Need audio help.

[Somedude]

I am using a ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe motherboard with on-board sound, and recently my sound has stopped working. I have tried updating my audio drivers, but the problem persists. There is simply no sound coming out of my speakers at all, and when I open up Sound and Audio Devices in Control Panels, it simply says that there is "No Audio Device", and the device volume section is grayed out to me. I know that my speakers are properly connected, because the power light is on and if I turn the volume on them up, I can hear the white static background noise. For some reason, my computer randomly stopped recognizing my speakers.
Can anyone give me any help in solving this issue? Do you all think it is an issue with my sound card, or is there some type of troubleshooting method I can go through that will allow my computer to start recognizing my speakers again. Any help I can get on this matter will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Rory Buszka]

Hearing the static doesn't mean your speakers are properly connected - noise can also be injected in the electronic section of the speakers themselves. However, it sounds like your problem is worse. I know someone who has had nothing but trouble with that motherboard.

The next step is to check Device Manager to see if there are any hardware components marked by a large question mark, or with an exclamation mark on the icon. If so, then the computer recognizes that there is onboard sound. Open the device dialog window and see if Windows says there is no driver installed for that product. If it says 'this item is working correctly' or the sound device(s) does not appear, then it may be a hardware problem. First check the BIOS to ensure that onboard sound is enabled at the hardware level - if you can't find an option in the BIOS for this, then don't worry - it's just your board, and it's time to get a new one.

If Windows detects the device, but says that no driver is installed, then try re-installing the sound card driver. If this doesn't work, then try a clean install of Windows, with all the drivers installed from the ground up. Copy your essential files, downloaded program installers, and email database file to another hard drive, and then load your Windows XP CD and try re-formatting the hard drive partition that contains the existing Windows XP install. Then re-install Windows XP in the same location. Then try installing all the drivers from the motherboard CD before installing any other programs or updates.

If none of these things works, it may be time to RMA your board to ASUS.