No sound with WinXP Location 65535

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Bob H

I connected a RJ11 telephone cable to the laptop and have just tried
dialing a fax no. with or by telnet, if that is right, as its years
since I did that sort of thing.

(Yes, I'd have to scratch my head too. I'd probably try to HyperTerminal
into the pseudo-COM port that the MoDem presents, and then send it "ATP
8" or "ATT <number>" [for pulse or tone dialling]; however, I don't know
if all internal MoDems in laptops, especially WinModems, actually appear
as a COM port. Nor how to find which one - though what HyperTerminal
offered for one to choose from would probably give some idea, COM1
probably being a real COM port, as you said the laptop had a 9 pin male
connector.)

Anyway, telnet said it was dialing, although I could not hear anything
as I would normally expect to, then after a few seconds it stopped

Were you listening to the laptop('s speakers), or on another actual
'phone connected to the same line?

saying no dialtone, so I don't know if it was actually diialing or not.

(I presume the other end of the cable _was_ connected to a 'phone line
on which there _was_ a dial tone!)

Usually they don't start making the dialling tones (or clunking the
relay) until they've detected a dial tone.

 

[Bob H]

In message <[email protected]>, Bob H

I connected a RJ11 telephone cable to the laptop and have just tried
dialing a fax no. with or by telnet, if that is right, as its years
since I did that sort of thing.

(Yes, I'd have to scratch my head too. I'd probably try to HyperTerminal
into the pseudo-COM port that the MoDem presents, and then send it "ATP
8" or "ATT <number>" [for pulse or tone dialling]; however, I don't know
if all internal MoDems in laptops, especially WinModems, actually appear
as a COM port. Nor how to find which one - though what HyperTerminal
offered for one to choose from would probably give some idea, COM1
probably being a real COM port, as you said the laptop had a 9 pin male
connector.)

Anyway, telnet said it was dialing, although I could not hear anything
as I would normally expect to, then after a few seconds it stopped

Were you listening to the laptop('s speakers), or on another actual
'phone connected to the same line?

saying no dialtone, so I don't know if it was actually diialing or not.

(I presume the other end of the cable _was_ connected to a 'phone line
on which there _was_ a dial tone!)

Usually they don't start making the dialling tones (or clunking the
relay) until they've detected a dial tone.

It was Hyperterminal I used, as I had to look!

I don't recall saying it had a 9 pin male connector???
I've just had another look round the laptop, and the only pin connector
is a female monitor connector.

You've lost me now when you said send it to ATP 8 or ATT numbers. I have
no idea how to do that I'm afraid. I might have done 15/20 years ago,
but not now, lol.

Yes I was listening on the laptops speakers and also on another phone
connected to the same line, and although there was obviously a dialtone
with the phone there was nothing when I dialed out.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Bob H

It was Hyperterminal I used, as I had to look!

I don't recall saying it had a 9 pin male connector???
I've just had another look round the laptop, and the only pin connector
is a female monitor connector.

Ah, I'm confusing two threads! There's another one about using an
external monitor. I think I've got them mixed up in my head.

You've lost me now when you said send it to ATP 8 or ATT numbers. I
have no idea how to do that I'm afraid. I might have done 15/20 years
ago, but not now, lol.

I too haven't done it for a long time!

HyperTerminal defaults to looking after the MoDem part for you. However,
if you tell it - hang on, let me fire it up (not sure it ever has been
on this netbook; I think not as it asked me if I wanted it to be the
default telnet prog.!), and you click Cancel on the Connection
Description box that appears, you then get a dumb serial terminal. At
least I _think_ that's the case: it's not working that way for me here,
but this netbook has neither a serial port nor an internal MoDem that
might appear as one. Anyway, _somehow_ you get to a point where you
select which COM port, what baud rate, handshake, and parity, and so on.
(This is not the parameters for the MoDem to use to talk to the remote
computer: they're what you're using to talk to the MoDem. Think of it as
if it was a real external box; many internal MoDems - including a lot of
WinModems, via their driver - "look" like an external box connected via
a phantom COM port.)

