Sound Card to CD-ROM Cable

[Rostig]

I just built a KT7A Duron 800 with a Turtle Beach Montego II Sound Card for my brother, so he could play Counter-Strike and other online games with me. This is the first computer I have built, and it works fine, but what is the cable from the CD-ROM to the Sound Card for? I have it plugged in(possibly wrong). I put an audio CD in the drive and there was no sound from a headset, plugged into the CD-ROM headset jack. I switched the cable around, but it remained the same. Does it do anything? Any help would be appreciated.

Also, the crappy Altec Lansing speakers that I got for my brother have no headset jack. Do I need to get a splitter to plug into the Sound Card speaker output? Then plug the headset and speakers into the splitter? Thanks again. Vielen Dank.

 

[rw120555]

The audio cable from the cdrom to your sound card lets you play CD music through your speakers. If you aren't hearing anything, then you probably have a configuration problem; perhaps volume is turned down or muted.

Without the audio cable, you should still be able to plug headphones directly into the cdrom and hear an audio cd play. So, if the headphones are not working, then fooling around with the audio cable will not solve the problem. Check the volume levels and mute. For that matter, check to make sure that you have a program installed that is playing the CD; it might just be sitting there doing nothing.

And by audio cd, I mean the kind that will play in your stereo too; I'm not including disks that have MP3s and the like burned onto them. You'll need the cdrom to be hooked up to the sound card to hear them I think, along with mp3 software.

 

[Rostig]

I put in a Rammstein audio CD to test it. My speakers were plugged into the sound card. Music came out of the speakers, and I had the side of the case off, and I unplugged the cable and the music kept playing. That is why I ask what it is for. I am not that retarded. Why is it needed when the audio keeps playing when unplugged? While a song was going from the audio CD, I unplugged the cable, turmed it around, and messed with it alot, however nothing happened for the duration of the song. I do not get it. Can someone help?

 

[michec]

Some audio cables have little clips on the ends so there's only one way to insert them. The other ones are flat on both ends. If you look closely at the ends, there will be one side that has a little triangle on the leftmost hole. That should be face-up and the hole with the triangle plus into the leftmost pin in your CD-ROM and/or sound card connector plugs.

Be sure you have the end that is connected to the sound card plugged into the "CD Audio" connector. If you plugged it into an "Auxiliary" connector, chances are that device is muted in your "Volume Control" (the little speaker icon in the taskbar).

Also check to see if your headset is working properly. Your setup could be fine with a broken headset making things more complicated than they really are.

I would suggest getting new speakers instead of getting a splitter. With a splitter, sound is sent to both the headset and the speakers simultaneously, which isn't what you want. You want sound going to only the speakers or only the headset at one time. The simpler alternative is to just plug in speakers for general purpose and unplug them and plug in the headset when you need to be quiet.

 

[mobly99]

Some programs like Windows Media Player play music digitally (i.e. over the IDE cable) and thus would not output audio to the headphones.

Try playing the cd using standard analog playback - to do this in WMP - go to tools, options, cd audio tab and deselect digital playback. You should then hear output via the headphones.

 

[rw120555]

Whenever I've had the audio cable unplugged, the result has been no sound from the speakers when playing audio CDs. For whatever reason, software or hardware, you seem to be avoiding that, but whether you can always count on that being the case, I don't know.

Also on the headset, make sure the volume knob on the cd drive isn't turned all the way down. (Sorry if this seems to insult your intelligence, but Lord knows I've made plenty of mistakes like this.) I may be wrong, but I think the knob is the only thing that controls volume for headsets plugged into the cdrom (assuming you get sound at all through the headsets).

If you're happy with relatively inexpensive speakers, the Labtec Spin70 is a 2 speaker system which conveniently has outlets on the speakers for both microphone and headphones. I wish this was standard on all speaker systems.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Sounds like mobly99 has the answer. I am going to have to give that a shot too. Always wondered how much difference that cable made myself.

 

[Rostig]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I switched off digital playback in Windows Media Player. That seems to have been the solution. Now I get sound from the headset that is plugged into the front of the CD-ROM. Also I think that this is the way everyone should set this up, because when I played a CD before the Hard Drive was active for the duration of the CD playing. Now, with digital playback switched off, the Hard Drive is not active. That seems superior to me. I also still have sound from the speakers, so I guess that my cable from the CD-ROM to the Sound Card is plugged in correctly. Is this cable for non-digital audio playback? In any event, all seems well now. Vielen Dank für ihre Zeit und Hilfe.

 

[rw120555]

Your audio cable is probably analog although it could be digital. For my Plextor, the docs say

"There are also two optional cable connections:

?An analog audio cable connection if you are using a sound board in your
computer and plan to connect the PlexWriter?s audio output to the audio
connector on the sound board.

?A digital audio cable connection if the sound board is equipped with SPDIF or
Digital_In and you wish to use the digital audio output from your PlexWriter."

 

[rw120555]

Here is the WMP 7.1 documentation on digital playback. Decide for yourself whether the advantages are worth it.

--------------

Digital playback
Specifies whether to use digital or analog playback. Select this check box to send digital audio to your speakers. Clear the check box to send analog audio to your speakers. If your hardware does not support digital playback, analog audio might be used even if the Digital playback check box is selected. When analog audio is used, visualizations do not work, and your equalizer and SRS WOW settings do not affect the analog audio.

SRS WOW is a technology that enables you to enrich your listening experience. For more information about SRS WOW technologies, see the SRS Web page if you are connected to the Internet. To access the page from Windows Media Player, click the Now Playing feature. On the View menu, point to Now Playing Tools, and then click SRS WOW Effects. Click SRS to open the Web page.

Note You must select the Digital playback check box for visualizations to work when playing a CD track.

 

[GregANDTCH]

"That is why I ask what it is for. I am not that retarded"

Testy, Testy, Testy !
You won't get "Brownie points"
for that one Rostig.

I don't think the "hard drive" light means in this case that it's working.
I think it's just showing that data (digital audio)is being transferred across the IDE interface.