Soundcard (SoundMax) Died and won't come back?

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:09 pm

I've had Windows XP on this machine for about 3 years, sound has worked fine forever. A few days ago sound stopped working and on startup there was a warning that Soundmax couldn't load.

I tried to re-install the drivers and there's always an error message saying that it won't install and that I've uninstalled the drivers and would need to reboot to install them (reboot just leads to the same error message).

I've tried a lot of things.

1. I've tried the "have disk" method of pointing at the .inf file to load the video drivers.

2. I spend $120 to get the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade hoping that would solve it. No luck.

3. Once in Windows 7 I realize that maybe the BIOS is old so I update that...no luck.

What else can I try? I can see tons of other people have posted similar problems to this before but the tricks don't seem to work for me.

BIG QUESTION: When I did the Windows 7 install from Windows XP did it pass along Bad device information and perpetuate the problem. I tried to do a clean install but doesn't appear to want to work from an Upgrade CD.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:20 pm

I would have done Win7 from scratch... find a Win7 ISO 64 or 32bit which every your using and use the key you have and just reload from scratch. Just keep in mind even after this your card may not work since its older and drivers are unlikely to exist for it. Time to move on to another card from the way it sounds or should I say "doesn't sound"

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 10:08 pm

Sava700 wrote:I would have done Win7 from scratch... find a Win7 ISO 64 or 32bit which every your using and use the key you have and just reload from scratch. Just keep in mind even after this your card may not work since its older and drivers are unlikely to exist for it. Time to move on to another card from the way it sounds or should I say "doesn't sound"

The sound card is built into the motherboard...

If the same key will work on a fresh install then yeah I guess I'd be all for that. Even better if I could download a Win7 ISO with the windows updates on it already...

morbidpete · Post by **morbidpete** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:45 am

purecomedy wrote:The sound card is built into the motherboard...

If the same key will work on a fresh install then yeah I guess I'd be all for that. Even better if I could download a Win7 ISO with the windows updates on it already...

Just be carefull with the ISO you download, Make sure its a retail or an OEM depending on the version you bought. If you look for a pre-patched or slipstreamed version. Make sure it is not pre-cracked or anything. Will make things difficult down the road with updates

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:20 am

Some one can correct me if I'm wrong, but even if you use an upgrade version of windows 7, going from XP to Seven results in what is essentially a clean install. You should end up with a windows old folder with all the XP files in it. The way I understand it you can upgrade from Vista but not XP. By upgrade I mean retain your installed programs etc. I don't think anything was carried over from XP.

I had a similar problem on an old PC-Chips motherboard. The onboard sound just quit working one day. I tried uninstaling and then reinstaling the driver software but it acted like the card wasn't even there. Toggled it on and off in the BIOS several times and even reset the BIOS with the jumper but it never did work again. Even after a clean install of XP. I ended up putting in a dedicated sound card. =(

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:43 am

purecomedy wrote:The sound card is built into the motherboard...

If the same key will work on a fresh install then yeah I guess I'd be all for that. Even better if I could download a Win7 ISO with the windows updates on it already...

I have a Win7 64bit OEM Disk if you want I can make a ISO and torrent it to you myself

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:19 am

You could download and run the Windows 7 upgrade adviser. It should tell you if any of your curent hardware needs drivers or is unsuported.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

Have a look at this site and decide for yourself if you trust it or not.
http://www.askvg.com/direct-download-links-download-official-original-and-untouched-windows-7-iso-32-bit-and-64-bit/

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:31 am

Each windows 7 DVD 32 or 64 bit contains all the supported versions. The ei.cfg file locks the DVD into one particular version. If you edit your ISO file and delete the ei.cfg file from the sources folder you won't be locked into the one version. You will get a menu listing all the different supported versions and you just select the one you want to install. The 32 bit version will list Starter to Ultimate, the 64 bit Home to Ultimate. You still have to have a matching product code for the version you select so you can't cheat. You can leave the product code blank though and run it for a 30 day trail. Instead of burning a DVD you could use this tool to make a bootable USB install thumb drive. Then just delete the ei.cfg file from the sources folder on the thumb drive.
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:38 pm

TheDude: I agree it should be a clean install even as an upgrade because it was from XP. The thing that tipped me off that XP may have passed Win 7 install a device list is that I have this USB flash drive problem that was happening in XP and persisted once Win 7 was installed. The way I fix it is to uninstall all the USB stuff, reboot and when I come back into windows the USB drivers all install again and the drive works. More than anything I just didn't know how fresh this install really was, it definitely makes me suspicious. I like the old days where you format the C Drive and you're really sure it's from scratch.

