No sound from back speakers

[Ronin13]

Recently I realised that the sound from my back speakers in my 4.1 Boston Acoustics speaker setup has disappeared.

The strange thing is that it used to work, both in games and when playing DVD's (I have a Power DVD version with surround capabilities, opposed to the free OEM version you sometimes get with graphics cards or DVD drives, that only offer 2 speaker support).

Both my speaker settings and the Power DVD software is set for Quadrophonic or 4 speaker setup. The 'Surround' knob on the front speaker with the controlls is dialed all the way up.

Basically everything seems to be the way they used to be back when it worked, but at some point the sound has disappeared from the back speakers (with the volume dialed up high enough, there's still static though).

Any ideas?

 

[LED]

Soundcard?

 

[Ronin13]

Originally posted by: LED
Soundcard?

As in 'What soundcard do you have?' or as in 'Could the problem be with your soundcard?'

I have an Audigy Soundblaster. As to whether the problem might be with the soundcard, do you have any idea of how to troubleshoot it? (Short of trying another card, which I don't have.)

Are there any sites or free downloads that can test the output of my speakers? (The audio part of the DirectX Diagnostic tool only runs checks in mono and stereo, AFAIK.)

 

[Ronin13]

*ba-da-bump*

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Are you sure you have them hooked up right to the soundcard? (green = front, and black = rear usually)

Does the sound switch to the back only if you switch the places of the green and black jacks in the soundcard?

 

[Ronin13]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Are you sure you have them hooked up right to the soundcard? (green = front, and black = rear usually)

Does the sound switch to the back only if you switch the places of the green and black jacks in the soundcard?

Yes, the cables are correctly hooked up (I actually just checked this a few hours ago).

Switching the green and black cables does indeed make the rear speakers play instead of the front speakers.

So now I at least know the speakers aren't faulty.

Does this indicate that the soundcard's rear speaker output is broken, or could it be something else?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Ronin13

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Are you sure you have them hooked up right to the soundcard? (green = front, and black = rear usually)

Does the sound switch to the back only if you switch the places of the green and black jacks in the soundcard?

Yes, the cables are correctly hooked up (I actually just checked this a few hours ago).

Switching the green and black cables does indeed make the rear speakers play instead of the front speakers.

So now I at least know the speakers aren't faulty.

Does this indicate that the soundcard's rear speaker output is broken, or could it be something else?

Ok, cool. That was to check if your speakers were still all good

That means that there's something screwed up with the output on your soundcard.

There should be a test program on your audigy disk I think. I know there was a program on my SB Live! in the form of an EAX demo.

Are you sure the rear speakers aren't muted somewhere along the line?

Try switching to 2.1 and then back to 4.1 in both places just to ensure that Windows isn't confused

 

[Ronin13]

I just installed PowerDVD 6 Deluxe, switched it to 2 speaker output, then back to 4 speaker output.

I also changed the Windows speaker setting to 'Desktop Speakers' and then back to 'Quadrophonic'.

I then tried my Saving Private Ryan DVD - still no sound from the rear speakers. (But I can hear the static/white noise with my ear close to the rear speakers, and I can also hear it increase/decrease as I change the 'Surround' level on the front speaker's control.)

I'm only using the basic Soundblaster drivers, so there's no 'Audigy Control Center' (or what it's called) installed presently, as I don't like being bogged down by unnecessary software. And up until recently it worked just fine that way, with DVDs and games both.

Do you believe that the test program on the Audigy disk can be run without installing the whole Creative program suite?

Thanks a lot for your help

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Not sure on the test program thing. I haven't used my SB Live! for over 4 years.

Something that might be worth a shot is uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for the card. Maybe something got screwed up and a fresh install of the drivers would reset it.

 

[Ronin13]

You may be right - I'll try that and report back...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Ronin13
You may be right - I'll try that and report back...

:thumbsup: good luck.

 

[Ronin13]

Perfect! An uninstall and a fresh driver install did it.

Now the sounds of bullets whizzing by in the Omaha Beach landing scene are coming from all directions...

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Ronin13
Perfect! An uninstall and a fresh driver install did it.

Now the sounds of bullets whizzing by in the Omaha Beach landing scene are coming from all directions...

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Excellent! Have fun killing people / watching them get killed.