Bugger

hi!
i have a Creative SB Live built in on my MSI-Nvidia Nforce4 Motherboard
and i connected to it with a 4.1 Creative speakers.
now for some reason the rear speaker doesnt seem to work when i play music or anything else, but when i use th SB Live SoundHQ software to do a speaker test they work (i can hear from them "rear right","rear left") but that it.
any help?

also at work i have an intel 7.1 sound card built in on the motherboard, with the same problem, no sound at the rear speakers, they work only at sound test.

Ogata

Hi Bugger,

Your saying you can the test speakers for the soundcard and you hear that woman say "rear right" and "rear left" Did you check the sound options to see if your rear speakers are turned on/muted? Did you set Windows'(if you are using Windows) Audio Properties in the Control Panel to read 4.1 speakers unless the Soundblaster is syncing with the Windows Sound Options. Have you tried testing your speakers somewhere else to see if you get the same problem? If so then get a replacement for your rear speakers.

leroys1000

In order for rear sound to function,you must have a source that
provides the signal for the rear channels(DVD,Video game).
With a soundblaster live 5.1 you can get around this by
Downloading and installing creative play center and enabling
cmss.
It simulates surround sound.

Bugger

this happened after i got a new computer, so the speakers are fine, in my old computer i had SB Live not on the motherboard and it had no problems at all.
is it just drivers/software problems?
by the way, i dont seem to find 4.1 speaker settings in the windows configurations. theres 4,5.1 and 7.1 but no 4.1
and what that software that emulates 5.1? where can i get it?
thanx.

T_Rex

My budget PC has the same soundcard except it's not onboard (live 24 bit). If you have your drivers installed properly you don't need the creative play center it's all right there in your drivers for you to configure. If you right click on your Creative icon in systray choose "speaker settings", then in the speaker/headphone section in the drop down list you should see all options for speaker/headphone configs - and i clearly see 4.0/4.1 selection (i'm looking at it right now). CMSS is right there in your EAX control Panel. No need for creative play center.

Bugger

i dont have 4.0/4.1 speakers settings, i have "quatrofonic" as 4 speakers.
in my old pc, when i first used those speakers i had SB Live not onboard, then it worked fine. i think it has something to do with on/off board sound cards.

Bugger

Also, like i said before, i have a computer with the same problem but with a different sound card.
i dont know what card is it actually, something about intel audio/sigmatel codec (???) it just came with the motherboard (which suppose to be a 955X intel board) but then again - im not sure...

T_Rex

Are you looking in the control panel and that's where you see "quadraphonic" sound selection (and yet you still do not see an option for 4.0/4.1)? If that's where you are looking that's what the problem may be. In that ... you may not have your onboard sound drivers installed correctly. I have set up 2 of those very boards (MSI NF4 SLI) in my shop and i know it has the SB Live 24 Bit and it uses the exact same Creative Control Panel that the stand alone card has. First thing is first - tell me where in fact you only see the selection for "quadrophonic" .. (EG exactly where are you looking when you see this? )

I know that the board is fully 2.0-7.1 capable as i have set them up that way for a few customers, and i use that very same card in one of my boxes (onboard drivers look and work exactly like the stand alone card drivers). Did you in fact install the drivers from the motherboard CD? And do you see the Creative Icon in your systray? We can take it from there with that one. As far as the Intel board it's on of the new ones that use Intel_high_Def (which is really a fancy way of saying it's a better codec which the Sigmatel is muhc better than say... realtek ALC 850) and i'm not sure about your problems with that one but the same thing may apply here with that board - that the drivers need to be updated/insralled/configured correctly - perhaps and you may have to manually sync the audio control panel ( in my computer) of XP itself with the actual ausio application (Intel High Def). If you don't see even so much as the selection for 2.0-2.1-4.0-4.1-4.1-7.1 etc in the actual driver audio config then it usually means you have an incorrect/incomplete driver installation issue.

Also you should be able to go directly to the creative labs site and either use the auto-updater or manual downlad. What i would do is driver unistallation then clean it out with driver cleaner pro (pick creative from the pull down box) and clean out any remnants, then use your retail motherboard CD and install the drivers again, then point IE (firefox will not work on that site) to the auto-updater which will both download and install updated drivers for teh SB Live 24 bit.. :)

Bugger

thanx, i'll try and tell u the result.
by the way, where to dl driver cleaner pro from? there's seem to be alot of look alikes.
oh, and when i see "quatrofonic" i look at:
Control Panel -> Sound And Audio Devices -> Volume -> Speaker Settings -> Advance -> Speakers -> Speaker Setup

T_Rex

Driver Cleaner Pro (free) -

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3214.html

You will actualy see "quadrophnic" in that area that you mentioned if you select 4.0/4.1 from within the Creative application with (syncronize with control panel checked) in the speaker settings (click on the creative icon on your systray). If this really is how you see it then 4.0/4.1 actually should be working ok, as long as you have CMSS checked in the EAX settings box. try it with CMSS enabled. You may not need to do anything at other than making sure CMSS is enabled.

Bugger

ill remove the driver and reinstall it, just in case :)
thanx alot.

Bugger

WOOHOO!!!
it worked! finally!
THANX!!!

now i just need to make it work at the office and im set.

T_Rex

Nice going. Glad it woked for you.

Bugger

do u know if theres a cmss-like-thing for the intel soundcard?
it uses the "intel audio studio" software. can i emulate suround here too?
thanx.


ahh. no need, i found it.

T_Rex

As an additional side note when you have software that will render 5.1 real time - like WinDvD Pro or NDVD (the full paid retail version)ll you won't need the CMSS box checked. I noticed that with some MP3's and WMA files that bass was way too deep with CMSS checked, so i had to uncheck the EQ and Bass Enhancement.

Baiku

Hey bugger, or anyone else for that matter, just wondering if you could direct me to where you found those drivers, my rear speakers work in tests, but i cant get them to run 5.1 for anything else. I have an audio card that came with my mother board that Intel made.

Bugger

i dont know what software u have.
i have Intel Audio Studio - to enable the rear speakers in it i just pressed the big button that look like a power button. it says DSP on/off.
and that it.