Step 1 I'm going to run the Linux Knoppix which will boot right from a CD tonight to see if it recognizes a sound device or not. I'm totally ok with installing a $40 sound card to keep this computer going. If Knoppix sees a sound card then I know to pursue another install of windows.

I'll try the thumb drive solution or altering that one file to do a fresh install. If I run into a dead end Sava I may take you up on your offer although I do need the 32 bit version.

I've actually got bigger issues with video now, you'll see a post about that in a few minutes.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:46 pm

purecomedy wrote: If I run into a dead end Sava I may take you up on your offer although I do need the 32 bit version.

Why stay with 32bit? Each key will work with 32 and 64bit and the driver support is just about par with each other. It will also give you the ability to use more than just 3.25gigs of ram.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:56 pm

Sava700 wrote:Why stay with 32bit? Each key will work with 32 and 64bit and the driver support is just about par with each other. It will also give you the ability to use more than just 3.25gigs of ram.

This computer has a Core2 Duo E6600 I believe. Maybe I've made a rookie mistake all along. I thought you needed a 64 bit processor to use Win 64 bit. God tell me I haven't been that stupid?

I thought to go 64 bit you needed one of the newer CPUs. Sounds like I'm completely out to lunch? I mean yeah the computer has 4 Gig of RAM, it'd be good to get the advantage of seeing all of it.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:05 pm

Core 2 Duos are 64bit.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:13 pm

Ok now I feel like a moron...wonder if I delete the ei.cfg file and stay with Home Premium if I can use 64-bit with my current serial number and be good to go.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:54 pm

purecomedy wrote:Ok now I feel like a moron...wonder if I delete the ei.cfg file and stay with Home Premium if I can use 64-bit with my current serial number and be good to go.

I would just back up your stuff and start over - you will be more happy doing that. Take your CDKEY and I can give you the 64bit ISO for you to burn to DVD and go with it.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:30 pm

purecomedy wrote:Ok now I feel like a moron...wonder if I delete the ei.cfg file and stay with Home Premium if I can use 64-bit with my current serial number and be good to go.

Your product code is good for 32 bit or 64 bit. And as far as I know you can switch from one to the other if you want. It appears if you buy OEM you only get the one DVD in the box so you have to chose 32 bit or 64 bit. If you pay a little more and buy Retail you get both DVDs in the box. Buying OEM doesn't lock you into 32 or 64 bit, their just stingy with the DVDs.

EDIT: Deleting the ei.cfg file won't make your 32 bit install disk a 32 bit and 64 bit disk. Just in case you confused what I said. Deleting that file just stops the DVD from being locked into one version, like say Home Premium. Removing the file just unlocks all the 32 bit version or all the 64 bit versions, depending on which DVD you have. You still need the 64 bit install media. I only mentioned it in case you know somebody with a 64 bit install disk. It wouldn't matter what version it was because you could mode it so you could install any version you want. If you know somebody with 64 bit Ultimate you can copy it, and modify it to install Home Premium 64 bit.

Unholy · Post by **Unholy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:54 pm

Here's a link to download Windows 7 Home Premium x64 iso. It's meant for when you buy from digital river but shouldn't matter. Hope you got a fast connection since it's a 3gb download.

http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:49 pm

Unholy wrote:Here's a link to download Windows 7 Home Premium x64 iso. It's meant for when you buy from digital river but shouldn't matter. Hope you got a fast connection since it's a 3gb download.

http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

Yeah that's a fast download... the version won't matter, his key will unlock whatever he purchased

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:50 pm

Yeah that was awesome speed and best of all the download didn't die when I was at 99% Thanks so much everyone for all the help.

I'll give that a try tomorrow. I put my Windows XP image back on here and the only symptom is that the sound doesn't work in XP.

In Windows 7 32 bit I added 2 additional problems
-More profound video flickering/pattern issues
-Loss of keyboard and USB devices

I sort of get the feeling that the motherboard has gone flaky but lets see how the Windows 7 64 bit install goes tomorrow. It'll be 64 bit and entice some different drivers to install plus it'll be a clean install this time.

One setting I was wondering about in BIOS is the "Play and Play O/S" setting. Right now I have it set to default No which means the BIOS gets to decide if that sound device wants to play nice! I wonder if I let Windows assign plug and play devices if I'd have any luck.

Anyone have experiences with Asus motherboards that slowly decline over time? I think this is my second one, the last one the hard drive controller got more and more unstable over time...

