Lost line-in in audio Philips Aurilium

[Howard Brazee]

Last week, I copied music in to my XP computer via my Philips PSC805
Aurlium external sound card. At various times I used the mic in and
the line in tab.

I couldn't find the setting in Audacity 1.3 to record and let me hear
at the same time, but it did record. And when I turned it off, I
could hear what went to my computer.

A couple of days ago my computer aborted with an NVIDIA error (blue
screen of death). I downloaded a new video driver and installed it.
But when I started recording, I did not get any sound. When I
stopped Audacity, I still didn't have sound from the line in nor mike
in. I plugged the cords into a different computer and got the sound
just fine.

I looked at the sound settings and noticed that the input and output
settings were now separated a bit, where I used to be able to adjust
them all together. Nothing was muted.

So I downloaded and installed the Phillip drivers. It took me a
while to find out that I can monitor either the mike or the line-in.
Odd. But now I am only recording the left channel. I cannot
adjust the balance which is greyed out.

I pulled out something I recorded last week and verified that it did,
in fact record in stereo. I did verify on the Web that the blue
jack in the rear is a stereo line-in plug.


Why have I lost the right channel?

 

[Paul]

Last week, I copied music in to my XP computer via my Philips PSC805
Aurlium external sound card. At various times I used the mic in and
the line in tab.

I couldn't find the setting in Audacity 1.3 to record and let me hear
at the same time, but it did record. And when I turned it off, I
could hear what went to my computer.

A couple of days ago my computer aborted with an NVIDIA error (blue
screen of death). I downloaded a new video driver and installed it.
But when I started recording, I did not get any sound. When I
stopped Audacity, I still didn't have sound from the line in nor mike
in. I plugged the cords into a different computer and got the sound
just fine.

I looked at the sound settings and noticed that the input and output
settings were now separated a bit, where I used to be able to adjust
them all together. Nothing was muted.

So I downloaded and installed the Phillip drivers. It took me a
while to find out that I can monitor either the mike or the line-in.
Odd. But now I am only recording the left channel. I cannot
adjust the balance which is greyed out.

I pulled out something I recorded last week and verified that it did,
in fact record in stereo. I did verify on the Web that the blue
jack in the rear is a stereo line-in plug.


Why have I lost the right channel?

There is a manual here.

http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/p/psc805_17b/psc805_17b_dfu_aen.pdf

An internal view here.

"Philips PSC805 Aurilium 5.1 Channel External Sound Processor"
http://www.aegophile.com/reviews/psc805/psc805.htm

The manual claims, with no Philips software installed, the
device will be detected as a stereo USB audio device. So
it is not supposed to need software, to get a bit of basic
functionality.

This document is from the USB standards forum. It doesn't
add a lot of value to the story, except to note that
there is a "wchannelconfig" descriptor type, and if it
is 0x0000 hex, that gives a mono configuration as near
as I can tell. Perhaps the system has captured a
corrupted bit of info from the device, which is declaring
the thing to be mono ?

http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/audio10.pdf

If it was my device, I would:

1) Uninstall the Philips software.
2) Disconnect the PSC805.
3) Follow this procedure, to flush everything USB related.
http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup Device Manager Safe Mode.htm

Windows should re-enumerate your USB ports, whether on the
chipset, or on a separate USB card. Any memory of the PSC805
at the USB level, should disappear at this point.

If you want to use all the fancy Sound Agent features:

4) Install the Philips software. Plug in PSC805.

Otherwise

4) Plug in PSC805.

The USB device, now newly discovered, should be probed for
its USB data structures. The fact that the input channels
are stereo, should be discovered at that point, and your
balance control should come back (if you are lucky). At
least, that is what I'd try.

I don't see anything in the manual, to suggest there is a
"channel chaining" mode. A useful feature sometimes, is if
recording from a mono device, it is nice if the system is
fooled into copying the signal into both left and right
recording channel. I don't see anything in the manual to
suggest that the Philips software offers that as an option.

Paul

 

[Howard Brazee]

Nice detailed response. I'll let you know how it works out, thanks.

 

[Howard Brazee]

1) Uninstall the Philips software.
2) Disconnect the PSC805.
3) Follow this procedure, to flush everything USB related.
http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup Device Manager Safe Mode.htm

I did everything except this. I was scared to delete all of my USB
drivers (including my mouse), as some are for unusual devices.

Actually, I got to the point where I tried to determine which USB
driver(s) to delete when I got cold feet. I didn't see any
meaningful names to indicate which one might be the Aurilium driver.

But that didn't solve my problem.

I'm going to have to gather up enough courage to follow the directions
completely. But past experience has taught me that my fear is well
grounded.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I did everything except this. I was scared to delete all of my USB
drivers (including my mouse), as some are for unusual devices.

After a few days, I tried uninstalling my USB drivers, which was
difficult, since my mouse is USB. I uninstalled a few using my
keyboard, and got where I needed to reboot.

I haven't gotten them all out yet, but may give up - not having a
mouse is very difficult with some of my applications.

 

[Howard Brazee]

After a few days, I tried uninstalling my USB drivers, which was
difficult, since my mouse is USB. I uninstalled a few using my
keyboard, and got where I needed to reboot.

I haven't gotten them all out yet, but may give up - not having a
mouse is very difficult with some of my applications.

Got everything finished - still no stereo input. I wonder what's
changed from when it worked.