No surround sound in 64bit Vista

Just upgraded my computer from a 4 year old 32bit Windows XP system. I have 5.1 Logitech X-530 speakers running on a Sounblaster X-Fi card. Surround sound works on games, movies, windows media player, etc. But iTunes thinks I have a 2.1 system and only plays out of the front 2 speakers and the subwoofer. In XP, iTunes used all speakers and it sounded phenomenal. Now it sounds like crap. Any idea what I can do to fix this?

I am going to return this card if I don't get any help. This is extremely disappointing to say the least. An expensi've card that completely sucks for one of the worlds most popular games.

Similar Messages

Vista 64 + Half Life 2 + Audigy 2 ZS - Surround Sound Succe

I recently updated my system and installed HL2 : Episode 2 to test it out with, but I noticed that I wasn't getting any surround sound. Sound was either only coming out of the centre speaker or I could only set the audio options to 2 speakers.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I tried a lot of things out and, thanks to the posts on this forum and others, finally came up with a working solution. Now I'm just posting it on here in case anyone else has the same issues.
1) Install the modded Audigy 2 driver based on the new X-Fi release, available here:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=2700
As this is a modded driver, released because there was no corresponding driver for Audigy 2 cards, do check that an official one hasn't been released since this post.
2) Install the Creative ALchemy Uni'versal .00.04 application (based on the "free" X-Fi version of ALchemy) available here:
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=8972
Note that, as far as I can ascertain, at the present time versions beyond .00.04 are no different to .00.04, they just have wider compatibility. Again, do check that a new version hasn't come out since this post.
3) As Half Life 2 isn't detected as a supported game in ALchemy, you'll have to add it manually. The path will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\[user-name]\half-life 2.
THIS IS IMPORTANT : You also have to change the Buffers and Duration from the default settings, otherwise the sound will be crackly, at least it was for me. The numbers I found on the web (here : http://connect.creativelabs.com/alch...orm.aspx ID=76) are Buffers=5, Duration=0, and they work just fine.
4) Ensure you have the correct speaker setup selected in the Creative Audio Console - I have a 6. setup so I chose 7. - and also you might want to turn off CMSS3D here too - I read that it was making the game sound weird and tinny.
You might also want to just check that Vista's own speaker configuration is correct too - disable any optional speakers not connected and set the speaker size for each set.
5) Run up Half Life and select at least 5. speakers in the audio options. For me, it wouldn't accept 7., just kept reverting back to 5., but that's good enough if it works!
You should be done! I hope this helps someone and saves them the time that it took me to get where I am.
Cheers, N.
In case it makes a difference, my system specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
4GB Corsair PC6400-CL4 RAM
Asus P5N32-E Plus Motherboard
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
BFG 8800GT OC 52MB Graphics Card
edit: added [user-name] into HL path that got taken out

ProjectBorn wrote:
Thanks for the info, question though, does dsound.dll need to be added to the HL2 folder?
Yes... but ALchemy will add this file into the folder for you when you add Half Life 2 to its ALchemy-enabled list.
Cheers,
N.

YES!!! 5.1 Surround Sound in Vista! THANK YOU CREATIVE

I installed Vista a few months back to evaluate it and liked a lot of things...but never could get the 5.surround sound to work on my Dell system with an integrated sound card. I went out and bought an inexpensi've Creative Audigy SE card in hopes that it would work. It didn't. Like everyone elses posts, the Vista config tool let me test all the speakers successfully, but wouldn't utilize them when playing music. I kept checking the Creative site looking for updated drivers and upon each install I found myself more and more discouraged at the lack of support. But today, I downloaded and installed "Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Value/SE/LS and Sound Blaster Li've! 24-bit XP and Windows Vista Pack .04.0077" and YES
!!! I have surround sound again. There is one manual step post install: Enable CMSS-3D in the Console tool. I can handle that. Thank you Creative for doing something Microsoft couldn't (or refused) to do. It sure seems like a basic thing to a novice like me...make my speakers work in Vista the way they worked in XP. Today is a good day.

