[RESOLVED] Analog audio disabled

I installed the latest ver of Win 10 Pro on a second drive on one of my PC's and set it up as a dual boot w/ the original Win 7 Pro. It mostly seems to work except for one annoying little thing. I can't get my analog audio out to work. Digital/HDMI is fine and I can use a USB to miniplug adapter to plug in my speakers so I can get audio but it just mystifies me why analog doesn't work.

If I boot into Win 7 it works just fine so it's not a hardware issue.

The only thing I can see is that when I open the sound settings I get a message that I need to activate my PC right in that window. I'm wondering if that's because when I installed the OS I didn't have any speakers connected to the computer and now it won't recognize them until I activate it. The only thing that I can find doing research is that cosmetic desktop enhancements are disabled until I buy a license.. nothing about not being able to adjust sound properties.

If I run the built-in sound test in Win 10 it says it doesn't see anything plugged into the jack even though there is.. tried it with both front and back case jacks and with speakers and headphones.

I've installed every possible related driver that I (and Windows) could find but that made no difference. And Windows says I already have the best/newest one available as well.

I'm wondering if doing an over the top repair/reinstall with the speakers plugged in might sort it out. I'm just hesitating to do that because of past bad experiences doing similar procedures with Win 7 and earlier versions. Win 10 related sites claim the repair install is more reliable but I don't always believe what I read LOL.

tnks

Links with some ideas to try (if you have not already seen them). (Not all ideas would be worthwhile, but some might.):

https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-h...ing-windows10/

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...4-61222aa6ce39

https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-ha...rking-all.html

Thanks... None of those things, most of which I'd already looked at, are effective. Problem is the OS doesn't even see that speakers or headphones are plugged in. It just keeps asking me to plug them in when I run the troubleshooter. I've done so many times and rebooted numerous times with them patched in as well.

This is the activation message I get on the sound display page. This is something I have not yet seen elsewhere in my searches. The only two options I get from that drop down menu is the one showing and another for the optical output.. nothing for speaker/analog outputs. I tried disabling and enabling them both but to no effect re analog output showing up.

Also had a look in uefi to make sure MB built-in audio was enabled.

Is your Windows activated?

No, it is not. I've been led to believe by approximately 7.5 million websites, many of which seem to know what they're talking about ;) , that it should not make any difference except for the ability to make cosmetic changes to my desktop layout... which I can't.. and the occasional nag to buy a license which I will do if I decide I like Win 10 enough. So far it has not won me over.

One of many examples: (I do get this message) but nowhere have I seen anyone else getting it in sound properties.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...heap,5717.html

I don't think you should have to activate Windows to get the sound working. I have not had to do that to get drivers installed and configured on any of the systems I have installed Windows 10 on.

Ugh. Ok, I'm going to mark this as resolved because now when I boot into Win 7 I also no longer get analog audio out so I think it is a hardware/motherboard problem. Perhaps intermittent at first but now completely done. As I said I can get the speakers working via USB out in both systems so it's not a show stopper. Just a new puzzle/annoyance. At least now doing an over the top reinstall is off the agenda.

(Still not sure why I get the activation message in sound settings but whatever, it does sort of work ok)

Tnks.