5.1 Surround Sound speaker system not working in Windows 7 Professional 64bit edition

Anonymous
2010-03-21T05:06:14+00:00

My problem is pretty much the same as other users who can't get their surround sound speaker system to function properly in Windows 7.

I have a subwoofer and 5 speakers (2 for front, 2 for rear, 1 for center).  Connection to the on-board RealTek HD Audio is simple, orange for the subwoofer, green for front and black for rear.

Testing the sound in the RealTek HD Audio Manager and Control Panel->Sound windows produces a sound on all channels at the same time, which is the desired setup.

However different applications use different channels.  IE and Firefox uses the front channels, VLC/MediaPlayer uses the rear.  3D games (ie WoW) uses all channels.  In each case the subwoofer doesn't work.

I have already tried downloading the latest drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website (Gigabyte).  I even tried the RealTek provided drivers (even though on RealTek's website that is NOT recommended).  I have tried connecting the subwoofer connectors to different jacks (reversed black and green).

I have experimented with the settings in the RealTek HD Audio Manager and Control Panel->Sound windows.  Nothing works.

These exact same subwoofer and speakers worked perfectly fine in Windows XP.

I have 2 questions:

a) Has anyone resolved their 5.1 & Windows 7 problem doing something I haven't tried yet?

b) When is Microsoft going to take this problem seriously?  All of the Microsoft provided answers just repeats what everyone else

has already tried.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2013-04-13T14:42:48+00:00

First unplug 3 cable (orange, green and black)  then Go to control panel - Hardware and sound - Real tek HD audio manager - tick center, subwoofer and rear pair,  front left and right  and speaker fill

Then click  Device advance settings.

select  "make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously" and give ok

The plug all the three pin one by one and  select proper option in the popup windows. 

thats all.

 

You didn't give me enough information to get this working.   My system runs Win 7 X64 Home Premium.   When I select 5.1 sound as the capability the side speakers of my Logitech x550's are not recognized.  If I select 7.1, which is the chipset capacity of my Realtek chip, I can get the two outside speakers enabled as "rear" speakers. and can push test tones to each of the four surrounding speakers and to the center/bass combination via the Realtek driver.   

As far as the "make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously" is concerned... I can't find this option.  There are at least two providers of "control interfaces" active on my system.  One is provided by RealTek, the other by Microsoft.  The paths to these interfaces is circuitous and confusing, to say the least. 

IMHO some compromises are in order.  I've got my Pandora One stream playing acceptably in my small study.  Many of the source sounds streamed for me are recorded in stereo, or even mono, so I find myself hitting the "matrix" button on my Logitech X550 control fairly frequently.  Occasionally a newer piece is delivered which actually sounds Ok without the "matrix" decoder. 

What I would really like to be able to do is to "reconfigure on the fly" between the built in USB speaker bar on my Acer Z3731 "All in One" system and my external Logitech X550's with the capacity for 5.1 "surround sound" presentation via three wires.  When I try your procedure, I don't get separate recognition of each wire as it is plugged in and often end up with 2.1 sound being pushed out to my 5.1 external speakers because somehow Microsoft has re-recognized the built in USB based sound bar instead of the three rear wires plugged into the jacks provided by the system manufacturer.

If there ever were separate "Speakers" and "Realtek" icons displayed in the user interfaces on my system, the speakers are long gone and I can't get them back.  All I see is the Realtek driver.  I would like to see two different "Speakers" Icons I could label "Built-in 2.1" and "External 5.1" in addition to the Realtek driver.  How do I get these to reappear?

Can anyone suggest a way to have two different sets of "speakers" recognized and identified within the Microsoft UI in addition to the Realtec driver?  If I could get this done, I believe the driver would let me "set as default" one or the other speaker set, and I'd have "software switching" capable of letting me choose whether the external speakers or the built in sound bar delivers the sound.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-03-08T11:24:23+00:00

    It is my opinion that,

    Actually He is only partially wrong. .  I have Win 7 and have the same exact problem. I'm

    still not sure if it's a Windows 7 issue or a Realtek problem.  I have tried, off and on for the

    last 2 years to be able to connection more than the one standard pair of speakers to my

    Win 7 PC with the Realtek HD Auto manager, to no avail.  I'm pretty sure I've tried every

    possible combination of settings, buttons, configurations possible to a well trained user.

    Also, my background, or you can say most of my life has been in IT, (Infomation Technology),

    so I've been on the computers ever since they became available for use, (makin me sound really

    old), lol. I have been able to occasionally get a test tone to come out of the alternate speakers,

    but never music. I only get sound from the "front" set, right and left. This should be the

    Manufacurer's responsibility. This never worked since the day I brought home the computer.

    I just didnt know it because I hadnt bought the second set of speakers with a woofer yet.

    During this exhusting research and troubleshooting, I have since ran into other users with the exact same problem. This tells me there is a problem with the software or a setting that's not covered in the Help and Support.

    Main

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-12T22:27:57+00:00

    ***rparsi***My problem is pretty much the same as other users who can't get their surround sound speaker system to function properly in Windows 7.

    I have a subwoofer and 5 speakers (2 for front, 2 for rear, 1 for center).  Connection to the on-board RealTek HD Audio is simple, orange for the subwoofer, green for front and black for rear.

    Testing the sound in the RealTek HD Audio Manager and Control Panel->Sound windows produces a sound on all channels at the same time, which is the desired setup.

    However different applications use different channels.  IE and Firefox uses the front channels, VLC/MediaPlayer uses the rear.  3D games (ie WoW) uses all channels.  In each case the subwoofer doesn't work.

    I have already tried downloading the latest drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website (Gigabyte).  I even tried the RealTek provided drivers (even though on RealTek's website that is NOT recommended).  I have tried connecting the subwoofer connectors to different jacks (reversed black and green).

    I have experimented with the settings in the RealTek HD Audio Manager and Control Panel->Sound windows.  Nothing works.

    These exact same subwoofer and speakers worked perfectly fine in Windows XP.

    I  have the exact same setup and the exact same problem. But, I had assumed I missed a setting or something, so I spent the last 6 mos, occasionally running through experiments, downloading drivers, swapping speaker systems, you NAME IT, IVE DONE IT over a period of six months. I also agree that this is a very large issue because, now that I"ve been doing the research online, I've seen many, many others with the same. I exhusted all my abilities and decided to use my high dollar warranty that I paid for. Hey, it's a broken problem and I paid for an extended warranty in case the thing went belly up, right? It's definitely worth a shot to me. I'm fed up. I wasted numerous hours thinking it was me and the whole time it's most likely the machine or the software.

    thanks sir for your post.

    Main

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-12T21:51:03+00:00

    HA who else. Whose works??!!! BS microsoft never has 5.1 and get it working for awhile somehow mysteriously shuts itself off. Straight ****. Off to get a mac. some media player, cant even watch a movie in 10 year 15 year old 5.1 heaven forbid a 7.1 attempt. SICK OF IT.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-14T00:55:48+00:00

    Hi ZundapMan,

    I should have opened a new question, I know, but since I'm stuck with this problem for years, I beg for an exception.

    My system is a Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. I have four cables, not three. Can you offer a solution for my case?

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