LoL..if only you have an Audigy 2 card like me or other cards, you'd probably say other things

5.1 Surround Sound back two and centre speakers suddently stopped working in VIS

Hello,
In January I installed Windows Vista onto my pc. I didn't have any issues with the sound card at all. All of my speakers were working correctly.
The sound card I have is the Creative Soundblaster Li've 24bit internal. I installed the drivers for it which were out at that time and I had no problems with my speakers.
Yesterday though I noticed that my speakers were not sounding correct. I soon realised that no sound was coming from my back speakers and my centre speaker when I played music in Media Player. So I done the usual audio tweaking and checked my box on my speakers to see if anything was wrong, but it was all ok. So then I went to sound settings in vista. I then configured my settings and noticed everything seemed to be ok. When I done a sound check all the correct beeps came from the correct speakers. That told me that at least the speakers were not broken. Windows has noticed they are there. The 5. settings were correct also.
The CD that came with my sound card I seem to have lost. I know that has software where you can tweak the sound setup but I actually noticed that my speakers were louder and clearer then when the software was installed on xp. So I doubt that if I install that software again it will fix the problem.
I was really confused at this stage so I started to do some research on Google and noticed it's not just me who's having this problem. Quite a few other guys seem to be getting exactly the same as me.
The links for the posts are here:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=270722&SiteID=
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archi've.cfm/680777.html
Granted that the systems are using different soundcards then mine but it's a little bit of a coincidence don't you think?
Luckily for me I had quite a few restore points to go back to. I tried a couple of days ago, then a week and then a month before. Same thing though - no sound?
I then removed the drivers from my computer and then installed the new vista drivers. But guess what, nothing happened.
I doubt this is a soundcard problem and I think it's something to do with vista and the few bugs? she?s still got.
Any suggestions on what might be the problem?
Oh by the way, I?ve not installed any new software which could have caused this problem. Not in the past few days anyway. Like I said I restored my pc at multiple dates just to make sure.

Well I'm not using Vista I'm using XP SP2 and I have the same problem.
On the windows sound control panel there is a button called speaker volume. when you click on it you get a bunch of sliders with channels -8. Ive discovered that if I move the master sound control in any of the Creative Sound modes software Entertainment/Audio Creation or Gaming the channel sliders in the windows control panel numbered 3-7 all go to zero which stops the surround sound working. It leaves channels and 2 and 8 alone which can be changed with the sound control in the creative software.
Even checking move all the slides together option on the windows control panel is cancelled as soon as I twitch the main sound control. It's driving me nuts. I keep thinking I must be missing something really obvious here but alas I can't think what.
Ive tried lots of different solutions to no avail. Interestingly when I tried to use the autodriver update thing on the creative web site it said that i am using Vista and you'll have to download manually. Which I did and still didnt resolve my problem.
Sorry no solutions just more problems lets hope someone can help!
Edit - Just discovered - I have XFi Pro if I use the I/O Console volume dial it works fine, but if I use the software volume control it all goes wrong. Think I posted in the wrong thread as well as this is vista but it just seemed so relevant.
Message Edited by Gramuldy on 04-29-2008 :45 PM

No More Surround Sound on Blu-ray player after Upgrade in MediaSmart

When I used the Blu-ray player in my home theatre I selected the "HDMI pass through" mode to get surround sound. I came across some new movies that would not play and after the update from HP the player would simply freeze up as soon as there was audio present. I had to go into the task manager to shut it down.
MediaSmart works fine on the laptop, but it only freezes up when I use the "HDMI pass through" setting.
I have tried "HDMI pcm" mode and that doesn't work either. The Denon receiver shows there are five channels working but I only get stereo sound out of the front left and right speakers. This would indicate that the Blu-ray player is not outputting in 5.1 surrond sound and that the laptop and the Denon receiver is working fine.
Hp supports' solution was to reinstall the old driver or try a system restore. I know a system restore isn't going to do anything. The problem is in the new software. The new software did not work on my HDX18 when it was in Vista, it didn't work when I upgraded to Windows 7 and it doesn't on my new dv8.
I tried contacting CyberLink to let them know that the upgrade is giving problems, but I think they are ignoring me.
Personally I think that either HP or Cyberlink just forgot to add the drivers for 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound.
If someone were to find a solution to this one I would be surprised. I am quite certain I covered every possibility, but you never know.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
This question was solved.
View Solution.

