My new H-P quad-core Vista desktop has no function in its co-axial digital audio output. An advisor at H-P tells me it's due to a flaw in the operating system and that I'd have to download a restoration program onto a DVD, that would replace the entire OS and erase everything I've loaded onto the computer. This doesn't seem right, as I'd think that Microsoft would send an update to patch this specific problem, along with the dozens of other updates they provide. Is this non-working digital audio output something that all computers that are running Vista Premium have? Or is it confined to H-P models or just my computer only? I think that a USB soundcard might be my easiest and quickest solution.

I'd bet its the sounddrivers for your HP branded soundcard that doesn't support all feauters when running Vista. Sounddrivers are a black chapter in the Vista book.

IMHO -> The builtin AC97(realtek) sound works well in Vista. Newer soundcards like them from ASUS also works well. Soundblaster is _not_recommended_ in Vista.

// Lazze

Hello J. Stephen -

Ran across your thread. Last night, found an article on Microsfts website that might give some insight. It is a long, long article but very insightful. If the link doesn't take you to the exact article, it should take you close, just look for one dated 1/6/07 from "recrec". Here goes...

https://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?pageindex=8&siteid=17&postid=485243&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=5

Again, very long article but gets into almost exactly the issues you may be looking at. It was enough for me to decide to revert to XP from Vista. I am no techie, but I'm willing to risk it if it helps things work.

Thanks for the replies. Now, H-P is sending me some software on a CD, of an exact nature that I don't know. They seem to have encountered this problem with Vista before. I'm hoping that the CD will have just an update to correct the audio fault and not cause a restoration of the entire OS.