mic issue

[Chalenge]

Hmm, somehow I thought that if the device was using isochronous streaming transfers that the slot versus header option would be equivalent. I'm not sure what gave me that impression. I do know it is the only option for firewire, which removed all of the configuration issues and made that choice easy. I would, of course, prefer to avoid using a slot altogether.

[MADe]

I quit sound cards awhile ago. The onboard option was just to ez for my purposes.

I have all the required pieces for an HTPC setup. I just do not have to have all that sound. I wear headphones, half too. My pc is for playing game so its lean on junk hardware and software.

What kills me tho is that my issue was considered a bug or bad driver or????????????????

What it is/was, modern video cards identify themselves to the OS and monitor, OS and monitor are identified to vid card.
Vid cards now have onboard sound chips to deal with audio thru HDMI. When you plug in that vid card and apply the juice for the first time that card is presented with a decision, my NVidia sound chip is the default or the systems other sound option is the default, in my case RealTek HD Audio.
 It makes the decision based on this,
I am plugged into a HDMI ported HDTV, its digital sound, it obviously needs my NVidia sound chip and nothing else or
I am plugged into a VGA monitor, no digital sound option, I will use the system sound option provided.

Those that are making a HTPC may want the vid card as default sound, its all digital and you are also using an AV sound system as well. For movie purposes you do not need a mic.
For a PC however, you want the PC to be the control head, not the HDTV. You want to input to system, most mobos are analog jacked!

Now the why's the wearfores, the reasons I do not really get, but it appears that if you do the initial fire up of a vid card connected to an HDMI HDTV with its own digital sound system, the onboard audio chip will become the default and negate, somehow, all other analog input, in my case mic jacks. So when you add a new vid card, install it with a vga monitor 1st, save the headache.
 

[MADe]

sweet, got to fly tonight, mic worked, new vid card seems killer, monitor is hopp'in. joy all around.

[Chalenge]

Another reason to stick to monitors I think. I am using a 4k monitor that has speakers built in. When I install the video drivers it enables the Nvidia audio and disables my SB ZxR, but only because I started doing straight up default installations. The installation is a longer process because I have to then disable Nvidia audio and enable the ZxR, but I have never had that procedure fail to work like it did for you. I don't know what caused the process of switching back to analog to fail, but it should have been possible even with an HDTV hooked in.

[MADe]

the internet is loaded with others having same issue, many our realtek users like me but I did see a bunch of peeps that were using sound cards.

thing is I know my explanation and understanding is wrong but I think I know the pitfall now and can stay clear. I wonder where that ident info is stored tho once the vid card is fired up in a specific system. the hardware is moving fast but the software is behind.

I was never able to dig up the reason the NVidia audio chip floods the analog jacks with signal. dxdiag has the NVidia card as the default audio, but shows the realtek as well. its a well known problem for several years it seems and the industry has refused to talk about it or make the annoyance go away for years........................ ............

[Pudgie]

Hmm, somehow I thought that if the device was using isochronous streaming transfers that the slot versus header option would be equivalent. I'm not sure what gave me that impression. I do know it is the only option for firewire, which removed all of the configuration issues and made that choice easy. I would, of course, prefer to avoid using a slot altogether.

I believe your correct if you're using the PCI-E lanes that route thru the chipset as the chipset then is setting the PCI-E lane designations for those PCI-E lanes (usually the chipset PCI-E slots are the black PCI-E slots that are smaller than x16--that you can't access most of the time--or the black x16 slot(s) that aren't designated wired thru the CPU). Usually this is what most mobo makers are trying to help users to identify by coloring the CPU wired x16 PCI-E slots a different color than black, but not all so read the mobo manual to know which is which. The chipset is involved w/ the USB bus master controller (usually embedded within the chipset) which sets the USB bus bandwidth & designations according to the USB device(s) being plugged into the USB headers & the amount of data traffic\flow being run thru at any time. This bus mastering between the chipset PCI-E lanes & USB traces to access the DMI link is best handled\most efficient when the data traffic thru them is very heavy....if the data traffic isn't heavy thru the chipset is when data flow issues can occur due to inefficient bus mastering within the chipset during these periods across both the PCI-E & USB paths & thus cause issues w/ devices....especially devices that need to synch w/ other devices to provide overall system performance (sound, LAN, USB devices, input devices, etc).

The chipset\USB controller overhead will also make a difference--although usually not by a large factor as it will depend on how efficient the chipset\USB controller themselves are at managing the data traffic flow thru them (PCI-E, USB, SATA, LAN, onboard sound\sound card installed in PCI-E slot that routes thru chipset, the old PCI if still used), especially when data traffic is not heavy & how efficient the serial link (DMI in all Z series chipsets & X79 chipset, QPI link--Intel's version of AMD's HyperTransport--for the old X58 & now X99 chipsets) between the chipset & CPU is in transporting all this traffic to system mem. This is why those direct-wired PCI-E lanes thru the CPU to system mem are gold as you can by-pass the chipset route & gain some bandwidth advantage but mostly unfettered & much more stable hi-speed direct access to system mem thru DMA controller on CPU die so if a user isn't going to use all these lanes for graphics card use (which is reason for their existence.....AMD is the 1 who pioneered this concept except they housed the PCI-E controller & DMA controller in the northbridge chip instead of on the CPU die but the graphics card slots route thru the northbridge chip to CPU thru the Hypertransport link to system mem & all others go thru the southbridge chipset up the A-link to northbridge chip to CPU thru the HyperTransport link to system mem...much faster path w/ less overhead loss....AMD's failure to compete is the lack of CPU efficiency to take full advantage of this) you can gain a little more performance\stability w/ other PCI-E devices plugged into them instead of the PCI-E slots that pass thru the chipset. This is an excellent path to plug a discrete PCI-E sound card into for synching w/ video as both are sending\receiving data over the exact same data path & IMHO has to produce overall superior performance vs onboard sound\discrete sound run thru the chipset in general, whether via PCI-E or USB..........

This is why my idea of using a USB-to-PCI-E card in 1 of the unused direct-wired PCI-E-to-CPU slots to connect the SB X7 audio interface.......even a IEEE 1394a firewire-to-PCI-E card in the same manner if no discrete IEEE 1394a connect is available on your mobo.......even if this does cut the available PCI-E 3.0 lanes to your vid card on a Z series mobo to x8 (won't have this issue on a X series mobo) as long as you can retain PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth on the slot (same total bandwidth as PCI-E 2.0 x16). 

This DOES depend on the quality of the add-in card though............

This is where Intel's Z170 chipset improves upon this (& my interest in Skylake in general) by upping the amount of total PCI-E lanes thru the chipset from 8 total to 20 so you have much less pairing down of the total PCI-E bandwidth available thru the chipset as opposed to all previous gen Z\X series chipsets to improve total PCI-E performance thru the chipset..............should improve 3-way SLI\Crossfire performance as well on Z170 opposed to the prior Z series as the 3rd vid card will route thru the chipset's PCI-E lanes & perform more on par w/ the X series which can route all 3 vid cards thru the direct CPU wired PCI-E lanes & fully by-pass the chipset PCI-E lanes.

This is what I have gleaned from all the research I have done on the 'Net so far concerning this topic........................

But the average user won't consider all this & so this is mostly geek speak...........