If you then send a blank line to the MoDem (by pressing enter), it
responds with something like

COMMAND: (I can't remember if that's the word, but something similar.)

to which you give it an AT command, something like

ATP 8

which would tell it to wait for a dial tone, then pulse-dial an 8. (ATT
8 would do the same with tone dialling.) If it succeeds, and connects to
another MoDem at a remote location (obviously you'd have given it a more
than one digit number to dial!), the remote MoDem would make some noise,
then the two MoDems would negotiate a speed, then it would say something
like

CONNECTED 2400

after which it would go into a transparent mode, such that anything you
type after that isn't a command to your own MoDem, but is sent to the
remote one. If for some reason it fails, it would stay in local mode,
and say something like

NO DIAL TONE

.. Another command you can try is

ATI

(the I stands for information), which will prompt it to tell you
something about itself - model number or similar. You can try

ATI 0

and other digits; they should elicit other information from it. What
number you can go up to depends on the MoDem.

Note this is all done from very old memory, and may be incorrect in
assorted ways! There is also the possibility that the MoDem
_isn't_configured to (a) appear as if behind a serial port (b) accept
"AT" commands (I think that means "Hayes-compatible"), but they're
things I'd try.

This is really only incidental to the question of whether the sound
"card" on the same "bus" (bridge?) is alive, though!

Yes I was listening on the laptops speakers and also on another phone
connected to the same line, and although there was obviously a dialtone
with the phone there was nothing when I dialed out.

Maybe Paul or someone else reading this can deduce something from that!

 

[Bob H]

In message <[email protected]>, Bob H


Ah, I'm confusing two threads! There's another one about using an
external monitor. I think I've got them mixed up in my head.

I too haven't done it for a long time!

HyperTerminal defaults to looking after the MoDem part for you. However,
if you tell it - hang on, let me fire it up (not sure it ever has been
on this netbook; I think not as it asked me if I wanted it to be the
default telnet prog.!), and you click Cancel on the Connection
Description box that appears, you then get a dumb serial terminal. At
least I _think_ that's the case: it's not working that way for me here,
but this netbook has neither a serial port nor an internal MoDem that
might appear as one. Anyway, _somehow_ you get to a point where you
select which COM port, what baud rate, handshake, and parity, and so on.
(This is not the parameters for the MoDem to use to talk to the remote
computer: they're what you're using to talk to the MoDem. Think of it as
if it was a real external box; many internal MoDems - including a lot of
WinModems, via their driver - "look" like an external box connected via
a phantom COM port.)

If you then send a blank line to the MoDem (by pressing enter), it
responds with something like

COMMAND: (I can't remember if that's the word, but something similar.)

to which you give it an AT command, something like

ATP 8

which would tell it to wait for a dial tone, then pulse-dial an 8. (ATT
8 would do the same with tone dialling.) If it succeeds, and connects to
another MoDem at a remote location (obviously you'd have given it a more
than one digit number to dial!), the remote MoDem would make some noise,
then the two MoDems would negotiate a speed, then it would say something
like

CONNECTED 2400

after which it would go into a transparent mode, such that anything you
type after that isn't a command to your own MoDem, but is sent to the
remote one. If for some reason it fails, it would stay in local mode,
and say something like

NO DIAL TONE

. Another command you can try is

ATI

(the I stands for information), which will prompt it to tell you
something about itself - model number or similar. You can try

ATI 0

and other digits; they should elicit other information from it. What
number you can go up to depends on the MoDem.

Note this is all done from very old memory, and may be incorrect in
assorted ways! There is also the possibility that the MoDem
_isn't_configured to (a) appear as if behind a serial port (b) accept
"AT" commands (I think that means "Hayes-compatible"), but they're
things I'd try.

This is really only incidental to the question of whether the sound
"card" on the same "bus" (bridge?) is alive, though!
Maybe Paul or someone else reading this can deduce something from that!

Ok, in Hyperterminal, when I select or click the connect icon on the top
menu bar a box appears and on that box there is a dial button. There are
3 other buttons as well. So I click cancel, and that leaves me with a
blank screen or terminal window.