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:29 am

When you do a Win7 from scratch install prepare first with downloading all the drivers you will need and put them on a USB key such as chipset and so on this way your ready to go...then run a windows update a few times to ensure your up to date. I've used a bunch of Asus boards and never had issues..Win7 supported fully even on older ones.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:10 pm

Windows 7 x64 on an ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 here, Plug and Play Os set to the default NO in my BIOS. The only glitch for me is manually installing the ATK0110 ACPI Utility driver. I guess its part of the drivers on the CD thats included in the box but not part of the chip-set driver download from the web site. If memory serves me right it was the only thing flagged in device manager after a clean install. I always download and install the latest drivers anyway and save them on a thumb drive. I do my whole install from thumb drives.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:16 pm

Sava700 wrote:When you do a Win7 from scratch install prepare first with downloading all the drivers you will need and put them on a USB key such as chipset and so on this way your ready to go...then run a windows update a few times to ensure your up to date. I've used a bunch of Asus boards and never had issues..Win7 supported fully even on older ones.

Yeah good point. Want more evidence that my "upgrade" from XP passed along info to Win7....When I was in Windows 7 it looked like all those basic chipset drivers were installed.... Except for my audio device of course which refuses to show up to the party.

USB is another flaky thing on this machine so I'll probably put things on my 2nd hard drive partition as well.

Not holding out a lot of hope that tonight's Win 7 64 bit install will solve all the problems on this PC. Wonder if I can RMA the motherboard when it's 4 years old if just the audio portion of it is broken. When I'm having USB issues and video issues as well I think the problem goes deeper but I have the feeling that I won't know until I do a bunch of trial and error troubleshooting.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:18 pm

What you prob have happening is the "Native" drivers in Win7 which are very very many prob over took most of your hardware needs vs XP drivers cause they won't work with Win7 to start with. This includes chipset and whatever else is essential to certain components running. I'm very convinced at this point once you've gotten a RAW Win7 64bit install completed, then look at device manager you may find most pcs of your hardware already covered by the native drivers with the new win7 install. Beyond that, just look at each device manufacture's site for updated drivers or even windows updates will cover some if you do a check. I'd go for the site checks such as Nvidia/ATI and so on before hitting windows updates - graphics updates from WU sometimes can be flaky.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:47 pm

Well I installed Win 7 64-bit last night and no change....things are still majorly screwed up. Amazes me how much worse the video issues are in Win 7 than XP.

Looks like my new line of questioning is:

1. Is my motherboard defective
2. Is my video card also defective
3. Is it really just my power supply
4. Any combination of the above
5. Is it worth $150-300 to fix sustain this computer, or should I buy a new one. Personally I don't think I need a new one just yet.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:26 pm

A complete list of your system specs if you please.

Do you have any spare parts to swap in for testing?
Did you install all the latest drivers or are you still on the windows default drivers?
Could you describe the nature of your video problems?
CRT or LCD, and is your resolution set to the recommended settings for your monitor?

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:43 pm

Antec Case with 450W Antec PSU
Asus P5B Motherboard
Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor
XFX GeForce 7900 GT
2G X 2 = 4 Gb RAM (IOU on further info there)
250 Gb Hard drive (Seagate)
Hauppage Tuner card (150 model?)
LiteOn DVD Burner
24" Viewsonic widescreen vm2433 LCD monitor running on "native" resolution which is something like 1920 by 1080 (sorry will have to double check)

Parts to swap:
-I've got new Dell with a Geforce 260 video card I can swap in
-I've got RAM from that machine from prior years 2 * 512 MB

Did I install latest drivers?:
-Didn't update Intel Chipset drivers but can try. I view this as unlikely to help
-The sound drivers won't take at all as hardware for audio seems to be dead.
-I think the other drivers are useless - USB drivers provided by windows, Ethernet I have disabled since I have wireless adapter, RAID drivers - no RAID.

Nature of video problems:....I'll have to take a picture with a camera to show it I guess, will have to wait till Thurs night
-In WinXP 32 bit - For apps appears normal. When running games you get past the menu and start the game and immediately the whole screen gets weird diagonal lines on the screen and you can't see anything. Oddly enough you can ALT-Tab back to windows desktop and then click back into the game and it works after that. This nuisance was tolerable till the onboard sound card died.

-In Win 7 32 bit - Weird diagonal pattern shows up on boot up screens twice (takes 30 seconds to disppear each time). Open a web browser usually another 30 second lock up there. Try to play a game and pattern appears and ALT TAB trick doesn't work.

