G74SX-NH71 user idiot

[dstrakele]

In a clean Windows installation, Creative THX TruStudio is not installed, unless you download and install it. It is only preset equalizer settings anyway. If you launch Realtek HD Audio Manager on a system without THX TruStudio, you will see a "Sound Effects" tab within the "Speakers" section. It is divided into an "Environment" section at the top with an "Equalizer" section on the bottom. The Equalizer section displays various preset equalizer settings - Pop, Live, Club, and Rock. But if you mouse over the button to the right of the "Reset" button, it displays "Change to graphic EQ". Click on it and a graphic equalizer with 10 adjustable frequency bands will be displayed.


There is nothing in the Equalizer section that would cause the volume to to change randomly during playback, however. I like @Myk's suggestion for that, but I can't figure out what Windows would be detecting as communication on your system to reduce the volume. It's supposed to change the volume only if you are using your laptop to make or receive phone calls.

In my Sound dialog, I have the default configuration to reduce volume by 80% when communication is detected and have never encountered any muting of music playback. Have you installed any 3rd Party communication programs on your system?

EDIT: I just saw your post made just prior to mine. So it's intermittent mute on reboot? Didn't catch that in your OP. Would it be appropriate to use a "You damn idiot!" here?
;>{)>

Check out suggestion #2 in http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...3-f4d3687c5b77 and create a new account with Administrator rights, then attempt to reproduce your mute on reboot issue. However, if this mute on reboot issue is recent, then Windows System Restore (suggestion #1) would be the way to go.

[esotericman]

I had not thought about trying a secondary Admin account. Since it is random, upon reboot, I never know when it will occur. I do have a secondary account, without admin rights, and logging out of my account and into that one does not kick Windows hard enough to knock off the mute issue.

I honestly think the sound drivers is causing some sort of Dolby effect... you know, you used to hit the button and the tape deck would be half muted... Sure it cleaned up the sound... I feel it's overcompensating. But that is completely separate from the muting...

I'll double check the sound driver tonight.

Thanks.

[dstrakele]

If booting into another account (even without Administrator rights) failed to resolve the issue, the odds of success that a new Administrator account will resolve the problem are very small. I just figured if you had to create a new account, why not give it full rights for the best possible chance of resolution?

When you did your current clean Windows installation, did you run into any problems installing Windows or any of the Windows Updates? The reason I ask is that your muting and DVD resolution issues appear unusual - like the Windows installation itself may be borked in some fashion. BrodyBoy has said that if you encounter problems during a Windows installation, it is best just to start over rather than try to repair the problem installation. You need a good OS "foundation" to ensure everything else will work right on your system.

Have you checked the Windows System and Application Event Logs to see if any of the Error and Warning Events point to a troubleshooting direction?

[esotericman]

I agree completely that there is little likelihood that a second account would help, this is a driver conflict or W7 problem, not a permissions issue, unless W7 is so alien that administrator level privileges to change the volume...

In any case, the install was flawless, every update has been flawless, not a bork in the bunch. I do all of my updates manually, so I keep an eye on the system.

I will check the Event Log, as I had a mute problem two days ago, again. I do know the video player issues, including a green screen on youtube (in two different browsers {firefox and chrome}) do not show up there.

[dstrakele]

Thanks for the suggestion, but my issue is full mute on reboot. I can go to the volume icon, and change the percentage, and see a tiny green bar leap up to maybe 5%, but no sound is heard. I can reboot, disable the drivers, reinable, and nothing, it's random. In safemode, while muted, I get a "services failed", but when I run the idiot fix it tool, windows gives me an idiot message about not being able to run services. I love circular logic...

How do you recover from the "mute on reboot" issue?

EDIT: I see in http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-afb000d63e3f you report "A few reboots later, the sound works fine." Plus you ALWAYS hear the sound at the splash screen prior to when Windows is loaded.

You also report when booting into Safe Mode, the error "audio services are not running" is displayed. It may be useful to enable boot logging (see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ding-safe-mode) on your system to see what goes on...

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...5-d6ba89c53f6e gives you an idea of what Windows Services may be affected when you get the "Audio Service is not running" error.

What 3rd Party Antivirus, AntiMalware, Firewall, Remote Access, or Disk Management software have you installed to this system? These are the usual suspects that may cause conflicts that can shut down the Audio Service or its dependent services.

[esotericman]

Mute on reboot has only been fixed with multiple reboots!

I run avast only from your list of possible programs. I do not hear the Windows splash screen every time, I hear the ASUS post tones, I enabled them to ensure it was not a hardware issue, but a software one. I know, not quite an idiot.

I will try to do some tinkering in the next day or two, I see nVidia released a new driver today as well.

[dstrakele]

Boot into Safe Mode to disable other drivers that may interfere with the video driver installation (like Avast). Choose "Custom Install" and check the "clean install" checkbox so your current NVIDIA driver is removed prior to installation.

[esotericman]

Thanks for the suggestion, I have done said update, and will advise as problems do or do not occur. I suspect the devils will be back shortly.

[esotericman]

Well, the video play back issues have been fixed thus far. Internet videos are playing as has one DVD which would not play on this system before the driver update.

Sadly, the mute issue also just occurred...

I have four classes of errors which occurred many times.

Service Control Manager : The Peer
Service Control Manager : The ATKGFNEX Service service depends the following service ASMMAP64. This service might not be installed.
Microsoft Windows WLAN Authentication : WLAN
Microsoft Windows PNRPSvc : Peer Name Resolution Protocol cloud did not start


So while I not idea how to fix it, I can see the WLAN is why reboots are probably so darn slow. But of those four I see nothing which might knock out my sound. Ideas?

Thanks again.

[dstrakele]

From the errors you posted, it looks like the ASUS ATK Package might be involved. It controls the function keys, 3 of which control speaker volume. One of them is the speaker MUTE key.

You might try my recommendation in another recent thread: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post109550