Enabling all of my speakers

[GoldFiles]

Just bought a MSI Neo2 Platinum mother board (socket 939). I have installed the drivers that came on the motherboard CD. I have a creative labs speaker set that containts 1 sub and 4 speakers. The 4 speakers all plug into the back of the sub and then the sub outputs 2 wires labeled "front" and "rear". I have tried all of the audio ports on the msi board, yet only one of the audio jacks will put out audio. The Front Speaker jack (green) works, but the other jacks (including the rear speaker) do not produce sound.

This is probably an easy fix, but I do not know how to configure this. Do i need to conifg something in windows, bios, or drives?

Thanks in advance

 

[imported_RobJ]

There's an nVidia app that you can install, which has settings for what ports on the back will output audio. Just choose the 4 speaker setup, and it should make two outputs; one for front and one for rear.

 

[GoldFiles]

I have an MSI Sound Manager in my control panel, and it says the sound is AC 97. Shouldn't it be nVidia drivers?

 

[GoldFiles]

Okay, i tried out the MSI Sound Manager and i was able to set it to use Front and Rear Audio ports. I did the sound test, and yes, sound did come out of all four speakers. However, when i do anything other than the sound manager it will not play sound out of the rear two speakers, still! what do i do?

 

[GoldFiles]

A bit more info. It turns out that the 2 programs that came with my motherboard (two sound utilities by MSI) can use the rear speakers. However, windows and other programs do not use them. I have take this screenshot of my volume control. I thought it was suspicous that some things were grayed out, maybe this will give someboday a lead.

http://www.goldfiles.com/volume.GIF

Thanks

I hope somebody knows how to turn on sound!

 

[GoldFiles]

Windows media player can use it, but windows cannot and winamp cannot. WHY!!???

 

[imported_RobJ]

I really want to help you, but my mobo was defective, and so i do not have my computer to look at and see what you're talking about. I am sending the mobo back tomorrow, so i won't be back up and running for probably 2 weeks. I do recall that there was an MSI app that controlled the audio.

It's possible that you need to keep the MSI soundmanager running in the taskbar in order for 4 speaker to continue to work. The fact that WMP worked with 4 speaker and other apps do not makes me think that the 4 speaker setup is application controlled. Keep looking around the MSI app to see if there are options to make the speaker selection globally or application-controlled.

Again, if i had my computer up and running, i'd be able to poke around and see if i could duplicate your problem, but i'm stuck on my powerbook until i get a new mobo!

One more idea; check the audio setup options in windows control panel. If there are settings for speaker-setup (there are usually, but i'm not sure if the MSI app turns this functionality off), see if you can set it to 4-speaker.

 

[GoldFiles]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I have tried audio settings in control panel, and i have set it to "quadraphonic". (which was what my old computer was set as).

I have been keeping the MSI audio programs open in the task bar, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Some games use all 4 speakers, and windows media player does. Windows itself does not, and neither does winamp.

I'm gonna try a few other things, but please post if you have a possible solution.

thanks

 

[imported_RobJ]

Originally posted by: GoldFiles
Thanks for your suggestions.

I have tried audio settings in control panel, and i have set it to "quadraphonic". (which was what my old computer was set as).

I have been keeping the MSI audio programs open in the task bar, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Some games use all 4 speakers, and windows media player does. Windows itself does not, and neither does winamp.

I'm gonna try a few other things, but please post if you have a possible solution.

thanks

Well ... hrmm... there are a few types of 4-speaker. One type simply duplicates stereo on the rear speakers, so that it is really just 4 equal speakers. The other type probably simulates surround and will only invoke the rear speakers if there is some sort of surround effect. Quadraphonic sounds like the former type -- the 4 equal speakers. But it sounds like some applications are driving your speakers as quadraphonic and others as 4-speaker-simulated-surround. So ... this may be a driver bug or a bug in windows that's not jiving with the MSI app.

Also ... i don't use winamp, but there may be a setting in there to turn on simulated 3-d or surround or whatnot. I would suggest turning all plug-ins and tweaks off so that winamp just sends sound quadraphonically. Maybe winamp doesn't even have these options, but I'm just trying to give suggestions

 

[GoldFiles]

bump

still need ideas

 

[xbassman]

Isn't that a Realtek chip onboard?

With my NF7-M I have to use the Reaktek drivers to get rear channels with all apps.

Looks like Realtek.com.tw doesn't have any drivers for the ALC850 listed though.

 

[GoldFiles]

Yes, it is a Realtek chip. I have installed all the drivers that came with the motherboard CD.

This is driving me nuts. Windows media player and some games can use all the speakers, while other programs (inluding winamp and windows) cannot!

Ideas?

 

[GoldFiles]

bump

 

[Fuhglee]

Why do you need Windows to play sound out of four speakers?
Are you playing an audio source with 4 channels of data in Winamp, or are you expecting a simple stereo source to come out of all four speakers?

 

[GoldFiles]

Yes, I want a simple stero source to come out of all four speakers. I have never had problems with this before. I dont care about surround sound or what-not. I just want to use all four speakers.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

You need to specify to windows what is going to playback sound. I believe in the sound properties you can select between "Direct X" and "Your soundcard here". You have to choose the right one for windows or winamp to playback properly. In control panel go to sounds and audio devices. then click the audio tab and under "sound playback" choose the proper device. Same thing for sound recording and midi playback. I think once you have the right device setup, you will get your sound in all applications and things you do on your computer.

 

[GoldFiles]

Ya, that was the first thing i checked. I've tried several combinations (quadraphonic, stero, 5.1, surround, etc) and nothing seems to work.

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Not just combinations. You have to go into sound and make sure it's using your soundcard for output. If it's not, then you won't get sound in somethings and others will. Just check those tabs to make sure windows is trying to use your soundcard to playback audio. The speaker issue is really not too important right now until you make sure of the former.

 

[xbassman]

Just for grins I removed the Realtek drivers from my system (nforce2)

I installed the most current WSQL nvidia audio drivers to see if I could get my rear speakers working.

Well, They worked right off the bat. (the only reason I was using realtek drivers was for rear speaker support)
Try going to nvidia.com and download the latest unified platform drivers and install them.

 

[gonpostal]

I had the same problem with Winamp a long time ago. Open Winamp, and go into Options>Preferences>Plug-ins>Output. You have to make sure the correct output is selected. I use an older version of Winamp (2.81). DirectSound output is selected in mine by default. The default setting may have been different in older versions. Like I said, it was a long time ago, so my memory may be a little fuzzy ;-) Hope this helps, it worked for me.

Scott