-In Win 7 64 bit - Same as Win 7 32-bit except no diagonal pattern on startup and slightly less frequent when doing things like web browsing.

Monitor further details:
My 24" viewsonic, I've tried...
-refresh 59 Hz and 60 Hz, did NOT try 30 Hz interlaced
-Same monitor works fine on my newer Dell machine with with a Geforce 260 G?
-I tried an old 20" or so non-widescreen Dell monitor with similar video issues
-I've tried windows driver for graphics, latest NVIDIA and one from like Aug 2009
-I've tried generic monitor driver and the specific one from Viewsonic

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:48 pm

2 follow up questions.

1. If my power supply was defective and not providing enough power could that cause my issues? For example, the extra pep needed to start rendering a game or on startup with tax the system and cause the weird video issue? It would case the sound card to not be recognized, not enough power for it?

Computer does not do typical bad PSU things like random reboots....so I think the power supply is fine. I have noticed 1 weird thing. If I leave the computer on for 3 months without a cold boot, when I try to turn the machine back on the power button doesn't work. I have to reset the power bar or unplug the power bar to get the computer On button to work.

2. In Win 7 64 bit the computer said 4 Gb but only 2.8 Gb of RAM usable. Is that right, I thought the whole point I went to 64 bit was to use the full RAM. Is this RAM issue at the BIOS level (whether it uses 32 bit RAM addresses?).

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:18 pm

Something doesn't appear correct.. is the Bios to the motherboard updated? Also is everything seated properly? can you post exact specs to your power supply? Also for the graphics card did you get the new drivers right from Nvidia's site as there are new ones released just a few days ago and be sure to do the custom install and check the box to do a "Clean" install. Is the system clean inside as in no major dust build ups? Are all the wires connected to the proper place on everything? Very interesting problems to trouble shoot that's for sure.

Also when you installed Win7 did you look at device manager and see what all it didn't install Native drivers too?

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:18 pm

I think I'd swap out the video card and see if things improve. It sounds like it has issues. The few times I've had a failing power supply the PC wouldn't boot up at all or only start up maybe 1 in 3 times trying it. Even when it loaded windows it would just lock up completely or spontaneously reboot. Sometimes you have to set a BIOS option to use the full 4 gigs or more. I think its called memory remap or something similar.

Unholy · Post by **Unholy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:23 pm

Check the temps on the card? I'd also say swap the card to see if that's the problem. As for the sound I would just get a cheap sound card if you can fix the other things.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:26 pm

Agreed. The video problem has been around for almost a year, the onboard sound card issue is a week old. Edit: I'll post temperatures on the video card if I think of it.

I have 2 issues is my view? The video card thing is not causing the sound issue is my guess.

I entered my motherboard and power supply into Google and found a few posts that Antec had some issues with Asus motherboards causing this audio issue. Don't know why this would be fine for 4 years and then die though. Not sure if a few people having this issue necessarily means I'll get the issue...

That said, if we solve the video issue I'm totally ok with installing a $40 PCI sound card to work around onboard audio. I've seen a few weird things with USB on this machine that kinda makes me want to move away from this motherboard (USB flash drive gets ignored and I have to uninstall all USB devices and reboot).

Thanks for the RAM "remapping" advice, I'll see if the option is there. I'm heading to the hockey game after work so won't have a chance to play with this stuff till tomorrow.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:47 pm

From what I have seen windows 7 doesn't play nice with older sound blaster live cards. I had to hunt up some modded drivers for my sound blaster live 5.1 PCI card, and even then some features didn't work right. Just a heads up if you pull something similar out of you parts box and try to get it working. Actually its not so much a windows 7 problem per say, its just Creative dragging their ass supplying newer drivers.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:55 pm

Check the Capacitors on your MB to see if they have "bubbled"

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:02 pm

The Dude wrote:From what I have seen windows 7 doesn't play nice with older sound blaster live cards. I had to hunt up some modded drivers for my sound blaster live 5.1 PCI card, and even then some features didn't work right. Just a heads up if you pull something similar out of you parts box and try to get it working. Actually its not so much a windows 7 problem per say, its just Creative dragging their ass supplying newer drivers.

I was contemplating an Auzentech sound card or possibly give the USB Zalman product a try just for something different. I remember from looking at Hydrogen Audio forum years ago that Creative Labs stuff is pretty bad physically (lots of base noise) and if you're saying drivers suck then my god avoid at all costs.... I'm a bit iffy on going USB since there is some USB instability on that machine at times.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:22 pm

my old creative audigy 2ZS died a month or so ago and i got this,a very good sounding card in my opinion.

even has drivers for windows XP64, which was a bonus to me, since i still have not gone to windows seven just yet.