OK, I found a solution. SORT OF. I use the laptop to watch region "B" Blu-ray movies that I buy out of England. Rather than set Media Smart to region "B" I purchased software from SlySoft.com. When the software is running it removes the region code and all that annoying copy protection. Fox is the worst, followed by Walt Disney. (Pixar Animation and Buena Vista) One specific movie that would not play on the old Media Smart software was "Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs. When I tried, a red window came up prompting me to go to Cyberlink for an update. Of course after that the movie would play, but I had no surround sound in my home theatre.
So now I use the old Media Smart software and run SlySoft...no more red window...I have surround sound in my theatre through HDMI pass through.
The problem with this solution is that Slysoft costs around 114.00$ U.S. for a life time membership and free updates forever. HMMM.

Sound problems with vista

i just purchased a new idea center that i thought was top of the line..but the sounds comming out sound like the chipmunks.. How do i correct this or is it the machine sound card??

I agree with Hantula the new audio driver makes all the difference in the world the download is at
http://www.softsea.com/download/Realtek-High-Definition-Audio-Vista-Driver.html (It auto downloads)
There is a High Definition control center/Panel so you can really tweak your sound system 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound. If Realtek only gives you the driver leave me a note and I'll zip the control panel to you it's a small file, but it's like getting a new sound card and it's just for Lenovo systems
lenovo HD audio manager

No surround sound for Chuck Versus First Class?

After seven episodes (weeks) were aired, Chuck, Season 3 was finally made available. Did some catching up with the seven episodes and realized that Episode 5 - Chuck Versus First Class has no surround sound track. Pretty inconsistent with the rest of the episodes. Tried to report it via iTunes Store Support but the Chat Support seems down.

Same here - Vista, iTunes 8.2.1, using Intel HD Audio HDMI connection to receiver - no surround sound from HD TV show; stereo track ok.
Anyone having luck with Dolby Digital 5.1 on Windows? I read one report of successful surround sound on Mac OS X with 8.2.1.

DTS & 5.1 Surround Sound using my Home AV Receiver and X

Hello, new to the boards and computers (buying @ least). Let me start with my Desktop, followed by the sound card and my home AV Recei'ver. BTW, all drivers are current and up to date.
HP m820n
Processor
Intel Viiv Processor Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 (2.4GHz)
Operating system
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatalty w/ I/O Dri've
AV RECEIVER
Yamaha HTR-5730 5. w/ DTS and Dobly Pro Logic II.
Connection between the two:
Digital Coax Cable from X-Fi I/O SPDIF Out to AV Reciever CD Coax Digital Input.
At first there wasn't any sounds coming from my receiver using the current connection (see above). However, I was able to change an input to digital PCM (pulse code modulation) on my AV Recei'ver and all of the sudden, I'm listening to mp3 & wma files in surround sound (all 6 speakers).
I thought that the problem was solved. Well then today I discovered it changed to stereo only, and as long as the digital input cable was hooked in back of the receiver, I couldn't change the setting from "stereo, PCM" to DSP, DTS or DoblyII. Solution? buy the Home Theater cable set or external decoder.
Next Problem, for some reason when I change the X-Fi settings to 5. ( or 2.0) and set up a "test" (whether creat.labs or Window's Media Center)there's no sound coming from any channel/speakers. HOWEVER, my AV Recei'ver will even change the setting from "Stereo" to "5." on the test automatically....but still, there's no sound??
So.... I ignored it and figured to grab my Led Zeppelin Double Disc DVD that's Dobly Digital and DTS 5. Sorround sound. After messing w/ the default & SPDIF by-pass settings and inserting the DVD, I can only listen to it in Stereo (left and right PCM). BTW, changed audio selection in menu on DVD too.
What gives? What's digital even good for on these things since the only solutions are to ether decode or switch to analog. Also, sorry that this is so long and possibly parts don't make sense but I'm extremely tired (2:45 am Central).
Thanks,
Chris

