No Sound!! - A7n8x

A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 - nForce Ultra Chipset | XPPRo SP3
Mona Pro Audio Soundcard

Finished a session - went to walk the singer to her bus. Returned to my studio and now found I have no sound. When I try to play a file with Adobe Audition 3.01 - I get "Unable to play file." Reinstalled Echo 7.23 driver for XPPro. Now it plays a sec then stops. Did malweare scan. No infections. XPPro / Mona Sound card - tried installing different drivers 7.1/7.0 - Hardware says all is working fine. Trying to play a wav or mp3 file in AA3.0 I get a brief sound and that's it. Notice the 4th channel on the Mona hits red for a moment. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks.

Had turned off internet modem for recording session. Set Esset to block network traffic. Noticed Mona was turned off by the power strip. Did that to shut down the Telefunken V76. Usually I just unplug the V76 leaving Mona on. Somehow the Mona being turned off won't tuen on again....

Transport controls don't work in AA3.01.  Edit view - after playing a track a sec - track freezes - volume level stays in the red.

Sounds / Audio Devices - Mona 1-2 Analog Out /  Mona 1-2 Analog In
Voice - Mona 1-2 Analog Out /  Mona 1-2 Analog In

just saw this

http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php/topic,7707.0.html

And if the Audition transport fails, it's almost inevitably your sound device that will cause this, because it relies completely on sound device driver feedback to run.

http://audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php?topic=7770.0

Er, yes... it looks as though it thinks the card is there when it actually isn't. Your 1 second of non-existent recording is simply the buffer filling. When it gets no handshake, it promptly stops.

I shut off the entire computer during the hurricane. Turned it on. No problem. Now turning off the Mona soundcard seems to have knocked it unconscious - yet in hardware config it says Mona is working fine.

From the description, I'd check out physical things first, such as the seating of the card in the pci slot. Clean the contacts by heavy handed push-pull technology. Get it really frightened and only after this doesn't work try to look at drivers etc.

will try this...
didn't help. scanning with spybot....

Whilst I haven't had the same problem, I had something similar. I had to completely uninstall the drivers first, then uninstall the card from the System manager, then rebooted and the system found the card, reinstalled the drivers and worked fine after that.

Hope it helps

Soundcard still not working. Tried reseating different PCI slot. Deleted Win XPPro partition / reinstalling new XPPro. Sound starts for a sec then stops.

Try a different card?  How about the one on the mobo - assming it has one?

Well did the surgical thing - deleted the OS partition. Reeinstalled XPPRo - found that the C drive label was now E. Deleted partition and installed XPPRo in the C partition (with many stored files). Concerned that update might require the C:\ drive designation. Couldn't access MSFT updates with XPPRo install.

Searched for direct download of SP2 / SP3 / DirX9C / MSFT Player 11

Installed above. Kept seeing yellow marks in Device Manager for USB Controller. After SP2 install, MSFT Update started working (enabled until April 2014). Tried to directly download USB Controller from internet. Worked.

Try a different card?  How about the one on the mobo - assming it has one?

Installed NVidea Audio drivers from NVidea file that had many different system components besides display - and from internet as well. When I have time I'll come back and give more detail. I have no sound output for headphones on the Mona soundcard, so I couldn't tell if the NVidea drivers were working. When I switch to them there is no sound. Went ahead and changed Sounds and Audio Devices back to Mona input / output.

It worked!!!! Damn USB driver crashed my Mona soundcard. Mona now works perfect. Yeah!!!

Earlier in the day, called Echo Audio and the tech (great person) went through a series of checks - we were stumped - as Mona is listed working fine in Device Manager it means it was communicating well from soundcard to breakout box. So what was wrong ? What was killing it?

All I can say is adding tons of different software to a PC that does audio finally resulted in a situation where something had to go - and that was audio. I see the value in a dedicated audio workstation. Someday.... Now I have to rebuild all the software..... XPPRo is on the same 500G HDD as my files. I'll deal with it. Right now I'm so glad to get audio back, I could fly to the moon.

All the Best / Brewer

Glad you got it going again, although I sense a great deal of frustation on the way .

A dedicated machine is definitely the way to go, I did this some 12 years ago now and have never regretted the additional expense.  Actually, it's not that expensive to do.  All you need is a second CPU and KVM to switch the monitor/s, keyboard and pointing device between the two machines. This has definitely worked for me.

Lost audio after.Net framework 4 updates!

Hmmm... isn't that one of the optional updates?  I'll be keeping my eye open for this one, and whether or not I've installed it.