When I type ATP 8 then Enter, it returns ERROR
When I type ATI then Enter, it returns 56000 OK
ATI 0 returns the same as above

In the bottom menu, It says Connected 0:0:034 Auto Detect 115200 8-N-1

 

[Paul]

Ok, in Hyperterminal, when I select or click the connect icon on the top
menu bar a box appears and on that box there is a dial button. There are
3 other buttons as well. So I click cancel, and that leaves me with a
blank screen or terminal window.

When I type ATP 8 then Enter, it returns ERROR
When I type ATI then Enter, it returns 56000 OK
ATI 0 returns the same as above

In the bottom menu, It says Connected 0:0:034 Auto Detect 115200 8-N-1

It probably wouldn't have got that far along in the process,
unless the modem driver was present and working to some extent.

To me, it's hard to believe the analog ends of both I/O have died,
while the Device Manager digital part of things is working. It
just seems... wrong.

Maybe the power source to run them has died, like a common three
terminal regulator. On audio, the audio regulator doesn't usually
power anything else. The audio power regulator is separate, to reduce
noise in the audio output.

If the HDAudio bus feeding the two chips was dead, they wouldn't
have enumerated and showed up in Device Manager.

Maybe I'd also test dial-out from Linux (if I could figure out how ).

Paul

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Bob H wrote: []

Ok, in Hyperterminal, when I select or click the connect icon on the
top menu bar a box appears and on that box there is a dial button.
There are 3 other buttons as well. So I click cancel, and that leaves
me with a blank screen or terminal window.
When I type ATP 8 then Enter, it returns ERROR

I've just looked it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set#The_basic_Hayes_command_set

It should have been ATDP8 or ATDT8 (D for dial). (I think ATD8 would
also work.) ATP is indeed not included in the set. My error.

Try ATI0 to ATI9 (and possibly ATI10 and above).
That's how long, and with what parameters, HyperTerminal has been
connected to the MoDem; basically, it's how long since you started
HyperTerminal.

It probably wouldn't have got that far along in the process,
unless the modem driver was present and working to some extent.

Agreed. For it to be conversing, and even getting as far as interpreting
AT commands, the imitation COM port and MoDem driver must be working.

To me, it's hard to believe the analog ends of both I/O have died,
while the Device Manager digital part of things is working. It
just seems... wrong.

Agreed ...

Maybe the power source to run them has died, like a common three
terminal regulator. On audio, the audio regulator doesn't usually
power anything else. The audio power regulator is separate, to reduce
noise in the audio output.

.... though the practical result of that is the same (-:! It's just a
different piece of hardware that's dud. If it's a three terminal
regulator, I might even consider it replaceable - can verify that with
just a multimeter - though would like to eliminate the software
possibilities first.

If the HDAudio bus feeding the two chips was dead, they wouldn't
have enumerated and showed up in Device Manager.

Maybe I'd also test dial-out from Linux (if I could figure out how ).

Paul

Bob's had some difficulty getting external CDs to boot. (Maybe a
bootable USB stick?)

 

[Bob H]

Bob H wrote: []

Ok, in Hyperterminal, when I select or click the connect icon on the
top menu bar a box appears and on that box there is a dial button.
There are 3 other buttons as well. So I click cancel, and that
leaves me with a blank screen or terminal window.
When I type ATP 8 then Enter, it returns ERROR

I've just looked it up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set#The_basic_Hayes_command_set

It should have been ATDP8 or ATDT8 (D for dial). (I think ATD8 would
also work.) ATP is indeed not included in the set. My error.

Try ATI0 to ATI9 (and possibly ATI10 and above).
That's how long, and with what parameters, HyperTerminal has been
connected to the MoDem; basically, it's how long since you started
HyperTerminal.

It probably wouldn't have got that far along in the process,
unless the modem driver was present and working to some extent.

Agreed. For it to be conversing, and even getting as far as interpreting
AT commands, the imitation COM port and MoDem driver must be working.

To me, it's hard to believe the analog ends of both I/O have died,
while the Device Manager digital part of things is working. It
just seems... wrong.

Agreed ...

Maybe the power source to run them has died, like a common three
terminal regulator. On audio, the audio regulator doesn't usually
power anything else. The audio power regulator is separate, to reduce
noise in the audio output.

... though the practical result of that is the same (-:! It's just a
different piece of hardware that's dud. If it's a three terminal
regulator, I might even consider it replaceable - can verify that with
just a multimeter - though would like to eliminate the software
possibilities first.

