[gkinberg]

Hi, not sure if this is the right place but here goes.

Have a benchmark DAC1 USB  connected to my windows 7 32 bit PC server via USB. In order to get audio to play out of my TV (will give details for the reason behind this desire if necessary) I went to the speaker icon on the bottom right hand of the screen and clicked on it.  On the resulting popup depicting the increase of volume setting there is an icon. My icon represented my benchmark 1.0. I clicked on it. A seperate window poped up. Toward the bottom there is a drop down menu and I selected "disable this devise". I assumed that I could toggle back and forth between disable and enable. wrong. Now that I have disabled my benchmark, I can't figure out how to reenable it. It is gone as a selectable audio device. Threrfore, I no longer have music. I am very annoyed.

I assume there is a very easy fix, which makes me doubly annoyed that I am to stupid or addled to figure it out. Please help.

Thanks, Garth

[srb]

Right-click on the speaker icon and select "Playback devices".  From the Sound dialog box that opens you should be able to right-click on any of the recognized playback devices and click Enable (or Disable) as well as set the Default Device.

Steve

[gkinberg]

Steve, I thought you might come to the rescue like you have done so many times before. However, I tried what you suggested and Benchmark 1.0 icon is not shown in the dialog box that opens upon selecting "playback devices".

I will give a little extra info. I first disabled my Benchmark 1.0 to watch a TV show. after disableing it there was then an icon of a speaker at the top of the volume bar that appears with you click on the speaker icon located on the bottom right hand of the computer screan. I took that speaker icon to indicate the window default setting and i was able to get audio out of my TV to watch my show. When the show was done, I repeated the process and disabled the speaker icon thinking this would toggle me back to my Benchmark 1.0 icon. Instead, a third icon appeared that reads "Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)" when you mouse over it.

When I right click and select "playback devices", there are two things shown in the dialog box: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio Not plugged in) with a greyed out icon of a speaker next to it that has a red downward pointing arrow supperimposed on it; Below that is: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio Default Device) this has an icon next to it with a grean check mark supperimposed on it. There is no longer the Benchmark 1.0 icon that use to be my default playback setting.

I unpluged the benchmark from the computer and repluged it in - nothing. I went to control panels to sound options but couldn't find anything useful. I think I found the driver and it is still installed on my computer. I would just assume uninstall everything and then reinstall it like the first time i plugged it in but I'm not sure how to uninstall it and am not sure if it is a good idea even if I did.

Continue to need help, Thanks, gArth

[srb]

Okay Garth, it sounds like it somehow has become disabled at the Device Manager level which would cause it to not appear as one of the Playback Device options.

Try this:  Go to Control Panel > Device Manager, and look under the section "Sound, video and game controllers".   Hopefully you will see it listed there (with a small down arrow to the right of the icon indicating it is disabled).  Right click on it and select Enable.  Then it should show up in the Sound > Playback devices list.

Let me know if this works.

Steve

[gkinberg]

The plot thickens Steve, I found it in Device Manager as you suggested but it doesn't appear to be disabled. All three "devices" are listed under sound, video and game controlers but none are greyed out or show that they are disabled in any way. Nor do any show that they are the default. When I right click on Benchmark 1.0 the options are the following: Update Driver Software; Disable; Uninstall; Scan for hardware changes; properties

I tried updating driver software -  Windows says the driver is up to date
Didn't disable or uninstall
Scaned for hardware changes - this didn't fix the problem.

Thanks by the way for taking your time to try and help me out

[srb]

The plot thickens Steve, I found it in Device Manager as you suggested but it doesn't appear to be disabled.

In that case, here's what I would do next:

1.  In Device Manager, right-click on the Benchmark USB and select Uninstall
     (If you are asked if you want to delete driver files, say no)

2.  Unplug the Benchmark USB cable

3.  Restart the computer

4.  Wait for everything else to load, then plug in the Benchmark USB cable

You should see it again appear in Device Manager and hopefully will now also see it under Volume > Playback devices.

Steve

[gkinberg]

Bang! Success. Thank you very much Steve for trouble shooting this for me and coming up with a solution. i am listening to music again!

In a related issue, The speaker icon or driver that i used to listen to my TV show and then disabled thinking it would toggle me back to my benchmark device is greyed out and I can't seem to enable it if I wanted to. I could use the same technique and uninstall it but considering it is a realtek computer based device, I wouldn't know how to unplug it and replug it in to get the system to recognize it. Any thoughts?

Garth

[srb]

Garth, you have a PM.

Steve

[David C]

Hats off to SRB (Steve), I always find his comments thoughtful and spot on. Just wanted to acknowledge it on the forum

David

[Austin08]

Just another though, wouldn't it be easier to just high light whatever audio play back device that you want to use and set as default instead of disable and enable it.