Surround sound speakers problem!!

Bubba

Hi guys,

Look ive been havin this problem with my speakers. i got a new pc at christmas time and i bought a set of creative speakers. There's a subwoofer and 5 other speakers. But there's one big problem....... only 2 of them work??? why is that??? I am trying to play mp3 files and the 2 outside one's and the middle one's don't work. I used to have win 98 and when i played a cd i could get 4 speakers working wen i played it in the cd player you get with 98. but now with xp even playing a cd in winamp or window's media player only 2 speakers work.

can anyone give any advice??

thanks alot,

Bubba

oneweb

Not sure if you've tried this, but the Sounds and Multimedia control panel applet will have an option to set speaker type. Select the speaker setup that matches your speakers. (PS, did you try installing the latest sound card drivers?)

Bubba

yeah i've tried everything. i asked a friend and he thinks it might be cause the sound card is built into the main board.

wat u tink?

raffepat

What sound card/motherboard do you have it is definitely a set up issue if you let me know the names I will get you a fix

Bubba

yeh it's an AB48N shuttle mainboard and the sound card is built into it.

Krusty_Clown

Hmmmm....

Sounds like you've bought a 5.1 set of PC speakers..
(as in two front speakers (left and right), a centre speaker, rear speakers(left and right), and a sub).

In order to take advantage of these in a 5.1 environment (e.g. Dolby Digital sound or DTS), you need to have a sound card that supports 5.1, e.g. has distinct outputs for all 6 of the pieces of your speaker kit ( or has some kind of digital-out which is processed by your Creative Speaker kit)..

What is the onboard sound card? What kind of outputs does it provide? Which CL speaker package did you buy?

Bubba

The sound card isn't a 5.1 so do you think i should buy that sound card and that should that fix the prob?

sci0x

I have the exact same set of speakers. When you install all the CD's that come with the speakers there should be a new picture on the system tray. Right click it and and click speaker settings. On the first option Speaker / Headphone selection is probably on 2/2.1 speakers so change to 6.1. Then click synchronise with control panel. And make sure the option in the control panel is at 5.1 which is the highest option. Theres still a problem though sometimes when u turn on your computer this will automatically change back to 2/2.1 speaker setting. Hope this helps .

Ohh also i had to buy a new Audigy 2 sound card 4got bout that. But to be honest the other 3 speakers dont make that much of a difference. Its the sub woofer that makes that difference to the music!

Bubba

yeh bought new 5.1 sound card the other day and now they all work fine. except for the middle one for some reason? why is that?

sci0x

mmm not sure. Right click the speakers controls in the system tray. Go into speakers settings. Make sure the speaker selection is on 5.1. Now under the picture of the speakers which on it should show 5 click channel. Make sure its correct. It could also be a faulty connection or something simple like that?

Bubba

yeh it's set up properly. it's on 5.1 and the speaker works when i test it. but when i play a cd or mp3's or watever it dosn't work?

oneweb

Prolly 'cos CDs and MP3s in general are not encoded to use the dialog channel (the 5th speaker, the .1 is subwoofer afaik)

DVDs are encoded to utilise that speaker. There might be an option to "upmix" the sound to use that speaker somewhere in an options dialog for the drivers?

Check out a DVD title. Set the audio config in the DVD player to use "5.1 surround"or "Dolby Digital".