If the HDAudio bus feeding the two chips was dead, they wouldn't
have enumerated and showed up in Device Manager.

Maybe I'd also test dial-out from Linux (if I could figure out how ).

Paul

Bob's had some difficulty getting external CDs to boot. (Maybe a
bootable USB stick?)

Well, after trying 3 different USB tools to get a linux iso bootable on
my 2gb usb stick, I finally managed to make a ubuntu bootable image.

Just for information, win7 usb tool complained the iso was no a proper iso.
ISO to USB tool complained the path was too long:
E:\Downloads\Temp\Ubuntu.8.10.iso

The tool which did the job was Unetbootin-windows.

So after the bootable iso was created on the USB stick, I then plugged
into the sony laptop, and restarted it to get into the BIOS.
There was no option/no listing to select boot to USB, only HD, Floppy
and Optical Drive.

So after all that, I'm back to where I was.

Thanks for the prompt anyway about using a USB stick.

 

[Paul]

On 18/08/2013 13:06, Paul wrote:>

I booted into the BIOS of the laptop and it was dumbed down with very
little options on what can be changed. Of course the modem was not even
listed!

I then booted into windows XP and disabled the modem, rebooted again and
tried for sound....no there wasn't. So disabling the modem didn't make
any difference

I don't really want to take it apart as I am not really sure what I will
be looking for when it is disassembled.

The machine in question is a sony viao vgn-fs285b

Thanks

All I could find here...

http://download.sony-europe.com/pub/manuals/Notebooks/A4_FS2/A4_FS2_H_EN.pdf

is on page 120

"Start : All Programs : VAIO Control Center : Initial Setting"

I have no idea what's in there, because the manual doesn't show it.

Virtually all my modern computers here, have a "pop-up boot menu".
And that's how you select a USB flash key for booting. The key
differs from one brand to another. On this machine, it's F8.
On another machine, it's F10. When I want the popup boot (which
is usually every day), I press it immediately, as soon as the
POST screen appears in the BIOS.

This is a classical popup boot menu. They all seem to be blue
in color, with the same sort of decorations. The only difference,
might be the type of devices in the list. For example, if your
NIC has a BIOS PXE module, you can even "net-boot" if you have
a boot server in the house. If you had turned off PXE in the
separate BIOS setup screen, then a PXE entry would stop
appearing in the popup. It's really very convenient, and has
been around for seven or eight years.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ultra27.ws/820-6772/images/7-2-Boot-Device-Network-Menu.gif

Paul

 

[Bob H]

All I could find here...

http://download.sony-europe.com/pub/manuals/Notebooks/A4_FS2/A4_FS2_H_EN.pdf


is on page 120

"Start : All Programs : VAIO Control Center : Initial Setting"

I have no idea what's in there, because the manual doesn't show it.

Virtually all my modern computers here, have a "pop-up boot menu".
And that's how you select a USB flash key for booting. The key
differs from one brand to another. On this machine, it's F8.
On another machine, it's F10. When I want the popup boot (which
is usually every day), I press it immediately, as soon as the
POST screen appears in the BIOS.

This is a classical popup boot menu. They all seem to be blue
in color, with the same sort of decorations. The only difference,
might be the type of devices in the list. For example, if your
NIC has a BIOS PXE module, you can even "net-boot" if you have
a boot server in the house. If you had turned off PXE in the
separate BIOS setup screen, then a PXE entry would stop
appearing in the popup. It's really very convenient, and has
been around for seven or eight years.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ultra27.ws/820-6772/images/7-2-Boot-Device-Network-Menu.gif


Paul

When I go to "Start : All Programs : there is no VAIO control center on
this machine. It has: VAIO Edit components, VIAO Launcher, VIAO
Promotions, VIAO Recovery Tool, VIAO Zone and VIAO Update.

Yesterday, I went through more or less every F key to try and get a
submenu, which I have seen and used on some machines, to pop up, but I
inadvertetly got the recovery console up on F10, which is what I did.

I can recall see something in the BIOS with regards to a Net-Boot or
something, but I don't have a boot server, only a nas box for media files.

