fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Audio codec and audio ports
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vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Post by vtailor »

Your download sound drivers simply don't work in Windows 7 or Windows 8. I get into any Linux, and I get sound out of the spdif/analog output.

I'll tell you the truth that I am about to abandon all Windows because of Microsoft.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Post by vtailor »

OK, so an internet search gives all kinds of anger about Windows 8 because of sound driver issues. I managed to acquire a semi-legal Windows XPSP3, set the fit-pc3 bios on IDE compatibility mode, and install Windows XP on the fit-pc3. The Compulab Windows XP sound driver then installed and worked for analog output with no problems at all. Absolutely none. Complete with old the surround sound toy in the realtek driver.

What is interesting is that I re-installed Windows 8 in IDE compatibility mode, and, this Time, Windows 8 GAVE A REASON for the sound not working. I kept getting a "no sound driver Present" error message with the Compulab drivers for WXP and W7, no matter what compatibility mode I tried.

Which is a pity, because the fit-pc3 was ahead of its Time, and still has much to admire, including the generous overclocking in Windows, along with the bios set to extreme heat control.

Remembering that Windows 7 sound doesn't work either.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Post by vtailor »

The Administrator is welcome to delete this series of posts if he finds them offensive.

This is the basic fit-pc3 sold in North America, with 4gb of RAM and a pair of 1ghz AMD cpus. This is not the fit-pc3 somewhat more deluxe with Windows 7 pre-installed.

Also, I was going through my notes, and I discovered that analog sound initially worked in Windows 8, until Windows Update downloaded its own "updated" AHCI driver, which may have coincided with a local power line power fluctuation.

At any rate, since then, only Linux gets analog sound, and I discovered that Windows XP sound works, but not W7 or W8. I also installed the latest fit-pc3 bios, mine was the next most recent, which did not fix the sound issue.

I repeat. If this topic is unwelcome, please delete it.

irads

Re: fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Post by irads »

Since analog audio is working on some operating systems I think we can rule out a HW problem. Therefore a driver/configuration issue with Win7/Win8 is likely.
Maybe starting with a vanilla Win7 installation + CompuLab provided drivers may be a good starting point to restore analog audio.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: fit-pc3 sound is kaput in Windows

Post by vtailor »

I've done what you suggested about a "vanilla" Windows 7 installation, multiple Times, with and without IDE compatibility mode, with the same results, and for both the Windows 7 sound drivers (January and December versions). The best I manage to get is the usual digital realtek with a check for analog inputs that sounds like the alsa settings I use in Linux. In other words, under Linux, alsamixer complains about some "corrupted" settings during startup, but works anyway, if you put in an appropriate /etc/asound.conf. Basically, you get Linux sound when BOTH the "master" and the "line out" channels are unmuted. Mute one or another, and the sound turns off. Something like that seems to happen in the Windows 7 sound driver.

All that suggests that it is possible to cause damage to the fit pc3 sound circuits, and they still work, at least in Windows XP and varieties of Linux, including Linux Mint Maya. I am writing this from Windows XP SP3 using IE8 and playing a Rossini overture in the background. On, and the sound also worked in SP2.

Same conclusion as before: Don't let Windows 7 or Windows 8 ruin the sound circuits with their "AHCI" update. Otherwise, using Windows 8 gives you overclocked but safe cpu acceleration.

Oh yes. I get both hardware rendering and hardware decoding under Windows XP and the fglrx driver from AMD.

You probably don't have the Time and resources to devote to such a project, but it would be really nice if the patch program in the Windows 7 sound driver(s) were altered to compensate for corrupted sound circuits.

vtailor
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:54 pm

Re: fit-pc3 sound is no longer kaput in Windows

Post by vtailor »

Here is a photo of the vista78 realtek driver downloaded from the realtek web site in Taiwan with the file folder icon clicked to reveal part of the method for getting analog sound to work in Windows 8 on the fit-pc3. This has been tested on a default settings bios (later updated to aggressive thermal control) using ahci as it comes pre-installed in Windows 8 32-bit and the generic graphics driver that provides acceleration and decoding support for streaming flash.
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realteksettings.png
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