AUDIO NOT WORKING AFTER SP2 ON PCV-RZ221

[Bossie]

Really annoying problem. After upgrading to XP SP2, everything is grayed out in my Sound options and it tells me no Devices are available for playback, though in the Hardware Manager, I can clearly see the Yamaha card and according to XP it's working!!!!!

What the HELL is this? I even downloaded the current driver package for this machine. According to XP it works, but still no playback devices available. Even when removing the device from HW Man., I re-intall it with the correct (new) driver upon startup...still no result. THIS SUCKS!!!

This is the LAST time I buy a brand PC. An IBM clone with quality components kicks any VAIO's ass). I can't even access the BIOS because Sony thinks I'm a retard or something. This is an insult to my intelligence....

[TygerTyger]

When you say you downloaded the driver package, do you mean the orginial drivers package off the vaio-link website? If you did then I would suggest cruising Yamahas site and getting the driver from there instead. Unless Sony have released new drivesr to ensure SP2 compatibility (unlikely) then you may have trouble with them. Just out of curiousity does it also say there's no recording device?

And I agree with you about the BIOS it's irritating in the extreme.

[kee-lo_]

It's quite annoying the way Sony don't get new drivers for the soundcard. I had to get mine from Windows Update.

[Bossie]

Update: I found out a lot since I opened this thread...

1. The driver for the Yamaha AD-XG card supplied bij Sony seems strange to me, because you can find in some spec sheets on the RCP-RZ221 onine that it has a REALTEK ALC650 with 6CH sound, SPDIF out and Headphone amp.
So I naturally proceeded to download the newest driver for that chip from Realtek.

2. I had already re-installed WinXP and installed the Realtek driver, which seems to work even when SP2 is installed. I have a playback device (and recording device) and analog out seems to work ok.

3. Now, the only reason I wanted the driver to work properly is because I NEED the optical output of the pc to record digitally. I found the following text on the Realtek website:

"The ALC650 also supports an AC'97 2.2 compliant SPDIF out function which allows easy connection from the PC to consumer electronic products, such as AC3 decoder/speaker and mini disk."

Which HAS to mean this optical output should work at ALL times, not only with 5.1 channel audio, since mini disk will only accept standard 16 bit stereo PCM signal.

So, I think this is a hard one to crack: why doesn't the optical out still work????? I see the red light (so it's switched on), but there's NO SIGNAL.....very strange.

[TygerTyger]

Have you tried getting the download for the Yamaha card from the Yamaha site? Additional features like that on the sound card aren't necessarily going hand in hand with the sound card chip so they made need additional features in the drivers to get it working.

[William]

When I looked at Vaio-Link for the specs on your machine I can only find a reference to an onboard Sound Chip rather than a card.

There have been several references on this Forum recently that the motherboards are manufactured by Asus.

I may be way off base here - even completely wrong but you could try downloading:

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=22&l3_id=4&m_id=1&f_name=ADI198...

William

[Bossie]

Even more thanks for the revelation that Sony uses an Asus mainboard... that gives me some hope 🙂 I'm downloading the driver...

Will keep you both posted!

[Bossie]

By the way.... by Yamaha AC-XG I mean the Yamaha YMF5xx chip that is used.

Another thing: I think the reason why I have analog output with the Realtek driver installed, even when it's a Yamaha chip, is because they both comply to the AC97 audio codec standard....

[Bossie]

William, after I noticed (during download of the suggested driver) that this mainboard was WAY too new to be in the PCV-RZ221 (released March 2003, board released mid 2004), I tried to search which board IS actually fitted in there...

I struck a goldmine also for you as VAIO masters:

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/Sony/

This list states a lot (if not all) OEM boards fitted by asus in the VAIOs!! The list states my PC has a Asus P4S533-VL mainboard, but I checked the Asus site, which doesn't contain a VL model. I checked the P4S533's that did have an onboard SPDIF out (not the optional bracket), and two mathced:

1). P4S533-MX : onboard ADI AD1980 6-channel CODEC
2). P4S533-X : onboard ADI AD1980 6-channel CODEC

They both use the same sound chip, so no need to look further. Although it seems to me that the OEM board (533VL) is actually a 533-X (or early version before being launched by Asus themselves), because it's the only board with SPDIF onboard without VGA onboard.

So far for the investigation. William, I stopped downloading the driver you mentioned to be sure I have a matching (older) one...I started to download this one:

http://www.asus.com/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=15&l3_id=6&m_id=3&f_name=adiwdm_35...

which is actually for "my" board and release date is Jan. 2003...seems ok!!

Will keep you posted!

[Bossie]

UPDATE:

Much to my surprise, the ADI AD1980 driver for the P4S533-X does not seem to work... it even stated the chip was not found.

There are two more P4S533 boards which have an optical output, although through an optional connector (bracket). Maybe the OEM mainboard for Sony was a gathering of pieces anyway. It seems to me if a manufacturer asks for an OEM board they can get what they want as long as they order large quantities 🙂
Anyway, those versions use the C-Media CMI-8738 (4 channel) and CMI-9738 (6 channel) chips.

So, last try: go for the CMI-9738 driver for the P4S533-VM (which comes close to the P4S533-VL Sony board typewise...)

I can understand that people who do not know anything about computers would either never discover all this or would have attempted to kill themselves by now...damn.