 

[Paul]

When I go to "Start : All Programs : there is no VAIO control center on
this machine. It has: VAIO Edit components, VIAO Launcher, VIAO
Promotions, VIAO Recovery Tool, VIAO Zone and VIAO Update.

Yesterday, I went through more or less every F key to try and get a
submenu, which I have seen and used on some machines, to pop up, but I
inadvertetly got the recovery console up on F10, which is what I did.

I can recall see something in the BIOS with regards to a Net-Boot or
something, but I don't have a boot server, only a nas box for media files.

On home-built machines, sometimes there is a note on the very first
page of the BIOS POST screen, listing two keys:

1) A key to enter the BIOS ( <del> key on an Asus )
2) A key to do pop-up boot ( F8 key on this particular Asus board )

You can hit the <Pause> key when the screen lights up, if
you need to calmly read that POST screen. If instead of a POST
screen, you see a full screen graphic (so-called logo), you
can disable that so the text is visible. The very first setting
I disable on a new motherboard, is that useless logo.

Even my laptop (the one with only a single BIOS setting in the setup),
it has the two BIOS keys. It uses F2 to enter the BIOS, and F12 for
popup boot. And the screen flashes by so fast, I usually miss the
opportunity to press F12. On the laptop, with Insyde-brand BIOS
design, the window of opportunity for popup boot is 1 second!

On my main computer (Asus P5E Deluxe - not very Deluxe...),
the window to press the F8 key is around 10-15 seconds. So
I don't usually miss that one. The laptop is another matter,
because sometimes the screen remains black while the one
second interval is passing. Other times, the screen is lit by
the time the time interval has run its course. It's really
irritating. Almost as if they didn't want me to escape the
clutches of Windows OS

Paul

 

[Bob H]

On home-built machines, sometimes there is a note on the very first
page of the BIOS POST screen, listing two keys:

1) A key to enter the BIOS ( <del> key on an Asus )
2) A key to do pop-up boot ( F8 key on this particular Asus board )

You can hit the <Pause> key when the screen lights up, if
you need to calmly read that POST screen. If instead of a POST
screen, you see a full screen graphic (so-called logo), you
can disable that so the text is visible. The very first setting
I disable on a new motherboard, is that useless logo.

Even my laptop (the one with only a single BIOS setting in the setup),
it has the two BIOS keys. It uses F2 to enter the BIOS, and F12 for
popup boot. And the screen flashes by so fast, I usually miss the
opportunity to press F12. On the laptop, with Insyde-brand BIOS
design, the window of opportunity for popup boot is 1 second!

On my main computer (Asus P5E Deluxe - not very Deluxe...),
the window to press the F8 key is around 10-15 seconds. So
I don't usually miss that one. The laptop is another matter,
because sometimes the screen remains black while the one
second interval is passing. Other times, the screen is lit by
the time the time interval has run its course. It's really
irritating. Almost as if they didn't want me to escape the
clutches of Windows OS

Paul

I have just had another look in the BIOS and the Net option is Network
in the Boot menu , and Network Boot in Advanced Menu.
Pressing / holding the Pause key revealed nothing at all. Even after I
disabled the Viao logo, all there was to see was just a blank black
screen until the WindowsXp logo appeared as it was booting up.

One interesting thing tho' was when I was pressing the F2 key, sort of
repeatedly to get into the BIOS, for a fraction of a second before the
actual BIOS screen appeared there was a small text white menu on a black
background, and then it disappeared as the BIOS screen appeared.
I did try it again to get that said menu up, but all I got was the BIOS
screen.

The BIOS is as I said before is dumbed down and there are very few
congurable options to change.

 

[Bob H]

I have just had another look in the BIOS and the Net option is Network
in the Boot menu , and Network Boot in Advanced Menu.
Pressing / holding the Pause key revealed nothing at all. Even after I
disabled the Viao logo, all there was to see was just a blank black
screen until the WindowsXp logo appeared as it was booting up.

One interesting thing tho' was when I was pressing the F2 key, sort of
repeatedly to get into the BIOS, for a fraction of a second before the
actual BIOS screen appeared there was a small text white menu on a black
background, and then it disappeared as the BIOS screen appeared.
I did try it again to get that said menu up, but all I got was the BIOS
screen.

