Intel Clarkdale and H55 audio problems

idata · ‎02-20-2010

I just built another HTPC based on the Intel 661 processor. My specs are as follows:

Intel 661 Clarkdale CPU

GIGABYTE GA-H55M-S2H LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX

OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

2TB Hitachi HD

LG Bluray Drive

Windows 7 x64

My connections are as follows:

Motherboard > HDMI > Denon 4310ci > HDMI > 65" Panasonic HT-65PZ850U

When I install a vanilla copy of Win7 with no other software or drivers the audio works fine. I hear the Win7 startup sound. I get audio in all of my ripped DVDs, etc. I see the correct speaker layout on my Denon LCD display.

As soon as I install the Intel HD Graphics drivers, the audio stops working. I can see the speaker displayed correctly on my Denon. I can see that the computer is making sound through the volume control panel but I get no audio through the speakers. If I go through the generic Win7 speaker config and swith audio profiles from Stereo to Surround (or anything else), the audio starts working again. But once I switch audio sources, ie, Media Player, Media Center, TV, etc...the audio stops working until I switch the speaker config again.

Everything that is recorded has audio but the playback usually requires that I "jiggle" the speaker config to actually hear audio out of my system.

Sometimes I can get the audio to play by switching between an analog channel and a HD channel.

As a side note, bitstreaming with Arcsoft works flawlessly (with the 170 beta build). My Denon decodes DD TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

As another side note, my old HTPC was connected to the same system but was i7 based with a Xonar 1.3slim audio card. I had zero problems with this setup.

I've setup Win7 from scratch a number of times to isolate the issue to the graphics driver. Everything works fine until I install the Intel driver. I've also tried 3 different versions of the driver to no avail.

As you can imagine, this renders this HTPC pretty useless.

Anyone have any ideas or experiencing the same problems?

Update:

I just installed Win7 x86 and have the same problems. So it doesn't look like it's a Windows x64 issue either.

idata · ‎02-22-2010

So I have isolated the issue to the audio driver called "Intel Display Audio". I extracted and separated the graphics and audio driver out of the original download from Intel's site. I install the graphics driver and in the control panel I see "High Definition Audio Device" listed twice in the Sound category.

With just the graphics installed, the system audio works perfectly. I can switch between sources and the audio always works but when I try to play my blurays, it DOES NOT use the passthrough. I can it back in DTS or DD mode (standard 5.1). When I try to use the HDMI passthrough I get no audio.

So then I tried updating one of the "HD Audio Device" listed in the control panel. When I do that, the system audio stops working when I switch between sources but the HDMI passthrough for my Blurays DOES work.

My gut is telling me that this is a problem with the PAP/HDCP handshake. Since the audio and the graphics work and are so tightly integrated, I am going out on a limb and RMA'd my gigabyte board and reordered an ASUS board. Hopefully this will solve my problem and I will have all the system sounds working as well as the passthrough.

As a side note, my old HTPC setup would play audio depending on how I had my system speaker config. For example, if I recorded a HD channel that was broadcast in 5.1 but had my speaker config setup to playback audio in 2 channel stereo, it just would. This made it easy to switch audio from my main 7.1 room to my bedroom that only has 2 speakers. But now, the source audio "overrides" whatever I have the system setup as. So this weekend I was trying to watch the Olympics in my bedroom but since it was recorded in 5.1, the voice channel was being piped to my center channel, which I don't have in my bedroom. This is rather annoying but I didn't have this problem on my other system with the Xonar.

idata · ‎03-11-2010

Hi,

I am basically having what I believe is probably the same issue with the HTPC that I just built myself today.

My config is;

GIGABYTE GA-H57M-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H57 HDMI Micro ATX

Intel i3

Windows 7 x64

Drivers that came with the motherboard.

My connections are as follows:

Motherboard > HDMI > Denon 3310 > HDMI > 46" Samsung Series 9

What happens for me is the audio will work (if I play an MP3 for example), but as soon as that audio stops, I can't hear any audio again. Then I have to change sources or the mode (Stereo/DTS/PLII etc) on the receiver to get the audio to start again.

Unfortunately (like you), this makes my new HTPC absolutely useless...I am not able to return this gear either.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be very greatful.

Thanks

idata · ‎03-15-2010

Try setting your default audio format in Windows 7 to 24bit 44100kHz. When I set my default output to this setting, I consistently get all the audio I should when switching sources. I believe this is a Denon issue. I have had conversations with other Denon owners and they all say they had the same problems and changing this setting worked for them.

idata · ‎12-12-2010

My problem is similar. When I'm playing music through the HDMI output, the sound stops when I turn off my TV.

Playing music from my Sony PS3 through the identical setup, I do not have this problem.

My setup:

Intel i3-350/H55

Intel Display Audio driver

Win 7 64-bit

Denon AVR

Panasonic plasma

When I turn off the TV, I hear a relay click in my AVR and the sound stops. With the PS3, the sound comes back on after a few seconds.

With the HTPC, the sound doesn't come back. If I turn the TV back on, sometimes the sound will start playing again, but not always.

