How to hook up rear speakers on Dell 4550?

[Slick5150]

Long story short:

I gave a friend of mine my old Logitech 540 speaker setup (4.1) for him to hook up to his Dell Dimension 4550 at work.

He can't figure out how to get the rear speakers hooked up. It has the Soundmax onboard sound, but he said there is nowhere to tell it what kind of setup he has (therefore, he can't get the line-in or microphone jacks reassigned to "rear out").

Anyone know how this is done on a 4550? I've never even seen the computer, so I have no clue.

Thanks

 

[sswingle]

Is he sure the Dell even has surround sound?

If it does, and only has 3 hookups (Line out, line in, microphone) usually the line in can be set to work as either that or rear speaker out. It would need to be changed in the software setup somewhere.

 

[Slick5150]

Well according to the Soundmax webpage it can do 6 channel analog output.

I know the inputs have to be changed, the question is how that is done on that computer?

Thanks

 

[sswingle]

Probably in the control panel under sounds. Thats where it was on an Asus motherboard I had.

 

[vietofmars]

i have 4550 and the onboard sound does not support surround sound.

http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=1072088

 

[amdskip]

Easiest way is to find a used sound blaster live for around $15 of the fs/ft forums.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Easiest way is to find a used sound blaster live for around $15 of the fs/ft forums.

There are currently no dell desktops (that I'm aware of) with onboard sound that has support for anything over 2speaker stereo. They do this on purpose, to get audiophiles to upgrade to better sound cards to make more profit.

 

[Slick5150]

Thanks for the info.

Like I said, I have no first hand knowledge of the computer, and was just going off of what he was telling me.

I'll let him know.