The BIOS is as I said before is dumbed down and there are very few
congurable options to change.

I have taken the back case off to reveal the motherboard, so that I can
see the pink and green sockets and how they are attached.
There doesn't seem to be any broken or cracked solder joints, but that
doesn't mean they can't be dry.

I am not that technically qualified to see or know any more than that.
There is nothing obviously wrong that I can see, as in nothing has
become unattached and nothing is hanging loose, so I'm going to put it
all back together now.

 

[Johnny]

I have taken the back case off to reveal the motherboard, so that I can
see the pink and green sockets and how they are attached.
There doesn't seem to be any broken or cracked solder joints, but that
doesn't mean they can't be dry.

I am not that technically qualified to see or know any more than that.
There is nothing obviously wrong that I can see, as in nothing has
become unattached and nothing is hanging loose, so I'm going to put it
all back together now.

It's been a few years since I used XP. Does it have troubleshooting
listed in the control panel. If it does Windows will try to play a
sound, and diagnose the problem if there is one.

 

[Johnny]

I have a Viao laptop with winXP sp3 installed, and have installed all
the drivers from Sony's website for that particular model laptop.

I have checked all the settings in control panel / sounds and devices.
The volume is up to a listenable level, the speakers selected are Laptop
stereo speakers, but no sound.

I have looked in Device Mangler for any yellow exclamation marks and
there are none. When I check the properties of the Realtek High
Definition audio device, it says its working properly.

I have uninstalled the Realtek HD audio device and also the Microsoft
UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio.
I then used CCleaner to clean the system and registry, as well as doing
a boot time scan with avast antivirus.

Then I reinstalled the Realtek HD driver after a reboot, checked Device
Mangler and again no yellow exclamation marks or error messages.

Checking the properties of the Realtek HD definition audio, it says
Location: Location 65535(Internal High Definition Audio , and Device
Status says that it is working properly.

I have googled this problem and there are loads (100's) of hits on it,
but most of what I read were not for my Sony Viao or for the specific
problem as in Working ok, but no sound!

I haven't tried with headphones but have with a pair of desktop
speakers, and there was no sound from them either.

Everything else works fine.

Any other ideas or possible fixes for this, because it has me beat so far.

See if this helps:
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.co...65535-internal-high-definition-audio-bus.html

 

[Bob H]

It's been a few years since I used XP. Does it have troubleshooting
listed in the control panel. If it does Windows will try to play a
sound, and diagnose the problem if there is one.

No it doesn't have a trouble shooting list in the control panel, but you
can only trouble shoot the actual device. So when go into DM and choose
the Realtek HD audio device and then click trouble shoot, I just get the
help and support centre window up which won't tell me if there is
something like a specific hardware fault like dry solder joints.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Bob H

So after the bootable iso was created on the USB stick, I then plugged
into the sony laptop, and restarted it to get into the BIOS.
There was no option/no listing to select boot to USB, only HD, Floppy
and Optical Drive.

Oh dear - sorry, I should have said check that option is available
before making the stick! Sorry to have wasted your time.

So after all that, I'm back to where I was.

Thanks for the prompt anyway about using a USB stick.

Ah well, at least it might be useful on other computers.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

`Where a calculator on the Eniac is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and
weighs
30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps
weigh 1.5 tons.' Popular Mechanics, March 1949 (quoted in Computing 1999-12-16)

 

[Bob H]

See if this helps:
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.co...65535-internal-high-definition-audio-bus.html

I don't have any yellow flags in DM and all is being reported as working
normally, despite that the sound device and modem device on Location
65535 and no sound from either

 

[Paul]

I don't have any yellow flags in DM and all is being reported as working
normally, despite that the sound device and modem device on Location
65535 and no sound from either

I was looking through the original two WinXP drivers...

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-FS285B/updates

http://download.sony-europe.com/PUB/Vaio/Original/FS2_Modem.zip

http://download.sony-europe.com/PUB/Vaio/Original/FS2_Audio.zip

and it occurs to me the RealTek has S/PDIF (digital) output, in
addition to the regular 5.1 analog audio.

