hi all - long time listener, first time caller

I have a wee problem with my HTPC - it's a home built box with the aforementioned ECS GF8200a and a dual-core AMD black edition CPU, twin DVB-T tuners, Philips SRM7500 remote etc etc.  Plays TV fine (ok, so it took me a month to sort it out properly....) note (and this is important!!) that it plays video/audio through the HDMI connector! - but it will NOT play mp3 audio, some videos have no audio either.

I've tried a million mp3 players (including windows media player!) but none of these will play music.... hmmm.  now I must mention it's been through a few builds and iterations, so it USED to play music, it just doesn't now!  I've noticed the IDT audio can be a bit flakey, and certainly the app that comes with the board is rubbish.

However, I noticed something very interesting last night while I was trying to get it to work...

I was "playing" a song via windows media player (with no actual sound playing!!) and started fluffing around with the IDT control panel, and when I clicked the "setup" button (also works if you click on of the speakers to "hear a sound" that suddenly, my music started playing though the HDMI!!  As soon as you close Windows MP and then run it again, no sound - until you clikc a speaker in the control panel applet.

anyone?