Weird Sound Problem - Need Help Please!

[xonearmedscissor]

I just reinstalled my Windows XP Professional and reformatted my hard drive. I have an Audigy 2 ZS card and I installed everything on the original software and drivers cd. I have Logitech z5300 5.1 speakers. After I installed the drivers I noticed a big difference in sound quality than before when I had the previous installation of Windows with newer Creative drivers and software. I think the subwoofer was working a lot better than it used to. On my old Windows, when I went to Speaker Settings and to calibrate, I heard no sound coming from my subwoofer. However, I remember a long time ago I used to be able to hear sound coming from it when I went to calibrate.

I decided to install the new drivers from the Creative site and after doing so, the sound was a lot more flat and boring. I went to calibrate, and just like before, the subwoofer wasn't making any sound when I tried to calibrate it, even though all five speakers were working fine. I think the subwoofer itself is working fine but the sound card is making it not work very well. When I turn the subwoofer up or down when listening to music on my speaker controller, I can hear it get more or less bassy. However if I turn off all the speakers except the subwoofer in the Audigy settings, I can't hear anything. The only time I can hear it alone is when i click 'noise' on the speaker settings and it goes through each setting with noise. I know it must be hooked up right because I can hear it then. Also, all the speakers wires, power, and controller are connected to the sub. The sub and the centre speaker share the same cord too, and the centre speaker is working fine.

I tried changing settings and I can't get it to sound as good as it did before I updated the driver and software with the newest ones on the internet rather than the ones on the original cd. So I figured I would just reinstall the original ones. I uninstalled everything related to Creative on my computer, and the sound card drivers, and when I tried to install from the cd again it said, 'Audigy card not recognised, please make sure it is correctly installed and try again,' and it wouldn't install those drivers, even though it worked the first time. I knew it couldn't be installed improperly because I hadn't even opened the computer case, and I checked to make sure anyway, but it said the same message again. Then I tried installing the newer drivers and they worked, but the only problem was the sound still wasn't very good and the subwoofer still wasn't recognised in the calibration, and it didn't make a difference in sound when I changed the subwoofer volume using the Audigy controls, even though it did when I used my hardware speaker controller. So I tried installing everything on the original cd over the newer drivers, and it worked, until it got to around 80 or 90% and shut down the computer. It installed the drivers I think, and about half the software (like the EAX control and Speaker calibration setting controls), but the THX panel and regular equalizer panel didn't get installed, even though I told it to install them.

I just want the sound quality to go back to how it was with the original settings, but it seems like that there's no way to get it to go back after installing the newer drivers. Can anyone please help because I'm stumped. Thanks!!

Also, I don't have the analog cable plugged into my cd player from the sound card, but that shouldn't matter if I'm not listening to a cd, right?

No matter how I adjust the settings, the subwoofer never sounds very good, but it's definitely working. Before I got the new drivers it sounded great so I think the sound card is just not sending it the right signals or something.

 

[Paperdoc]

I don't know if this will apply to your system, but check it if you can. On several systems I've seen in the configuration settings there is a place to interchange the subwoofer and front middle speaker outputs. Those two signals are coming out of one jack on the back of the sound card (just as left and right front come out of one other jack). If they got reversed somehow, the subwoofer would get the wrong signal and sound poor. So, if you can find that control, try changing it and seeing whether it helps.

My sound system software happens to have a test utility that feeds a signal to each speaker in turn, one at a time, and shows on the screen which speaker is supposed to be activated. If you have that in your system, it can be a great help in checking connections.

By the way, my tale of checking for the unexpected: my sound was odd, and I thought the left front speaker signal was being fed to the subwoofer by mistake. After much fiddling I realized that the real problem was the left front speaker itself was "dead". When I opened it up to investigate, I found inside its case a solder joint that had never been soldered during assembly! Although it had worked at first, it had shaken loose. A simple resolder job fixed all!

 

[xonearmedscissor]

I don't know if I have that setting. I tried looking through all my settings and I couldn't find it. Do you know where it might be?

I have a test utility too. When I use it there is sound coming from all the speakers correctly but when it gets to the subwoofer it sounds much weaker. I also have a calibration utility. When I use it, it makes sound come from each speaker and I have to click on the appropriate speaker in a diagram to identify where the sound is coming from. However, when I go through all five speakers, it is the subwoofer's turn but I don't hear any sound at all. I have to click on the subwoofer in the diagram anyway to get to the next step so I know I'm supposed to be hearing it if everything is working correctly. I don't understand why I would be able to hear it in one test but not the other. When it lets me change the volume in the calibration setting, the subwoofer section is grayed out too.

Haha, that's a weird story. Thanks for your help!

 

[Paperdoc]

My subwoofer has its own separate volume control right on it so you can adjust how much bass you hear compared to the other speakers. Check whether yours got turned down.

The software with my sound system also has separate volume controls for front, rear and subwoofer speakers so you can balance them all for your room layout. In fact, to see all of them you have to use an arrowhead scrolling symbol on that tab of the controls, because not all volume controls fit on one display panel.