No audio output, mic doesn't work and other things

Is my motherboard bad, or have I missed something?.

This started with MSI B360M mobo, and four year old gigabyte video card. I have three monitors and use six desktops in my writing and image manipulation using Lightroom. Running Win 10 V 2004 patched so far.

My window have been drifting between monitors when their desktop is not active. Annoying, mostly, but made me leery of the video card.

Wednesday, the box booted and seemed OK but had a win 10 update pending so I ran it. The re-start hung because the board never powered-off. Since that time, it only shuts down by holding the ON button for several seconds.

I replaced the video card with an MSI Radeon 5500 XT. Windows no longer drift but the other stuff remains.

"Sleep" and "shutDn" keys on my keyboard turn off the video but do not shut the box down as they did earlier in the week. "Sleep" does save the memory and it restarts where it left off but the lights remain bright in the box and I have to use the ON button.

I have an amp plugged in to the audio socket but it no longer gets any signal. There isn't even any noise when I turn the volume full up. But, in Settings-system-sound, the Master Volume indicator bar shows a bouncing line if I have an audio input (like Media Player).

What might I have missed, here?

There are multiple problems and may or may not be related to the audio. I just installed (Tuesday) an MSI RX 5500 XT video card and it did no "harm" to my audio. The video card can probably be eliminated.

If you are using the PC (motherboard Realtek sound) first thing to check is the Input and Output sound devices. See my attached screenshot. If its not the sound devices settings, reinstall the Realtek from MSI (other sources may or may not work correctly).

I didn't address your other problems. Just the audio.

MSI Downloads:

Support For B360M GAMING PLUS | Motherboard - The world leader in motherboard design | MSI Global

Thanks, Fireberd, for the link, I installed the new driver and the Nahimic3RestoreETC, that I had never seen before, it had exactly the same result. No output but the input Master Volume line shows input signal. As usual, restarting to install the new driver required shutdown by the ON switch.

I downloaded and attempted to install Nihimic 2 driver but got the message "Installation could not proceed: this machine is not compatible with our audio software"

New Wrinkle: The Realtek HD audio manager does not launch when I change the output to my other amp as it did in the past.

The audio is generally behaving very badly.

Second attempt to send this

I would revert to the older driver that doesn't require Nahimic.
Uninstall existing Realtek and Nahimic, then restart PC (Important don't skip this step) then Install the older Realtek. Restart PC again after the install. Go to the sound panel and set Realtek as the devices as I have shown.

See what this does.

Sadly with your other problems it may take a "clean" new Windows install before declaring its the motherboard.

Try uninstall audio card drivers via Device manager , reboot , let Windows to install them drivers. If dont work , make another one reboot.

Thanks for the replies. I know more now than I did when this started. Summarized:

Computer boots OK and does everything I have wanted (Lightroom, editing, Solitare)

BUT does not fully shutdown using software; Manual only (hold ON 'till the lights go out). The "Sleep" key turns off the video, runs the sleep process (it restarts where I left off) but the lights in the box stay lit and require manual shutdown. The ShutDn key also cuts off the video as does start-power-shutdown but requires manual.

AUDIO:
The Realtek HD audio manager does not launch when different output is plugged in
No output, not even noise
Master Volume indicator bar shows presence of audio input.

I bought PC-Doctor for $20 (cheap) and it finds NO problems.

Mobo is less than 2 years old, I checked all the caps and reset all the connections.

My sound/shut-down problems were accompanied by a new video card installation glitch. A user named Svet on the MSI user forum suggested a CMOS reset, and that cleared EVERYTHING, rikki-tik. On the first re-boot, a Realtek audio controller different from the one I was used to popped up on the screen. I checked the audio and heard the music. The ShutDn key turned off the lights.

Thank you all, particularly Fireberd for your help. It was a slog. Remember the CMOS!

Great! Thanks for the fix feedback. I should have thought of the CMOS reset. We use that to fix issues on the Dell help forums.