minor sound problem with ASUS A8V deluxe

I say it's minor because sound works great in games and in every application except with Internet Explorer and when working with some Windows XP prof. (SP2) applications like the windows explorer. When using Internet Explorer, the problem is when you click on links, you should here like a crisp sounding click sound (kind of like a camera click sound) but what I hear is a thunk kind of sound, kind of like a incomplete sound - but it's intermittent. The strange thing is if I open the realtek sound manager by couble clicking in the task manger in the lower right corner, all sounds work perfectly with internet explorer and other windows XP applications. Just curious if anyone has any helpful suggestions that could correct this problem.


I have the ASUS A8V (rev 2) deluxe motherboard with latest bios, and I'm using the onboard sound a Realtek ALC850, 8 channel CODEC. I'm using the SPDIF output on the board in 2.1 configuration. I've applied the latest Realtek audio drivers from Realtek, and the latest via 4in1 drivers from ASUS for my motherboard. I know that Via has newer drivers but I'm not sure I should use them. I don't see any problems in device manager. I've re-installed the directx sound drivers from microsoft a couple of times. I've run the directx sound tests and they seem to work fine. Also, this system is an upgrade from Windows ME to Windows XP, prof (SP2) without doing a clean re-install like formatting the hard disk. Now I also notice that in device manager/system devices there are like 9 or 10 "standard pci standard host cpu bridge" entries which seems strange to me and maybe a problem with the via install; just seems strange to have so many.

Ok, I solved the mystery with my minor sound problem. It seems, if I bring up soundman.exe and enable "SPDIF and Analog Audio" (previously set to SPDIF only) it solves my problem. Don't know why but it does work.

Just wanted to add that soundman.exe is the realtek sound manager.