Proper Surround in Windows

Hey board people,
I'm currently having an issue regarding surround sound in Windows x64 Professional. If anyone is interested in a little backstory which may or may not shed some more light on the subject, it's included below this paragraph - otherwise, please skip directly to the bottom. I apologize if I am re-asking old questions but I've been unable to find a definiti've answer or solution to my problem.
Here's the backstory. I recently purchased a completely new system, excluding a sound card and sound system which was the "Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS" and the "Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5. DTT3500 Digital". As I've purchased a 64-bit based CPU I decided to install Windows x64 Professional on my system. Unfortunately - I did not have any luck getting the system to properly produce surround sound. I could get sound out of the rear speakers by setting the CMSS 3D to "Stereo Surround", but actual speaker tests always resulted in the front speakers acting as rear speakers. Meaning that both phrases "front left" and "rear left" would come from the front left speaker. Additionally I experienced smaller sound irregularities as well as newer games not utilizing EAX properly although supposedly EAX 4 is supported by the "Audigy 2 ZS". After a long and unfortunately fruitless discussion with the Creative support team, I chose to purchase some new hardware. Please note here that I bare no ill will towards the creative support team, but I am of course sad that the issue could not be solved.
Anyway... Thinking that this is perhaps a hardware issue as the "Audigy 2" is quite dated - I proceed to upgrade it. I purchase a "Sound Blaster X-Fi? Fatalty" and the "Logitech Z-5500" sound system. Aside from fixing the sound irregularities and presumably fixing the EAX support (haven't tested that yet) - I am still unable to properly utilize Surround Sound. I am beginning to suspect this is a Windows x64 / Creative Driver related issue. Everything is the same as before, I can utilize the rear speakers when up-mixing sound, but any and all actual tests using Creative software plays the rear channels through the front speakers...
Back story done. The obvious question (for those who have read the backstory) is, has anyone successfully utilized Surround Sound in Windows Professional x64 Edition. And if so, how? I can only utilize them when upmixing sound with CMSS 3D to "Stereo Surround" - not in any real games
Thanks in advance,
Gazoo

Hi Gazoo,
The answer is........... yes and no!
When you say you don't have surround sound, do you actually mean in any specific games/apps? I too, have got XP64 installed, running an X-Fi Fatalty and also connected to the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT3500.
When I install the O/S from fresh and put the X-Fi drivers on there, I always select the 2. option (digital only, iirc). If you do a test from the X-Fi utilities - sure enough, you hear sound from the front speakers, but nothing from the rear ones.
However, this is decepti've. When you run a game that will support surround sound such as Quake 4, BF2, Civ IV, etc - the surround sound <EM>will </EM>be there. Stick your head next to the rear speaker, if you don't believe me.
It is frustrating - it took me ages of trying out loads of options to work this one out. However, I've noticed that you need the latest X-Fi driver for it to work properly with XP64. If you use the standard one off the installation CD, you get a whole host of issues.
Hope this hel
ps.
All I need to do now is to find out how to use the X-Fi Fatalty with the RC version of Vista 64. What a pain in the ricker that is proving to be!
D.

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"Responding" to my own post: the Install DVD that came with my MacBook Pro will boot it!
So, I'll try running the earlier version of Disk Utility that came on IT (10.5.4, current Leopard version is 11.0) to repair the MacBook Pro's internal hard drive, THEN see if I can boot from the Leopard install disk (the notion being that I can (groan) recreate a virgin Leopard environment on the laptop with no traces of prior disk formatting nightmares.
(a few minutes later): the Leopard Installer DVD will now boot the MacBook Pro. As one last attempt to avoid the whole reinstall nightmare, I'll try running Disk Utility from the Leopard Install DVD, and if it passes, make one more attempt to create a boot camp partition on my hard drive. If that doesn't work, next step is to wipe the internal drive and do a clean install of Leopard and all my other necessary stuff.
Any other ideas?

Surround sound

I am new to the imac and was hoping to install a usb sound card to get 5.1 surround system from my home theater. imac doesn't give me more than stereo sound despite running audio midi setup, the surround options are greyed out. and i can't find a decent usb sound card that can synthesize the surround sound. Anyone with information please help
thank you

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/CatalystAGPHotfix.aspx
I found the solution to my problem, download these drivers from AMD for the Radeon graphics adapter. This will get audio out on HDMI working with surround on WIndows 7.

Which version of Windows is best for my MacBook Pro?

I have a MacBook Pro and I'd like to install Boot Camp onto it, but I need the proper version of Windows.
Some information?
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB
Also, the resolution is 1280 x 800. Thanks!

Hey cashe0815,
Thanks for the question. The following resource outlines the various requirements for Bootcamp and which versions of Windows you can use based on your specs:
Boot Camp: System requirements for Microsoft Windows operating systems
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634
Thanks,
Matt M.

Proper Surround in Windows

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