Sound is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talked with Echo Audio - CA - super great people - not a sound card issue.
Talked with my brother - knows alot about PCs - said it was a driver issue not soundcard / motherboard. Googled: nforce2 drivers windows xp

A7N8X  Deluxe MB / nForce Ultra chipset. Downloaded multiple audio / video codecs:
- These drivers do not work with SP3 XP Pro - nForceWin2KXP - versions: 4.26A - 5.10 - 2.45 - 2.64 - 2.78 -
- What worked (audio | chipset) - http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html
- What worked (video) - http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

Got lucky!!!!!! Uninstalled the 175.19 - thinking it'd remove video + audio drivers to start clean reinstall. Then installed 169.21 (thinking it was earlier video drivers) - before reboot. Did registry clean with JV16 power tools and Tune Up Utility. Rebooted PC. Saw I needed dual view (2X Acer x193W 19" flat screen monitors). Realized the 169.21 was audio drivers!! Reinstalled 175.19 Geforce - Video drivers. Defrag with O&O. Great sharp video. No loss of audio!!

SOUND IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!
The 169.21 is the audio package!!! Lady Luck is always welcome!!!

Suddenly - again no sound. Just a click then silence. A few sec of music then silence.

Seriously - time to build a new better PC!!!

Almost hate to mention this  but if you are sure that problem is not Audio card Hardware based you might take a look at a Linux partition on the system you currently have

For Echo cards http://www.webalice.it/g_pochini/ead/ is a reasonable place to look for drivers

As with anything Linux there are no guarantees, particularly if one is not starting from scratch (still a little like getting 1988 MS-DOS to integrate random collections of hardware)

but getting stable dual boot systems is getting . . . well 'easier' is not quite the word but it will have to do

A dedicated audio box is still the a more optimal solution.  But even there finding graphics cards that play nice with long in the tooth audio cards can be problematic in any case  (essentially audio production remains the  bastard child @ the family reunion)

good luck

Hi Running XPPro SP2 / Sp3 - not Linux - Thanks anyway for the thoughts.

Tonight one of the many format installs - read of a certain driver package (...v264_WDMxp.zip) that actually gave nVidia sound when installed. It worked - for nVidia soundcard not Mona. Had to plug in headphones at the back of the PC to hear nVidia sound. It's been years since I've done this. Audio wasn't that bad. It was there.

Mona card says it's enabled and working fine in DM sound / video / game controllers. When I change audio drivers in Audio Sounds and Drivers - I only get sporadic sound for a sec or two - then silence as WMP plays on. Stumped. Told to test the Mona on a different system or test another 3rd party sound card here to see what happens. Need to know if Mona's on the edge of going south. Hope not. Layla / Gina 3G are the most likely replacement cards. Too bad Echo audio doesn't have a diagnostic sound card testing program.

My suggestion would be to look on ebay for a similar generation Echo Audio card to see if that works. I've just sold 2 working and one faulty Darlas plus a Darla 24 and they went for very low prices.

I think the advice to build a dedicated machine is correct especially if you move to any more modern OS. Keeping in control is all important.

I'm fresh from giving up again on trying to install Fedora 14 dual-boot. After about 4 full-blown attempts, I made a stupid mistake and had to reload from an imige I had made. Having said that, I'm finding Ubuntu on a usb stick is absolutely marvellous as a data recovery and occasional diagnostic tool when things go wrong.

Hi Running XPPro SP2 / Sp3 - not Linux - Thanks anyway for the thoughts.

Was aware of that but if issue, at this point with work you've done, is not related specifically to Audio card failure then OS/driver conflict (among various drivers not just specifically with OS . . . conflicts among Vid, Network, Audio drivers (for example)) becomes next most 'usual suspect' . . . attempting to isolate driver conflicts, particularly when development on Hardware drivers as ceased for items used (OS & Mona) can be intractable.  Echo makes no claim that Mona is supported by either current MBs or OS.  Fact that you are using an OS that was supported unfortunately does not necessarily clarify situation if the various upgrades to OS & installation of conflicting components (& vid cards always have to be considered as conflicting with Audio cards) (& firm, software upgrades to those conflicting components). 

A different approach is to try creating a platform (or partition) that employes a different foundation state then rebuilding as 'lean' a system as possible specifically around the audio hardware you want to use.  With availability of linux doing this with Linux can be a less $ expensive approach then building a new hardware system from scratch.  Particularly when current vid cards are not, as a rule, designed to play nice with dedicated Audio production cards.  Nor is this a situation in either Windows or Mac environment that is likely to improve in the near (or even distant) future.

Didn't lead with 'linux' at time of original post   because it is not a panacea but it does not appear that OP is making much headway even in diagnosis . . . So? getting rid of windows clutter can help with at least diagnosis