well...
thats weird you are not having any problems. i know there are others out there like me that are having the problem.
oh.... btw of course i checked to see if it was my default device. i need working drivers so like i said in my original post please assume i have a clue. thanks for trying but i posted that in the first place to avoid these kind of obvious responses.
so to be clear..... the drivers were automatically updated by windows 7. windows thinks everything is functioning correctly. they are assigned as my default drivers. there is no little red ex by the speaker icon in the tray. the playback devices shows a graph next to the device that would be lit up with green bars if it was working. there are no bars. the only indications other than that that it isnt working is the message "failed to play test tone" when testing and also simply the fact that i have no sound.
i have looked all over for working drivers on various forums using various google search terms like "windows 7, drivers, soundmax, realtek, asus, etc..."
i have been to all these manufacturers website and keep downloading versions of the driver that dont work among other issues that are haulting any progress.
edit: whoa i found a fix. read on.
im not sure how this works but it does....
1. first download this file:
Link Removed - Invalid URL
2. right click on "Computer" and select properties. Open Device Manager.
3. Uninstall Soundmax.
4. Open that zip from step 1 and extract to a new folder on the desktop.
5. Run Setup.exe and complete.
6. Restart.
7. Once you are back you're sound icon will be missing from the tray and windows will reinstall the soundmax drivers. (This was weird to me because I already uninstalled and tried installing seperate drivers before and wasnt able to make it work).
8. Open up YouTube or something and if everything worked you should be able to hear a video or something even though the sound icon is still gone. (You can just restart again and the icon will reappear.
* The downside to all this is that the zip installs a small but strange media player that you can just ignore. Worth it to me.
I found this out by searching for the solution on YouTube believe or not. I decided to type out the direction myself since I didnt see why the guy did it via YouTube in the first place.
Here is the video if you want the directions literally spelled out for you