You would want to make sure something like "Speakers" is selected,
rather than select the S/PDIF. The S/PDIF would be a digital sink,
and silently consume the played-back audio.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSwebsite/images/pin/spdif.jpg

On some laptops, the S/PDIF is connected to TOSLink, and
if you look into the barrel of the lime-green Line_Out connector
on the computer, you'll see a red glow. And that's the TOSLink
LED, suitable for a TOSLink cable with the right shaped connector
on the end, to fit into the 1/8" connector. Not that it matters,
but that's what the S/PDIF sometimes leads to. It isn't often
you'd find a coaxial S/PDIF on a laptop, as that's too clunky
to implement. Whereas the optical output with the red LED is
nice and cheap - and can be fitted as a "dual function" to
a Line Out or headphones jack. (That's because, the red LED function,
doesn't get in the way of the normal electrical contacts from
being able to make connections.

On some of the even older audio chips, you have to go to the
RealTek custom control panel (mixer panel etc), and the
digital output can be switched/enabled in there. The picture
I show above, is probably from Windows 7 rather than WinXP.

Paul

 

[Bob H]

I was looking through the original two WinXP drivers...

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-FS285B/updates

http://download.sony-europe.com/PUB/Vaio/Original/FS2_Modem.zip

http://download.sony-europe.com/PUB/Vaio/Original/FS2_Audio.zip

and it occurs to me the RealTek has S/PDIF (digital) output, in
addition to the regular 5.1 analog audio.

You would want to make sure something like "Speakers" is selected,
rather than select the S/PDIF. The S/PDIF would be a digital sink,
and silently consume the played-back audio.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSwebsite/images/pin/spdif.jpg

On some laptops, the S/PDIF is connected to TOSLink, and
if you look into the barrel of the lime-green Line_Out connector
on the computer, you'll see a red glow. And that's the TOSLink
LED, suitable for a TOSLink cable with the right shaped connector
on the end, to fit into the 1/8" connector. Not that it matters,
but that's what the S/PDIF sometimes leads to. It isn't often
you'd find a coaxial S/PDIF on a laptop, as that's too clunky
to implement. Whereas the optical output with the red LED is
nice and cheap - and can be fitted as a "dual function" to
a Line Out or headphones jack. (That's because, the red LED function,
doesn't get in the way of the normal electrical contacts from
being able to make connections.

On some of the even older audio chips, you have to go to the
RealTek custom control panel (mixer panel etc), and the
digital output can be switched/enabled in there. The picture
I show above, is probably from Windows 7 rather than WinXP.

Paul

Both the modem and audio drivers are or were already upto date.

Looking down both barrels of line out for speakers and for headphones, I
didn't see any led's as both back ends looked silvery in colour.

The Realtek Audio Manager is very limited on what can be changed , and
the only thing that can be changed is the selection of either 2CH
Speaker or Headphones

 

[Paul]

Both the modem and audio drivers are or were already upto date.

Looking down both barrels of line out for speakers and for headphones, I
didn't see any led's as both back ends looked silvery in colour.

The Realtek Audio Manager is very limited on what can be changed , and
the only thing that can be changed is the selection of either 2CH
Speaker or Headphones

The 260 is a pretty basic stereo device. But it also happens
to have S/PDIF. If the hardware is not connected to anything, then
the INF file should be preventing them from being an option. If the sound
is redirected to the S/PDIF ports, then that would be reasonably consistent
with your symptoms (sound goes off to no-where).

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=27&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=39

In the installer folder, I see "RTHDCPL.exe" and I expect that is
the control panel for the RealTek audio. You might see that running
in Task Manager, while the RealTek control panel is running.

The INF files in those installers are pretty big, and I can't
see any obvious pattern to that one (i.e. how the file knows
which sections of the INF to apply).

I wish I knew of a utility that could "map the plumbing" and
indicate what is connected logically. That would help identify
where the sound samples are going when you play something.

The dxdiag.exe utility knows some things about multimedia, but
I don't know if it can help identify what is up with the audio.

I thought it was WinAMP, which had the ability to play output to
more than one destination. Perhaps WinAMP has a list of destinations
and can identify all the ways your sound samples could "get lost" ?

Paul