Sound problem

[BUDFORCE]

So I just use motherboard onboard sound. I have some front audio outputs and mic jack that wired up as standard with case. Motherboard is MSI P67a-DG65 using the standard audio drivers for this board - MSI Realtek HD Audio

After the recent big windows update (although that may have been conincedental) my sound stopped working.

I run my PC sound through my stereo which is plugged in at the back.

So:

Stereo plugged in to the back (as it has been for years), the PC recognises that something has been plugged in, I set it to stereo or sound output, but nothing, no sound.

Plug my headphones in to the front audio socket, sound works completely fine.

Plug the stereo in to the front audio socket, again, works.

So, to me anyway, that would eliminate any issues with the stereo itself or cable. It would elimiate now having the sound turned up (well I bet people have done it lol) - would also elminate software????

Possible there is an actual hardware issue on the rear sound connections, broken? IS that a thing? Really cant figure else what else it could be.

[cruciate]

So I just use motherboard onboard sound. I have some front audio outputs and mic jack that wired up as standard with case. Motherboard is MSI P67a-DG65 using the standard audio drivers for this board - MSI Realtek HD Audio

After the recent big windows update (although that may have been conincedental) my sound stopped working.

I run my PC sound through my stereo which is plugged in at the back.

So:

Stereo plugged in to the back (as it has been for years), the PC recognises that something has been plugged in, I set it to stereo or sound output, but nothing, no sound.

Plug my headphones in to the front audio socket, sound works completely fine.

Plug the stereo in to the front audio socket, again, works.

So, to me anyway, that would eliminate any issues with the stereo itself or cable. It would elimiate now having the sound turned up (well I bet people have done it lol) - would also elminate software????

Possible there is an actual hardware issue on the rear sound connections, broken? IS that a thing? Really cant figure else what else it could be.

Sometimes during an update, I've had my rear jacks become reassigned for no good reason.
In the realtek audio programme (every board has a different version so I'm doing this from memory) you can select each jack plug and change what they are assigned to.
For example, because I've got speakers and headphones that I both want plugged in the back, I changed one of my surround jacks to be reassigned as a headphone jack.
Make sure the opposite hasn't happened and the Jack you are using hasn't been reassigned to something else.

The second thought is that windows isn't autoswitching to your speakers.
When you plug in the back you hear the device plugged in noise, but windows isn't selecting that in its own audio software.
Go to sound settings via control panel (or the bottom right notification area and click on the speaker) and check that windows is outputting to the rear jack and hasn't switched your default device to the front.

[Aaron]

Did you happen to do an Nvidia driver update at a similar time (assuming you have an Nvidia card).

Their drivers install an HD audio driver by default, which I've known to disable certain Jack sockets before.

[michaelkenward]

As others say, updates are good at upscrewing media settings. Mine have a habit of changing the default audio output from the standalone speakers to the HDMI speakers in the monitor. I think that is down to the issue that Aaron suggests. Nvidia drivers.

Poke around in the entrails to check where Windows thinks it should send the sounds.

[BUDFORCE]

I fixed it, don't know why I didn't try this earlier, but the motherboard has 6 sound input/outputs I guess if you have those 5.1 speakers or whatever.

Anyway I plugged the cable from the stereo in to another one at the back, windows detected it and I set it as stereo output and bingo.

Could be the software was reset doing that, I have a feeling though that the socket in the motherboard I was using is broken.