Will USB work on broken MB?

[Thomas Bailey]

Have MB where the audio input to the Intel board has been burned out by a power spike. (yes I was protected by an APC unit). Replaced the PS. Updated all drivers and downloaded all MS Updates. No sound. Called Velocity Comp. and the diag. my problem as the audio burned in MB. No, Realtec does not show in Devices.

Question is: if I get a USB Audio device will it play if a audio processor is burned on the board? I have some nice 5.1 Creative speakers that are connected to the dead MB sound inputs, so I'll just play thoes out the USB device. Does the USB by pass all MB processors. Finally, I'm used to Realtek sound and does any audiophile where you are think I'll come close to that with a under 100.00 USB sound card?
Thanks for any help.

[patio]

Why not an internal card ? ?
If this isn't a laptop you can get one of those for waaay less than 100 Bucks...

[Thomas Bailey]

Sorry, thought I put in the intro that this is a PC (Velocity Edge Gx440).
In an ideal world yes I'd go audio card! But I have no slot available. My twin ATI Radeon 4800s take up the slack. No PCI solts unless I duck it 'teen the graphics cards=heat issue, right.

[patio]

They also have PCI E sound cards that use the smaller slots if you have them...pretty sure you would if you have 2 vid cards...

[Geek-9pm]

Here in USA you can get USB sound cards cheap. Both Wallchart and Amazon ofter them. Some are cheaper that regular PCI cards.  But you still need external powered loudspeakers, which can cost more that the USB card.

[Thomas Bailey]

Patio, I'll look into PCI-E sound cards didn't know they existed. You are right I do have 2 more PCI-E slots.
Geek, there must be someone out there who has a powered speaker and USB S.C., I'll do some research.Thanks!

[truenorth]

Just before you run off and spend your hard earned money. " (yes I was protected by an APC unit)." These things usually come with astronomical guaranties (seen them quoted in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) against the failure to "protect" attached devices. Might be an occasion to test that.I have never been in a position to test it personally even though i do have one. Others may have had some experience with that aspect of those units.truenorth

[Thomas Bailey]

Truenorth, that idea has crossed my mind. May have some moments this weekend to get on the APC site and see. Got my receipts still. I'll post what I find out.

[DaveLembke]

   At a gas station/convenience store that I was responsible for the IT for which was part of a small food store chain, they took a direct strike of lightning one hot summer afternoon killing the UPS and computer, pump controller, and POS system, and I sent them the UPS and the computer ( minus the hard drive ), as for they had to verify that they were at fault.

   In the end, they shipped it back to us declining warranty replacement of the computer because the power supply of the computer still powered up, but the system was black screen because of fried motherboard. They did however give us a new replacement UPS since the other one did as it was designed to which was to stop a lightning strike and it was within its warranty replacement period. The cause of the damage was written up as the fact that the computer was killed by an unprotected network connection or that lightning took a direct path to the computer via the Cat5 jack bypassing the protective route of the UPS. The inside of the computer had cooked chips and vaporized traces around the integrated NIC.

  Your system with fried audio port sounds just like the system I dealt with back in 2007. The audio equipment either was not powered through the UPS or somehow the spike or strike bypassed the UPS. Maybe APC has better warranty than Tripplite with a no questions asked replacement etc, but I think they will also want to investigate the damages otherwise people would exploit the warranty process for free upgrades.

   We were satisfied with Tripplite's judgement on declining the computer replacement, but instead replacing the UPS as for I am in agreement with their claim that their UPS did as it was intended and the damages to the computer were the result of the lightning taking an alternate unprotected path to the system. I still buy their products to this day and they last.

[Geek-9pm]

DaveLembke,
 Thanks for shagging.  Real life experiences with direct lightning mean a lot more that talk abut theory. Surge devices give some protection, but never enough.

Any company the has a brink and mortar store inn an exposed area should have protection non every piece of wire going into and out of then building.
http://www.gwi.net/policy/blog/protecting-business-networks-from-lightning-damage

Thanks again for posting.

[Thomas Bailey]

I,m in the country in the snow belt of Ohio. We had a power out. 2 comp. plugged to 2 different APC units. Both computers were off. One stayed off when the power came back on (sort of on...lights in home did not come on and the comp. that got its UPS and sound fried came on all its own (I shut both down every night). Then I noticed the comp. display did not come on. Turned off the machine till I got back home from work. The good comp. on another APC unit turned on fine. It's on an older APC unit too. Just wasn't my day (or week considering the time I have spent on getting my Velocity back up and running)
I do want to add that along the way I had to call Velocity computers in Virginia and the the tech help was just amazing! It was the absolute best help (diag. sound drivers and sound on MB issue) in my 25 years of owning computers. I get another Velocity, anything, when the time is up on any of our families machines.
I'll see what APC says.

[Thomas Bailey]

My APC is 4 yrs. old (warrenty: 3). Did some research and found what I really need is: Eaton Home Service panel surge protector cost about 60-70 bucks. Heres why:http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServices/Electrical/ProductsandServices/Residential/SurgeProtection/CompleteHome/index.htm

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

You don't say what version of windows you are running or whether the sound was working after the powersupply was replaced but before you updated the drivers. there is a problem with realtek HD drivers and Windows XP SP3.
Seems very strange that the power supply was hit and the only thing not working is the on board sound ?. If this is the case it might be worth claiming on insurance for the damage as normally this is the start of further problems and the computer should be replaced.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Sorry didn't answer your question . If it is a driver / sp3 issue then putting another sound device on the computer still won't fix it sorry.

[Thomas Bailey]

replaced ps with a 750W 12 volt railed unit and the sound processor was knocked out as well. The APC surge/ back up unit is now 1 tr. out of warranty. Came with a 3 yr. A replacement for my computer protection would now cost....sit down first please and keep your arms free so you can grab your hair and pull herd like I did when I did the APC "unit match-up" on their web site... $950.00! Looking into an Eaton spike home voltage protector for about $65.00.