporation BIOS scratchpad 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8231 [PCI-to-ISA Bridge] (rev 10) 00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) 00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1e) 00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1e) 00:11.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ACPI (rev 10) 00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 40) 00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 51) order*dsl@srp:~ dmesg | grep -i via <6>VP_IDE: VIA vt8231 (rev 10) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:11.1 <6>via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.1.19 July-12-2003 Written by Donald Becker <6> http://www.scyld.com/network/via-rhine.html <6>eth0: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0xe2101000, 00:0e:7f:aa:07:fa, IRQ 15. <6>Via 686a/8233/8235 audio driver 1.9.1-ac3 <6>ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: VIA97 (Unknown) <6>via82cxxx: board #1 at 0xE000, IRQ 10 order*dsl@srp:~ lsmod | grep via via82cxxx_audio 19448 1 ac97_codec 11916 0 [via82cxxx_audio] uart401 6052 0 [via82cxxx_audio] sound 55276 0 [via82cxxx_audio uart401] soundcore 3428 4 [via82cxxx_audio sound] |
Your via chip and mine are driven by the same driver, so there's a chance you can use this info.
Can you check lsmod, see if any of those are loaded?
Also, run
dmesg | grep -i "via"
since the driver doesn't have 8233 in it's name
And for the pin A thing, it seems that that might be an unsupported bios raid option thing with your motherboard.
Are you booting no-acpi? On mine, the acpi is 11.4, with the audio at 11.5. If you turn off the acpi, maybe that's disabling the audio along with it?
---
As for the possible c-media controller, you would need the c-media pci module, which dsl has as /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/cmpci.o
And it might not be a c8738.
According to hardware4linux.info, it might be a ENS1371 Ensoniq / Sound Blaster 16PCI 4.1ch [Multimedia audio controller], but they have multiple a7v333 boards, listing either the cmedia or ensoniq controllers. None have a via bridge based controller. So try these first.
< http://hardware4linux.info/systems/ >
< http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=228657 >
< http://www.geocities.com/paul_galbraith/debian-a7v333.html >
The ENS1371 is module
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/sound/es1371.o
You might also want to try
modinfo cmpci es1371
to find some of their options.
Could there be any icq conflicts? Have you tried without the winmodem (I assume its pci, no?)
Finally, which slots are you using for the cards?
According to < http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardwar....ms.html >
There seems to be an issue with slot 5 and 3 on the a7v333. (remove any card in slot 5)
According to
< http://forums.modojo.com/showthread.php?t=49054&page=5 >
there seems to be an issue with sound blaster live cards and the a7v333, in general. Do you have another one you can try?
Last, what revision number is the motherboard?
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on May 25 2008,18:38
... and you could just look on the asus site
Posted by mikshaw on May 26 2008,02:34
The Asus site had nothing about this board, as far as I could find...it seems to be unsupported now, and the asus website lacks any logical navigation.lsmod shows no audio
I tried both xubuntu and dynebolic, and neither distro detected the sound controller. I wonder if it might be broken, or maybe so old that it's obsolete.
I haven't tried the other suggestions yet. So far the bios updates I've found have been Windows binaries.
The suggestion about the slots is interesting, though....I've never heard about this issue. slot 5 has nothing, but slot 3 has a firewire controler.
| Quote |
| Are you booting no-acpi? On mine, the acpi is 11.4, with the audio at 11.5. If you turn off the acpi, maybe that's disabling the audio along with it? |
| Quote |
| there seems to be an issue with sound blaster live cards and the a7v333, in general. Do you have another one you can try? |
board version number is 1.02
| Code Sample |
| dsl@bungle:~$ dmesg | grep -i "via" <6>PCI: Via IRQ fixup <6>VP_IDE: VIA vt8233a (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1 <6>ehci_hcd 00:09.2: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 <6>agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro KT266 chipset |
I tried loading sb and es1371 and both failed.
Posted by chaostic on May 26 2008,06:01
Maybe that's why you got it second hand 
Happens to all of us.From your lspci, the firewire controller isn't listed there either. Is there any other card you know works that you can try in, say, slot 1 with slot 2-5 empty? Is the winmodem a pci card? Does it actually work, or just detect? It could be that the whole pci part of the board is dead. Might be a blown cap.
The noacpi thing wouldn't matter. I made the suggestion on a hunch, before I found out that mb does not use the via bridge for audio, unlike mine...
Posted by mikshaw on May 26 2008,22:49
| Quote |
| Is the winmodem a pci card? Does it actually work, or just detect? |
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on May 27 2008,02:48
| Quote (mikshaw @ May 26 2008,02:34) |
| The Asus site had nothing about this board, as far as I could find...it seems to be unsupported now, and the asus website lacks any logical navigation. |
Look again - see downloads. You might need a fully featured browser to move through the site though.
- looks like your c-media audio chipset is the correct one
- might need to use/force apic? (I guess you've already checked for irq conflicts, etc)
- you can use a dos bootdisk to flash your bios
Posted by curaga on May 27 2008,11:54
Here's a dos bootdisk from bootdisk.com, in case you don't have one:< http://s93616405.onlinehome.us/bootdisk/622c.zip >
Posted by mikshaw on June 14 2008,23:31
Although I'm not certain this was the probem, it seems to be simply a matter of removing "noacpi" from my boot options. I'd made some changes to the bios, reset the bios, and made a couple more changes, so I can't be 100% positive. In any case, I now have audio using my pci soundblaster.I was hesitant to upgrade the bios because the upgrade path is apparently very dependent on the current bios version, and I couldn't find the version number for mine.
Thanks to all for taking the time to help.
EDIT: there seems to be some serious jumping now, both with audio and video files....I'll have to look into it again later.