I'm on a new machine that's using an Asus A8V-XE. During set up, I couldn't find any option within the BIOS to enable or disable onboard audio. Since there are no cards on the board other than the video card, I assumed that it would automatically enable onboard audio.

However, Windows is unable to find any audio devices. I tried installing the driver via the executable from Asus' drivers downloads site, but it returns an error stating "Installation failed! The audio driver files do not support your computer hardware. Note: If you uninstalled audio software without restarting your PC, restart now, then run this setup again."

Can someone please make any recommendations on what I should check?

It sounds like you may have the wrong Audio drivers. What O.P are you running and what driver on the site are you downloading?
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-
Also you may want to try updating the Bios.

Thanks for the response Michael.

I'm using a 32 bit version of Windows XP SP2 with all of the Windows Updates installed (except for their recommended Ethernet driver). The driver I downloaded was from the same website you provided, but thank you for the URL nonetheless.

If it helps at all, I did notice an oddity with my Device Manager. It's showing that there's an unknown PCI Device and Other Device. However, the only device on the board is the video card, for which I've already set up the drivers.

I forgot to mention that the BIOS is the latest version available from the Asus website.

__________________
"Have you scanned the RAM timings for Operator's Headspace?? Too much real estate between the audio collectors will block the connection which allows proper operation of the computer." __B. Lowe
http://www.lookinmypc.com/
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_twimtbp_gameslist.html
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

The motherboard was actually OEM from a friend. I picked up all of the drivers from the Asus website. The audio driver installation executable is actually the one giving me the "Installation failed!" message...

Hmm.. After doing some research on your motherboard model, it seems quite a few people have the audio problem.

The fact that it lists the "unknown PCI device" means that onboard sound is enabled so that's that at least

From what I gather, you can attempt the following:

- Uninstall all audio drivers you installed (if any, should be something like SoundMax HD)
- Download driver: http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...4151_32bit.zip
- Unzip it into a folder on desktop (or somewhere convenient for you)
- Reboot
- When it prompts you to install new device do the following:

1) It will find a "Microsoft UAA Function Driver for High Definition Audio-Adi 1986" controller and ask for a driver for it.
2) Choose update driver and make sure to click "I will specify the driver path" and point it to the following in the driver folder you extracted earlier: 32bit\2K_XP\SMAXWDM\W2K_XP

__________________
Don't forget to rate posts if you find them helpful

Thank you for the wonderful post DarkLord! I see you went the extra mile and did some digging around the web. Many many thanks.

Unfortunately, I have followed the steps you've listed a few times already in my attempts to remedy this to no avail. I must have restarted the PC about six or seven times by now, trying different things. I even tried uninstalling both the unknown PCI Device and the unknown Other Device before restarting.

Upon restarting, Windows does indeed notice that there is something missing. However, it does not specifiy a "Microsoft UAA Function Driver for High Definition Audio-Adi 1986" controller. Regardless, I specify the driver path (.\32bit\2K_XP\SMAXWDM\W2K_XP\) and after hitting "Next", I immediately get the "Cannot Install This Hardware" screen which states that "the hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software".

I'm beginning to think that maybe my onboard audio simply isn't working? I haven't built a PC since around 2002, and ironically... the onboard audio didn't work on that board either!

Any other ideas?

Ah.. I see, alright, does it say what hardware is does find though since you say it doesn't see it as the "Microsoft UAA Function Driver for High Definition Audio-Adi 1986" stated from the Asus website and various forums I've perused.

Of course, it could well be a hardware problem, but we'll try and troubleshoot it software-wise first methinks

Let me know what it says, if anything, I'll continue googlin' around and see if I can come up with any other ideas

__________________
Don't forget to rate posts if you find them helpful

Let me do a quick restart... I'll check what it says again.

All it shows is that it found a "PCI Device" for the first Found New Hardware prompt, and then "Unknown" for the second hardware prompt:



Would it be both devices or just one of them? Like I mentioned earlier, the only PCI device in there is my PCI-E x16 video card for which I already have working drivers installed and no problems. I'm confused as to why it would show that it found a PCI device...

Alright well, I've kept reading, and apparently it's supposed to show up as a PCI device, I'm not sure why, but so far everyone reports it shows up as that.

You said earlier you couldn't find the on-board audio option in the BIOS right?

And you've made sure to flash a new BIOS version from the Asus website? It should be version 0702

Link here: http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...E/A8VXE702.zip

Have you tried the other BIOS version they have? It's version 0501

Link here: http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...8V-XE/0501.zip

May be worth a try

There's also an "all-in-one" driver install package you can try

Link here: http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...V505A_4in1.zip

I'm still surfin through Google, though it seems there's a lot of people who've never resolved the problem, keep us posted if you try any of the above links

__________________
Don't forget to rate posts if you find them helpful