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Hello,
I'm a new member, and if the posts I've read so far are any indication, there's a vast resource of knowledge here and I'm glad I found recording.org. and glad to be on board.

I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me regarding using integrated on board audio, line in recording. Specifically using a Intel mother board.

I recently put together a computer that I purchased from Tiger Direct. The motherboard (a Intel D915GAG) was bundled with the case, power supply, keyboard and mouse and I chose a P4 3.0 chip to go with it. I liked the fact that the on board Intel "High Definition Audio" was rated very good - and to save burying a separate audio card (the mobo only has two PCI and one PCI Express slots) this was the way to go for my recording into a computer.
- After I had everything up and going for a week or two, with no problems, I tried to record, for the first time, via rear line in on the mobo (set-up correctly). As soon as I hit "record" the computer crashed and rebooted. The line out on the mobo plays sounds back out just fine and I've tried other amps (stereo line out) but as soon as I hit the "record" button in the program(s) the computer crashes and reboots.
- I've tried 3 different sound programs (Musicmatch, SoundForge and Exact Audio) that allow recording-in and all crash the same way.
-I've down-loaded the latest drivers for audio and BIOS and I contacted Intel (via email) and they suggested I run a BIOS recovery, which I did, but It still crashes when I hit record.
- I contacted Intel again then said: notify your place of purchase for any warranty/repair issues and to call Intel to authorize replacement.

Now, before I do this (and hassle with removing, shipping back the mobo and waiting), have any of you heard of this type of problem or problems like this and does it sound like a defect or is there something I have not yet tried, like, some software setting?
Here's my system info if needed:
Realtek High Tech Audio - driver vrsn. 5.10.00.5125
DirectX 9.0c
BIOS vrsn. EV91510A.86A.0444.2005.0429.2108 4/29/2005
WindowsXP Home Vrsn.2002 -SP 2
Pentium 4 3.oGHz
1GB RAM

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can give me.
Chet - a.k.a. HoyHoy

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Comments

anonymous Mon, 07/11/2005 - 14:49

Tell us what your Windows default audio devices are. Control Panel/Sounds will take you there. You should see a default playback device and a default record device. Make sure that these are the Intel onboard/Realtek. Do any other devices show up there? Check the settings of your individual audio programs to make sure their default input devices agree. Can you play back PC audio fine (ie Windows Media Player, etc)?

As a basic test, open the VOLUME MANAGER (or whatever it's called, the speaker icon in the Task Bar that gives you control over device levels). Go to the Recording section. Play a test input signal into the Line In. Do you see meters/levels appear there?

Also check Device Manager to make sure your Multimedia Audio device is recognized. Right-click MY COMPUTER, MANAGE, DEVICE MANAGER, then find your audio device. Verify it does not have any apparent conflicts.

Realtek often comes with its own software audio control panel. This should show up in CONTROL PANEL as SoundMan or SoundMax or something or other. You may also find it in a Realtek folder in PROGRAM FILES. Check the I/O settings of that as well. Some Realtek soundcards allow you to change what goes to/from the physical 1/8" on the PC. Make sure that these are set for Line In and not Surround Out and such.

Look up your MOBO on Intel's site and verify that the onboard audio chip is truly a Realtek. I have seen Windows incorrectly identify onboard audio chips, thereby installing the wrong driver for it, which can lead to all kinds of problems.

Enter your PC's BIOS during the boot up post screen (usually by pressing delete, F8, F5, it should tell you, or you can look it up). Make sure the onboard audio device is enabled. Sometimes they are disabled. Examine all BIOS menu options for anything that could be audio related.

This could be a host of things, but assume user software settings first (pilot error), driver issues second, and hardware/BIOS last. Hope this is a start. Welcome to the wild and wacky world of Windows wizardry.

Reggie Mon, 07/11/2005 - 15:47

Contrary to (your) popular belief, on-board audio is pretty much never a good thing for recording. Especially for, uh, mastering. Spring for an M-audio 2496 audiophile card or a firewire box if you are worried about PCI slots. See if that makes your life any easier; I bet it will.

What kind of drivers does that Realtek come with anyway? ASIO, MME, etc? Could be a problem in there somewheres.