I've also tried switching to a different input on the AVR, and then back. This will also bring the sound back on, but then it will stop after playing a couple of minutes.

Message was edited by: aplovisia to add OS info

idata · ‎03-15-2010

Try setting your default audio format in Windows 7 to 24bit 44100kHz. When I set my default output to this setting, I consistently get all the audio I should when switching sources. I believe this is a Denon issue. I have had conversations with other Denon owners and they all say they had the same problems and changing this setting worked for them.

idata · ‎03-19-2010

lancia - you are a legend!

That appears to have fixed the problem for me!

I literally spent 15-20 hours playing with settings on both the reciever and in Windows (except the one you mentioned) and I still couldn't sort this out. That default audio format setting seems to have been it.

Thank you so much for your help.

Regards

Matt

idata · ‎03-21-2010

I'm glad I could help. I'm on a month straight of working out all the kinks with this new chipset/cpu. Although my AVR supports the 24bit/192Hz audio format, I still can't get audio to play back with these settings. On my old HTPC I could. As far as an HTPC goes, this is the least stable build I have seen. There are a zillion new BIOS settings and Windows tweaks on top of the drivers still being fairly new so I'm guessing things will get better as software updates are released. I really hope things get more stable because my wife is killing me with all the BSOD, locks, unexpected restarts, etc. I'm currently testing a basic Win7 x64 build. I'll see how this goes for a week then test out a basic x86 build. Hopefully one will work better than my current setup.

idata · ‎09-17-2010

Lancia - Kudos to you! Thank you so much.

Your solution worked for me. I just put together a PC with a i5 680 and an ASUS P7H57D-V EVO motherboard. I then got a Denon 2310CI and some really nice speakers and hooked everything up to my LCD tv with HDMI. Imagine my disappointment when I could not switch between applications without losing audio. I could not even switch between songs without losing audio. I called Denon tech support today to find out what I was doing wrong and I was told that's the way it is using a receiver connected to a PC with HDMI cables. He told me to connect to the Denon 2310 with optical cables instead of HDMI. Thank you for your wonderful advice. Show this to your wife and tell her thanks for sharing you with us. I am sure there are lots and lots of people who have benefited from your research but have just not posted a response. Thanks again.

idata · ‎10-05-2010

I have a similar setup but a slightly different problem. Number one, when i configure the intel hd audio speakers and set it as 5.1, the front/rear left/right outputs wrongly. I have tested my speakers on the denon and it works fine with other inputs (dvd, sat etc), and just not the PC, which is connected via hdmi. Any ideas on how to fix this? Also wanted to know if anyone knows how to disable the dolby/dts decoding on the pc side so that my denon can decode it instead.

idata · ‎04-07-2011

I haven't been back here in a while but have found solutions for my original problem. One of my main problems was with the memory. I spent a little extra on the memory and bought a little higher spec because I know how finiky these systems can be with cheap memory. Turns out the cheaper Kingston memory fixed a lot of my bluescreen issues and ever since I replaced the memory the system has been rock solid. When I say solid, I mean not a single crash or blue screen and it is used every day. It goes to sleep and I wake it up when I want to use it. I rarely restart it.

I had been using the workaround to get my audio to work by setting the default Windows 7 audio format to 24bit 44100kHz. This changed with the release of the Avatar Bluray. Denon released a firmware update to the 4301 AVR that magically fixed the audio issue. I called them on this well before this update and they "assured" me it wasn't their problem. After the firmware update, I called Denon to find out what updates were made to the firmware that could have fixed my problem but they didn't have an answer. I then told them that whatever update they did fixed my audio switching problems and left it at that.

JMcKa · ‎11-07-2011

I had this problem on a H67 with a Denon AVR590. I got the service agent to update the firmware and all was resolved

idata · ‎11-20-2011

How do I go about updating firmware on my AVR590? I have the same annoying problem and there's no service center nearby. Any advice? Thanks

idata · ‎11-20-2011

That is something you will need to call Denon about. I know the AVRs with an ethernet connection allow live updating. If yours doesn't have an ethernet port it should have a USB port on the back. You need a thumb drive and the image. I think you just put the firmware image on the root of the thumb drive and power on the unit. Getting the firware may be a problem in itself. Again, I would call Denon and ask.

idata · ‎11-20-2011

There's no USB port or ethernet on this model so I'm not even sure how they update the firmware. I opened a ticket with denon support online a couple months ago after finding your thread on AVS forum but got busy and didn't follow through. In my case I have a z68 i3 and this receiver and I have to swap audio modes to get sound just watching youtube videos and live tv on WMC when switching between fullscreen and windowed mode. Similar to what you found, setting audio quality in Windows to 16bit 32KHz (FM) everything works as it should, except it keeps reverting back to default 16bit 48KHz on it's own and the problem comes back.

The post here from another 590 owner is the first confirmation I've seen on this model and I'm glad to see a firmware update fixed it. Now to deal with Denon and get mine fixed!

JMcKa · ‎11-23-2011

Unfortunately the 590 has no way of upgrading the firmware without a service center. Contact Denon, and they should point you in the right direction.