OMEGA CLARO

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:59 am

Creative was big at one point, I see a lot of sound blaster cards in the old clunkers I work on from time to time. I've used a few over the years and have no complaints about sound quality. Its just that driver support from Creative sucks big time. They take forever to roll out new drivers even when there are reported problems with the current drivers. I just thought I might save you some more head scratching, in case you had one as a spare, and were contemplating using it. The first PC I tried windows 7 on was my old Athlon rig with a PC-Chips motherboard. As I mentioned earlier, the on-board sound had died. I tried to substitute a sound blaster live 5.1 and it didn't work out very well for me. That board eventually developed other problem and was retired. It looked to me like some of the capacitors had bulged.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:10 am

The Dude wrote:Creative was big at one point, I see a lot of sound blaster cards in the old clunkers I work on from time to time. .

Creative took a major PR hit when they failed to support their cards into Vista as fast as the other hardware manufactures such as Nvidia and ATI for example. It took alchemy and a few hacked drivers to just get some of them to work and even then it was just a few features and some low end sound reproduction.

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:13 am

I probably do have an old sound card somewhere but I'm wondering if it's on the slot used prior to PCI slot....old enough that I can't even remember what the one before PCI was called! Happy to be warned though, I've been kicking this computer hard enough so I'll take any advantage I can get.

As for the Creative labs sound quality....audiophiles are their own breed and have their own ideas about what good sound is so take that for what it's worth.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:21 pm

purecomedy wrote:I probably do have an old sound card somewhere but I'm wondering if it's on the slot used prior to PCI slot....old enough that I can't even remember what the one before PCI was called! Happy to be warned though, I've been kicking this computer hard enough so I'll take any advantage I can get.

As for the Creative labs sound quality....audiophiles are their own breed and have their own ideas about what good sound is so take that for what it's worth.

I believe you are referring to the ISA slot. lol, I dumped a whole box full of ISA cards at the recycling depot a few months back. There was probably 4 or 5 sound blaster 16 cards in the box along with some old modems and NICs. I don't see too many PCs with ISA slots in them these days, even the old clunkers I work on for friends have moved on to PCI or better.

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:17 pm

A couple of thoughts...

Are you running off of a battery back up? If not, you should be, seriously...
Minor fluctuations in the electricity that happen constantly can cause a myriad of problems and computers are extremely sensitive… Most people don’t pay much attention to their house lights that slightly dim then brighten when the compressor on the refrigerator kicks on, as an example... This is a sure sign of improper load balance of your homes electrical system. It doesn’t even have to be at the point that you can notice the lights for it to affect sensitive electronics… Electrical problems can cause many different types of problems with computers, especially when it has been happening for a long time… Too little is as damaging as too much, it just takes longer for the effects to be noticed…
I typically tend to go with more rather than less when it comes to psu. Although 450 watts for a psu on a newer computer is considered appropriate for most systems…

Diagonal stripes tend to point to vga… Bad drivers, bad card, bad power, bad slot, etc., …in my experience anyways…

As far as the onboard sound, try the drivers from ASUS. You may have to disable it in BIOS first, then clean out the old drivers, then install the new drivers, then reboot and re-enable in BIOS... If they don’t work, I would just get a new card and be done with it… JMHO…

I would definitely use Intel chipset drivers, no doubt about that. You can get them straight from Intel or get your boards manufacturers, just not Windows…

Here is a link to the ASUS downloads for your board.
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=YwIVDOTcvIMHZdTy
Chipset and the audio are there.
Using those drivers should eliminate many of the problems, including the usb... Then again, perhaps it is merely circumstantial, however all of the problems may be pointing to a mobo that is beginning to fail…

As a note, I do recommend keeping the "Plug & Play" set to NO in BIOS...

purecomedy · Post by **purecomedy** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:08 pm

Yeah I hope it's a bad video card rather than a bad video slot on the motherboard...Gonna pick up a new video card from Best Buy on the way home. It's easier to return stuff to Best Buy than the computer shops that I like to buy from.

Thanks for all the specific advice above. I'll definitely try things like cleaning out old drivers etc. It seems like the sound card dying on this motherboard is very common, either that or this motherboard requires your crazy tricks to bring it back.

All I can say is I wish when computers screw up that they would just die completely not partly work like this. It's so much easier to have no shadow of doubt that you just need to buy a new part.