[groggycl]

Hi, I have an HTPC with a Zotac ION 330 mobo, 2 gigs ram, 1,5 tb etc etc...

I use it everyday via HDMI in my house but sometimes I bring my pc to a friends house and I connect the audio via OPTICAL and it used to work.. well today it doesnt.. Since the last time I used it I added a hard drive and re installed windows 7 (I use XBMC for windows) and didn't realized that in the playback devices I now don't have the option to set audio to digital or anything, just HDMI.

Any help? can anyone tell me if the optical red light should shine even inside the bios? in my pc it doesn't shine at any moment.. I tried using XBMC live form a usb flash drive and it doesn't work either. Maybe some jumper I could have moved when installed the new hard drive (I don't think so, but could be)?

EDIT: No analog audio neither!! so just HDMI..

Please help me!

[Benjie]

Have you enabled external audio through BIOS?

[bfox55]

Perhaps you are missing drivers after the win 7 re-install? Check your device manager in the control panel and look for any audio devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them.

[groggycl]

Have you enabled external audio through BIOS?

Yes, it is as always. Internal + External... and I tried with only external, but then windows show the volume control with a red cross, and it won't work.

Perhaps you are missing drivers after the win 7 re-install? Check your device manager in the control panel and look for any audio devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them.

I don't think so, I tried with ubutun live, and in win7, there are no missing drivers.

I am loosing it! the thing I don't understand, why only hdmi? can anyone with this kind of pc tell me if the optical out emits light only when a so with respective drivers is loaded, or it shines every time since the pc is turned on?

[maxinc]

Can anyone with this kind of pc tell me if the optical out emits light only when a so with respective drivers is loaded, or it shines every time since the pc is turned on?

On my Zotac the optical light is on once the system booted and is off during startup.

Edit: Did you try a different optical cable? It is quite common for these to crack when mishandled or stepped on. This would make the data transmission impossible, even if you can see the red light going through the other end.

[groggycl]

On my Zotac the optical light is on once the system booted and is off during startup.

Edit: Did you try a different optical cable? It is quite common for these to crack when mishandled or stepped on. This would make the data transmission impossible, even if you can see the red light going through the other end.

The problem is that no SO recognise that there is an audio device for this... And the optical out of my doesnt emits light at all...

[maxinc]

I would reset / clear the bios settings to default to make sure there is nothing in there that could affect this.

I would then boot with the original / unmodified Live CD from a USB stick.

If the light is still off, I would say the Zbox is at fault.