Microphone Missing - Biostar MCP6PB M2+ running Windows 7 32-bit

[DaveLembke]

I have a system that I upgraded from Windows XP Pro SP3 to Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and the audio driver from Biostar for the MCP6PB M2+ as well as the driver from Realtek both work perfect for sound, but show that there is "No Audio Devices Are Installed" under the Recording Tab, under Sound, in Control Panel.

My system has 2 hard drives in it that I can swap between Win XP and Win 7 by shutting it down and moving Power and SATA connection between drives. I know that this is a driver issue and not a hardware issue because everything runs fine on XP, but under Win 7 there is No Recording Device Detected and states "No Audio Devices Are Installed" under the Recording Tab, under sound, in control panel.

Anyone know of a solution for this other than to use Windows XP Pro drive for when I need to use the Microphone + Speakers, since Win 7 are Speakers without Mic?

Below are screen shots from control panel showing that there is Sound Audio set up, but No Recording  =(

[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]

[Geek-9pm]

Is this it?
http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=387

Drivers and manual are there.

[DaveLembke]

Yah, thats where I got the Biostar supplied driver

Operating System: Windows  Vista x86/ Vista x64/ Win7 x86/ Win7 x64  6.0.1.6299 2009-11-02 [62.91 MB]

And at Realtek they have a driver that is like 84MB or something around that size that is newer that gives the same result of No Recording Device, when the Biostar supplied older driver is upgraded to newest from Realtek

Originally I tried the Drivers Disc that came with the motherboard, since it has a control panel of its own for detection of devices. Under Windows XP, you plug in a device and it pops up a window asking if its a headset or speakers and if speakers options for 2.0, 2.1, 5.1 etc. This feature is missing in Windows 7 for all 3 sources of these drivers. I think it also supported re-mapping of ports in XP where you can reach behind in the dark and plug into wrong port and it asks if its a Mic, Headset, or Speaker Pair...in which you could use a MIC port as an audio port and an Audio Port as a MIC port. But I might be getting confused with my older system which was a Fatal1ty gaming motherboard that was great in its time, but the socket 775 only supporting up to Pentium D 3.2Ghz wasnt enough power for my needs, and I know for sure that this board had an audio riser card that had every audio option you could ever need including optical audio. (Wife was glad to see that red glowing rig retired for a non-LED bling unit )

Worst comes worst, I could install a different sound card into the one PCI slot, but I'd rather try to get this running without band-aiding it with other than integrated sound. Right now I have a second NIC in the PCI slot that I use more than the need for a Mic. Also seen USB Audio Card-Like devices now that act as a portble sound card powered and operating off of USB port.

Here is what I could do to band-aid this I suppose if all else fails instead of having to give up my single PCI slot to install a different sound card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829128004&cm_re=usb_sound-_-29-128-004-_-Product

[Geek-9pm]

Normally one uses the drives given by the motherboard maker rather then the chip maker. The motherboard maker may make some subtle changes that are not covered by the generic drive from the chip maker. This is by design.

BTW, it is easier to swap boot drives by just going into the BIOS and selecting which hard drive you want active. Quicker and you can do it with power on. But opening the case a pulling cables on and off will damage a drive sooner or later.

I think there is some way you can use XP drivers in Windows 7. Not sure. Looking around I did not find a clear answer to this issue. I guess you already tried the XP drivers in Windows 7.

[Computer_Commando]

1.  Normally one uses the drives given by the motherboard maker rather then the chip maker. The motherboard maker may make some subtle changes that are not covered by the generic drive from the chip maker. This is by design.
2.  BTW, it is easier to swap boot drives by just going into the BIOS and selecting which hard drive you want active. Quicker and you can do it with power on. But opening the case a pulling cables on and off will damage a drive sooner or later.
I think there is some way you can use XP drivers in Windows 7. Not sure. Looking around I did not find a clear answer to this issue. I guess you already tried the XP drivers in Windows 7.

1.  True.  However, I have found that Biostar never releases updated drivers for their motherboards, especially Realtek who seems to update them every month.  The Realtek drivers are "all inclusive", i.e. every chip for a particular OS.  That's why the download is so large.
2.  Agreed.  Why swap cables?
3.  I have no idea why XP drivers work & Win7 drivers don't.

[DaveLembke]

I chose to go the route of swapping cables mainly because 99% of the time I am running Win 7 and 1% of the time I need to run older apps that dont play well with Win 7. Also because the last time I set up a dual boot system with 2 drives always connected a virus came in on the newer OS and took out not just the primary drive for that OS, but also destroyed the data on the second drive with an older OS.

Its been a long time since I got nailed by a virus, but I like the physical isolation so that if 1 drive gets nailed, I can move over to another drive until I have the time to rebuild the troubled one.

I would have gone with a removable drive bay, but this is a minitower and I like having Dual DVD-RW drives. If I had to swap more often between the XP and 7 drive, I'd definately sacrifice one of my 5.25" bays for a removable drive bay to avoid damaging a drive.

I have also seen people complaining on google search about this issue before posting it here about Biostar not staying up to date with drivers. Another interesting fact is that the driver when installed shows a path stating VISTA in the path even though I am running 7. So I think they are already using old driver that is not necessarily forwards compatible with 7 when it might work well with Vista.

I think I am going to see if that $13 USB sound adapter works as a band aid I guess. I tried to contact Biostar support and they stated that the warranty support period for my board expired in April 2010 after buying it in April 2009 and that the board was designed around XP/Vista support and there is no further support for Win 7.

[Geek-9pm]

Yeah. At $13 it is not worth the time to pursue this any more.

BTW: This problem with drivers is harder than what I thought. Just now saw this come up on CNET, Interesting. It explains why the drivers have to be made to new standards. Microsoft has found that virus attacks get into loose drivers.

Wish Hardware driver makers Knew this!!!!! Windows 64-bit offers a feature called Kernel Patch Protection, which protects the Windows kernel from unauthorized changes. Maybe the hardware companies would make better drivers that don't Damage the Cabs in windows 64 bit systems.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20063220-83.html#ixzz1MwbZQ5TM

So then, when buying a new motherboard, make sure they have the 64 bit drivers ready to go. In the future, the 64 bit OS will dominate. (I hate to admit this.)

[DaveLembke]

Just figured I'd post that this USB sound adapter works perfect. Now I can use Ventrilo and Skype. Audio quality isnt bad. Clear and clean.