Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Hello,

My PC has started to develop an incredibly annoying problem.

After a random time of using the PC the CMI "Smart Jack" utility will
keep opening to report that a speaker wire had been removed.

This impacts what ever I'm doing, I could be playing a game and it will
come out of the came back to the desktop, watching a film and the same
things happen.

Of course no wire are being removed and they are securely fastened.
I've connected them up to a 7.1 system.

A reboot will cure the problem as the more you reset or close the Smart
Jack window the more frequently it reopens.

Any idea what has occurred to make this happen? And how I could fix it.
Reinstallations of the drivers do not help.

Thanks,

Andy.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

In article <1107160562.281265.251420@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
"andyw" <andyww14@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> My PC has started to develop an incredibly annoying problem.
>
> After a random time of using the PC the CMI "Smart Jack" utility will
> keep opening to report that a speaker wire had been removed.
>
> This impacts what ever I'm doing, I could be playing a game and it will
> come out of the came back to the desktop, watching a film and the same
> things happen.
>
> Of course no wire are being removed and they are securely fastened.
> I've connected them up to a 7.1 system.
>
> A reboot will cure the problem as the more you reset or close the Smart
> Jack window the more frequently it reopens.
>
> Any idea what has occurred to make this happen? And how I could fix it.
> Reinstallations of the drivers do not help.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andy.

If you look at page 31, it shows how the jack sense works.
http://cmedia.com.tw/doc/C-Media%2 [...] 00.99C.pdf

There are two sense pins - SenseA and SenseB. Each sense pin can
handle four switches. By using binary weighted resistors, the
sixteen possible combinations of switch closures on the four
switches, cause a varying voltage to be made available on
a sense pin. (There is likely a Vref and a fixed resistor value
inside the CMI9880, to complete the circuit. There is a voltage
divider action between the resistor network outside the chip,
and whatever fixes the current flowing out of the pin on the
chip.)

Inside the CMI9880, there is an analog to digital converter, that
converts the sixteen possible voltage values, back into a four
bit code from 0000 to 1111.

This is a clever way of transmitting four bits of information over
a single wire, and is used to reduce the number of pins needed on
the IC package for the jack sense function.

Now, why did I explain all of this ? Just to suggest there is a
lot going on there, and thus a lot of ways a failure can occur.
Some ways it can screw up:

1) Internal reference inside CMI9880 is varying. But you would
likely notice something funny going on with the output sound,
if that was happening.
2) A switch contact inside one of the jacks is not making good
contact. This would cause the value coming from the ADC inside
the CMI9880 to "dither". It would see 1101, then 1100, then
1101 or the like. Each of those transitions would cause the
CMI smart jack panel to appear on the screen.

The Azalia jacks have three pins for the 1/8" stereo plug,
and also have a contact pair that connects to the resistor
network. All it would take, is an undersized 1/8" stereo plug,
or a bad contact on the contact pair, to cause that to
happen.
3) One of the resistors in the resistor network is out of tolerance.
I have seen surface mount resistors crack - the body is made
of glass, and the wrong temperature profile or pad shape can
cause a lot of stress on them.

Another possibility, is you've connected something to the
AAFP audio header. There are pins in your user manual,
labelled "sense1_return", "sense2_return", and "sense_send".
These three pins could be connected to two resistors of
the four resistor network above. If you aren't using an Azalia
audio cable on this header, then nothing should be connected
to those pins. Any connection that screws up the resistor
network, could result in the ADC in the 9880 mis-sensing the
voltage on SenseA or SenseB.

If none of the above is suggesting any fault you can check
for (including a short from an extra standoff, to something on
the bottom of the motherboard), you may need to RMA the board
to get it fixed.

Could this be a driver problem ? I haven't a clue. I mean,
it could be something as simple as two instances of some driver
running or something. It is pretty hard though, to suggest what
to look for.

The V5.12.01.0008.51.61 driver, dated Jan12/2005, is the latest
driver, and is available on the Asus download page. It is a
huge download, and most of the download is for a multi language
Microsoft UAA driver. (I pity the dial-up modem users out
there...) If you want to try this one, uninstall the old stuff
first.

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mi [...] a/cmi9880/

Page 172 of Rev 1.0 of the Intel HDaudio spec also has some
info on how the jack sense is supposed to work. The Intel
spec says the CMI9880 should be waiting 0.25 seconds, before
declaring a jack has changed states, so whatever is wrong,
it is lasting for at least 0.25 seconds.

ftp://download.intel.com/standard [...] dio_03.pdf

HTH,
Paul

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Is your P5AD2 the "E" version? Latest BIOS 1003 for the "E" claims to have
changed the way the jacks work.
However I have had trouble getting 1003 to work on my P5AD2-E. Make sure you
have 1002 available to put back on the board if you have problems.