To the Top...
Also, an update. Using my TV Tuner card, I was able to watch tonights football game in HD which is Dobly 5. Surround sound. Sure enough, the AV Recei'ver kicked into Dobly Digital right away. Now I just need to figure out how to configure DTS and Dobly using my DVD's and possibly buying software that converts music files into surround sound.
Chris

Surround sound with Astro A40 headset

%Surround sound with Astro A40 headset? I've been having problems getting surround sound to work with my A40 headset to work with my computer.
I have an X-Fi Titanium and I'm running Win 7, although I also had this issue on XP and Vista.
Originally when the A40 was connected by optical cable the audio was distorted and would crackle heavily. Installing the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-X-Fi-Series-Support-Pack-2-0-05-5-2009/m-p/527485]DanielK support pack[/url] fixed the distortion and crackle issues.
Next, someone suggested I get the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://buy.soundblaster.com/_creativelabsstore/cgi-bin/pd.cgi?page=product_detail&category=Software&pid=F 2222DDN6Z2H2ADDEZD">DDL pack[/url]. I tried installing it but I get an errorhttp://i.imgur.com/qag0X.png
Any ideas?

for the DTS Connect Pack, try right clicking it and choosing properties and then choose compatibility and then Vista SP2 or XP (as a last result), and be sure to run it as administrator.

Having trouble using my 5.1 surround sound speaker system and can't configure itunes to use it

With my Logitech Surround Sound Speakers Z506 I am listening to music with itunes and i have 5 speakers total with a subwoofer, the configuration is two front, one center, two rear, and a subwoofer. The front , center and subwoofer are fine but the rear pair speakers do not have any playback with them. I am wondering if you don't mind helping me troubleshoot this problem.
Thank you have a nice day
Cole

Well I'm not using Vista I'm using XP SP2 and I have the same problem.
On the windows sound control panel there is a button called speaker volume. when you click on it you get a bunch of sliders with channels -8. Ive discovered that if I move the master sound control in any of the Creative Sound modes software Entertainment/Audio Creation or Gaming the channel sliders in the windows control panel numbered 3-7 all go to zero which stops the surround sound working. It leaves channels and 2 and 8 alone which can be changed with the sound control in the creative software.
Even checking move all the slides together option on the windows control panel is cancelled as soon as I twitch the main sound control. It's driving me nuts. I keep thinking I must be missing something really obvious here but alas I can't think what.
Ive tried lots of different solutions to no avail. Interestingly when I tried to use the autodriver update thing on the creative web site it said that i am using Vista and you'll have to download manually. Which I did and still didnt resolve my problem.
Sorry no solutions just more problems lets hope someone can help!
Edit - Just discovered - I have XFi Pro if I use the I/O Console volume dial it works fine, but if I use the software volume control it all goes wrong. Think I posted in the wrong thread as well as this is vista but it just seemed so relevant.
Message Edited by Gramuldy on 04-29-2008 :45 PM

Soundblaster X-Fi Surround sound not working!!!! HELP!!!!

9Soundblaster X-Fi Surround sound not working!!!! HELP!
!!! officially i hate creative to the what was supposed to be simple registration which in itself annoyed me to now the speakers i have been using for a longggg time for the past 4 days has been bothering me..
Using a Creative Soundblaster X-fi ?sound card with a 7. surround sound speaker set-up and windows vista ultimate (32bit) the sound refuses to come out of all the speakers during the channel test it sometimes picks up certain speakers but never all of them and the sound is pretty much coming out of the left speaker only i've tried uninstalling all the drivers installing every driver i can find together with the console launchers i've changed the config settings in windows itself which doesnt help uninstalled all codecs bought another x-fi card (i was getting frustrated) still nothing the only thing i havent done is re-install windows which i refuse to do because of some creative defect!
I hope someone has a solution or any advice would help i've also used dri've cleaner and sweeper to clear all data from the registry etc rebooted etc etc etc still no luck....
Sort it out creative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

