I recently bought a Mach Speed motherboard with Realtek AC97 6 channel audio built into the VIA 8237 southbridge chip. The back panel has 3 jacks labeled signal out, signal in, and microphone in. The drivers included with the motherboard worked, but high end games locked up so I downloaded the latest drivers and software from the Mach Speed website and all was well.
I originally just had the system setup for 2 speaker stereo output. I used the green signal out phono jack on the motherboard and connected it to my amplified stereo speakers. I decided I wanted better sound the other day and bought one of those $50 6 channel 5.1 systems with 2 front speakers, 2 rear, 1 center, and a subwoofer.
The software that I downloaded has a screen to choose between 2 channel stereo and 6 channel sound so I chose 6 channel. I left the stereo phono plug plugged into the green signal out jack and connected the left and right RCA connectors to the input on the subwoofer and set the amplifier to 5.1 surround. All I got was stereo sound from the front left and right speakers. The software had a test screen for each of the 6 channels and sure enough when I clicked on each of the six speaker icons only the front left and right speakers responded. When I clicked the others (left and right rear, center, and sub), the software acted like all was well and the speakers were working, but no sound.
I poked around the software that came with the updated drivers and found only one other thing besides the screen to switch between 2 and 6 channels that I already mentioned. It was a small check box that said "enable smart 5.1 sound and set the line in to control side speakers and the mike input to control center/LFE". If I understood this setting correctly, every speaker would get it's own individual connection and my new $50 6 channel amplifier and speaker system wouldn't work which didn't make much sense.
However, just to test and see if that was the case, I clicked the check box and plugged stereo phono jack into the mike input jack and tried the center output. No joy...
So now I'm stumped. I've searched the internet and everybody seems to take the speaker connections for granted because there's absolutely no talk of it nor any documentation to be had. I want to say that maybe I'm just missing a simple software setting, but I'm out of places to look.
Thanks for any and all help...
Jim
I originally just had the system setup for 2 speaker stereo output. I used the green signal out phono jack on the motherboard and connected it to my amplified stereo speakers. I decided I wanted better sound the other day and bought one of those $50 6 channel 5.1 systems with 2 front speakers, 2 rear, 1 center, and a subwoofer.
The software that I downloaded has a screen to choose between 2 channel stereo and 6 channel sound so I chose 6 channel. I left the stereo phono plug plugged into the green signal out jack and connected the left and right RCA connectors to the input on the subwoofer and set the amplifier to 5.1 surround. All I got was stereo sound from the front left and right speakers. The software had a test screen for each of the 6 channels and sure enough when I clicked on each of the six speaker icons only the front left and right speakers responded. When I clicked the others (left and right rear, center, and sub), the software acted like all was well and the speakers were working, but no sound.
I poked around the software that came with the updated drivers and found only one other thing besides the screen to switch between 2 and 6 channels that I already mentioned. It was a small check box that said "enable smart 5.1 sound and set the line in to control side speakers and the mike input to control center/LFE". If I understood this setting correctly, every speaker would get it's own individual connection and my new $50 6 channel amplifier and speaker system wouldn't work which didn't make much sense.
However, just to test and see if that was the case, I clicked the check box and plugged stereo phono jack into the mike input jack and tried the center output. No joy...
So now I'm stumped. I've searched the internet and everybody seems to take the speaker connections for granted because there's absolutely no talk of it nor any documentation to be had. I want to say that maybe I'm just missing a simple software setting, but I'm out of places to look.
Thanks for any and all help...
Jim
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