Barry


"Paul" <nospam@needed.com> wrote in message
news:nospam-3101050450220001@192.168.1.177...
> In article <1107160562.281265.251420@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> "andyw" <andyww14@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > My PC has started to develop an incredibly annoying problem.
> >
> > After a random time of using the PC the CMI "Smart Jack" utility will
> > keep opening to report that a speaker wire had been removed.
> >
> > This impacts what ever I'm doing, I could be playing a game and it will
> > come out of the came back to the desktop, watching a film and the same
> > things happen.
> >
> > Of course no wire are being removed and they are securely fastened.
> > I've connected them up to a 7.1 system.
> >
> > A reboot will cure the problem as the more you reset or close the Smart
> > Jack window the more frequently it reopens.
> >
> > Any idea what has occurred to make this happen? And how I could fix it.
> > Reinstallations of the drivers do not help.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Andy.
>
> If you look at page 31, it shows how the jack sense works.
> http://cmedia.com.tw/doc/C-Media%2 [...] 00.99C.pdf
>
> There are two sense pins - SenseA and SenseB. Each sense pin can
> handle four switches. By using binary weighted resistors, the
> sixteen possible combinations of switch closures on the four
> switches, cause a varying voltage to be made available on
> a sense pin. (There is likely a Vref and a fixed resistor value
> inside the CMI9880, to complete the circuit. There is a voltage
> divider action between the resistor network outside the chip,
> and whatever fixes the current flowing out of the pin on the
> chip.)
>
> Inside the CMI9880, there is an analog to digital converter, that
> converts the sixteen possible voltage values, back into a four
> bit code from 0000 to 1111.
>
> This is a clever way of transmitting four bits of information over
> a single wire, and is used to reduce the number of pins needed on
> the IC package for the jack sense function.
>
> Now, why did I explain all of this ? Just to suggest there is a
> lot going on there, and thus a lot of ways a failure can occur.
> Some ways it can screw up:
>
> 1) Internal reference inside CMI9880 is varying. But you would
> likely notice something funny going on with the output sound,
> if that was happening.
> 2) A switch contact inside one of the jacks is not making good
> contact. This would cause the value coming from the ADC inside
> the CMI9880 to "dither". It would see 1101, then 1100, then
> 1101 or the like. Each of those transitions would cause the
> CMI smart jack panel to appear on the screen.
>
> The Azalia jacks have three pins for the 1/8" stereo plug,
> and also have a contact pair that connects to the resistor
> network. All it would take, is an undersized 1/8" stereo plug,
> or a bad contact on the contact pair, to cause that to
> happen.
> 3) One of the resistors in the resistor network is out of tolerance.
> I have seen surface mount resistors crack - the body is made
> of glass, and the wrong temperature profile or pad shape can
> cause a lot of stress on them.
>
> Another possibility, is you've connected something to the
> AAFP audio header. There are pins in your user manual,
> labelled "sense1_return", "sense2_return", and "sense_send".
> These three pins could be connected to two resistors of
> the four resistor network above. If you aren't using an Azalia
> audio cable on this header, then nothing should be connected
> to those pins. Any connection that screws up the resistor
> network, could result in the ADC in the 9880 mis-sensing the
> voltage on SenseA or SenseB.
>
> If none of the above is suggesting any fault you can check
> for (including a short from an extra standoff, to something on
> the bottom of the motherboard), you may need to RMA the board
> to get it fixed.
>
> Could this be a driver problem ? I haven't a clue. I mean,
> it could be something as simple as two instances of some driver
> running or something. It is pretty hard though, to suggest what
> to look for.
>
> The V5.12.01.0008.51.61 driver, dated Jan12/2005, is the latest
> driver, and is available on the Asus download page. It is a
> huge download, and most of the download is for a multi language
> Microsoft UAA driver. (I pity the dial-up modem users out
> there...) If you want to try this one, uninstall the old stuff
> first.
>
> ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mi [...] a/cmi9880/
>
> Page 172 of Rev 1.0 of the Intel HDaudio spec also has some
> info on how the jack sense is supposed to work. The Intel
> spec says the CMI9880 should be waiting 0.25 seconds, before
> declaring a jack has changed states, so whatever is wrong,
> it is lasting for at least 0.25 seconds.
>
> ftp://download.intel.com/standard [...] dio_03.pdf
>
> HTH,
> Paul

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Hello Paul,

thanks for the comprehensive explaination. I'm been geting the problem
more recently of late so last night I swapped out all of the cables
into diferent ports, so hopefully that'll cure it.

Fingers crossed it's not a hardware fault as the system the board is in
is water cooled which means removing it for any reason would be a
considerable effort.

Thanks again.