**beep** !! a response would be GREAT............
Admin Notes: I understand that you are frustrated but cursing & swearing is not allowed here. If you need help from customer support, you can contact them through email. Please abide to the rules if you want to participate in this forum.
Message Edited by KokChoy-CL on <span class='local-date'> 02-7-2009<span class='local-time'> 09:50 [email protected]

5.1 surround sound on s5160f with Nvidia and Realtek cards

product_name : HP Pavilion Slimline s5160f Desktop PC
operating system : Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 64
The HP guy told me to load this driver
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-69866-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&...
it didnt' work.
My audio is coming out through the HDMI cable which is from the NVIDIA card. I tried other solutions, including updating the NVIDIA drivers for similar problems. Someone suggested going though SPDIF, but VLC just has an option to use SPDIF when availble, you can't exclusively set it.
How do I get 5.1 surround sound sent through the HDMI connection? I've used VLC and the builtin Blu-Ray player software and I'm running out of ideas.

Is there a way to identify which computer outputs support 5.1 sound? It is a media center PC, but I can't find that information anywhere.

5.1 Surround Sound not working on iTunes

Here's an odd question. I a CMedia 8738 chipset generic soundcard with 5.1 surround sound. I just got a Vista driver for it but now my iTunes only plays out of the front three speakers and subwoofer.
Any ideas why it shuts down the rear speakers?

SameSame. I'll add that surround works fine with all other programs I tried. I also attempted all combinations of settings from within Quiktime and continue to update itunes, to no avail.

( Digital Audio ) 5.1 surround sound via receiver. Possible?

Is it possible to achieve 5.1 surround sound through an audio receiver using a Coaxial cable? (For Gaming, in particular)
In theory, the coaxial cable should plug into the "Digital Audio out" PC port (Realtex Sound card), and the other end plug into the "Coaxial/Digital Audio in" port of the reciever, which would then produce 5.1 surround sound.
The reason I ask is, after doing much research, it appears that it's a common problem that the method described above is only achieving stereo sound.
My components are...
Realtek sound card (Digital Audio)
Harman/Kardon receiver AVR 247
Coaxial Cable
Any help would be appreciated.

If your PC has an S/PDIF connector, an orange RCA-style connector, then you can connect it to a home stereo. You'll need a cable like this one...
The mystery is in Vista/Reatek settings. To get digital X.1 out, you need to go into Vista Sound Properties, select the default device icon for digital out, go into Properties, and then look at the selections that are available from the Supported Formats tab and the Advanced tab. Make selections for 5.1 and formats that are compatible with your receiver.
If you already have the home stereo and a PC with an S/PDIF port, all you need is the cable. Try it out and have fun. Let us know.
btw... if you have XP, then all this is done through the Realtek software - not through XP.
Message Edited by RasterBlaster on 03-11-2009 03:25 PM
... an HP employee expressing his own opinion.
Please post rather than send me a Message. It's good for the community and I might not be able to get back quickly. - Thank you.

No Surround sound in WoW - XFi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

I have windows 7 64bit. and I installed the latest software from Creative. I can only get stereo sound out of this card in WoW. When I enable DDL under the encoder tab of the Audigy Control panel, I get a No Sound Driver Listing in WoW's audio tab. The card is set to gamer mode, and i can get surround out of the Creative Console when I test it out with the speaker icons. Running in compatibility mode doesn't work. Neither XP service pack 2 or 3 did anything to fix it. I have enabled Alchemy and that didn't work I have turned off EAX and disabled Alchemy, that didn't work. I bought this card for the sole reason of getting surround sound on my home theater, via SPDIF optical, when I play WoW, and it doesn't work. grr I don't have another game to try. I just want WoW to work. Please help me, I don't know what else to do.

I am going to return this card if I don't get any help. This is extremely disappointing to say the least. An expensi've card that completely sucks for one of the worlds most popular games.

No surround sound in 64bit Vista

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