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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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  1. 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
    2010-03-29T01:27:55+00:00

    I don't have a monitor with speakers, so I'm just making educated guesses as to the issue.

    How you got 2.1 even working is an achievement in and of itself, as my friend can't get his Logitech 2.1 system to work in Windows 7 Pro.

    You probably have done research on this topic as I have, so unfortunately the only help I can provide is to list what others have done.

    I've read and been told by some friends that the following fixes the issue some of the time:

    1. Disconnect the speaker system from the pc rear audio panel
    2. Remove the on-board audio using the "Add or Remove Hardware" option in Control Panel
    3. Reboot the pc, install the driver.  Re-connect the speaker system.
    4. Using the Sound applet found in Control Panel, configure the speakers for surround sound
    5. Reboot the pc.

    I suspect you tried this already.

    As in my case, the issue could be the particular surround sound speaker system model you're using.

    I've also read that for some users, experimenting with the audio channel assignments in the RealTek HD Audio Manager application helps.

    In the end you may have to try another speaker model.  I wish I could help you but this is all I can do.

    Good luck.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-03-29T01:18:48+00:00

    Hi and thank you for the response.

    1. I don't know how you could not have heard about 5.1 (and in some cases 2.1) surround sound systems not functioning as desired in Windows 7.  Just google "Windows 7 5.1 not working".  Seriously, I thought you were being sarcastic at first.  Do you live in a Microsoft bubble?
    2. Before posting my original information I did search this forum, as well as google-ing this subject to death.  I found enough frustrated users to indicate that this is a problem for some users.  I didn't keep track of how many individual user posts I came across, but it definitely appears to be significant.
    3. On RealTek's site there is a link for their HD audio drivers, with a warning (or maybe notice?  seems like a warning to me) that they are generic only, and that users should download drivers from the motherboard manufacturers.  I only tried these drivers as a last resort.  They didn't solve the problem, so I reverted back to the latest Gigabyte supplied driver.
    4. I find it odd that the same speakers work fine in Windows XP but not in Windows 7.  That's why I believed the problem to be Windows 7 specific (see update below).

    UPDATE: Out of desperation I switched speaker systems, from the Logitech R20 to a Edifier 5.1 system.  Reinstalled the Gigabyte provided driver.  No change.  Then changed the Edifier to the Creative INSPIRE T6160.  Reinstalled the Gigabyte provided RealTek driver, and then surround sound worked!  I have no clue why.  As a test, without changing drivers or rebooting the system I tried the Edifier speaker system again.  They didn't work.  Plugging in the Creative system, everything worked.  The Logitech R20 still didn't work in Windows 7.

    I tested the Edifier and the R20 on a spare Windows XP system, and they worked.  Go figure.

    I've since returned the Edifier to the store for a refund, and given the R20 to a friend.   At this point I can't pin the blame entirely on Windows 7.  Something funny is going on with the speaker manufacturers.  I can't fathom why some work with Windows 7 and some don't.  Again in my case, all three speaker systems were tested with the same Gigabyte provided audio driver.

    I wish I could provide a concrete "how-to" guide for fixing this issue, but the only thing I can suggest is that changing the speaker system model might solve the problem.

    Overall I like my Windows 7, but wish I didn't have to go through this hassle.

    P.S: I use the 64bit versions of all the hardware drivers, as I'm using Windows 7 x64 Pro.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-03-28T23:19:37+00:00

    hi. am i had a 2.1 plus the monitor speakers n wel it worked fine on windows 7... but i buy a 5.1 system n wel wen i jack in the plugs 4 audio d Realtek programme i was using cut off n wel a no audio in the task bar pop up... wel afer i install another Realtek hd driver.. but now nothing is working.... no audio... form d speaker... 5.1 or 2.1 or the monitor... n well all d jacks registers wen plug in bot no audio... what going on?

    what can i do to fix dis problem?

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-03-21T15:35:21+00:00

    rparsi wrote:

    > 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.

    >

    What others, specifically?

    Snipped....

    >

    > I have 2 questions:

    >

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

    > tried yet?

    >

    Actually, I've never had any "5.1 Windows 7 problem," nor have I ever

    heard of any sort of purportedly - yours is the first mention of this

    I've come across, starting from the Windows 7 beta versions - wide-scale

    problem. My 5.1 audio works perfectly, just by installing the

    motherboard manufacturer's Windows 7 specific drivers.

    And that is all you need to do, as well. Get the proper Windows 7

    specific drivers from your motherboard and/or audio controllers'

    manufacturers, and install them. Naturally, if those manufacturers

    decline to provide the proper drivers, you're out of luck. (I don't

    understand why Realtek would recommend against using their own drivers;

    what pertinent details are you leaving out of your post?)

    > b) When is Microsoft going to take this problem seriously?

    Why should Microsoft "take this problem seriously?" First of all, it's

    not a problem with Windows 7; it's a problem of your lacking the correct

    device drivers. Secondly, Microsoft provides drivers only for their own

    products; they can't and don't develop/write/provide device drivers for

    other manufacturer's hardware.

    --

    Bruce Chambers

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