Problem with speakers

Rozbeef

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place to be posting this (if a mod can move it if it's in the wrong place, apologies).

I have a Soundblaster Audigy 7.1 soundcard and a set of creative 7.1 speakers. They were working fine a while ago until one day I decided to move them and get them in the correct positions. Before they were all just set-up without thinking and didn't bother checking which speakers were meant to be on the right hand side etc. So I unmuddled all the cables and got them all in the correct positions.

Here's the problem I have now. When testing them with the Audigy software they work fine (when a womens voice says 'front-left', 'back left' etc.) but as soon as I play a film or music or anything only 2 speakers work

It's the top 2 slots on the subwoofer. The other five don't seem to want to work. I've tried everything I could think of but without luck.

Would anyone be able to help me out and resolve this problem?

Thanks.

cornbb

I used to have the same card but can't remember exactly how its set up.

Firstly, try swapping different cables around to eliminate the possibility that 2 out of your 3 cables got broken when you were untangling them.

Secondly, did the surround sound configuration work properly before? The vast vast majority of mp3 files, movies on avi files, .wav files etc are all stereo, i.e. they're only supposed to play out of 2 speakers. Try a dvd movie, making sure its configured for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.

You could also try going into Control Panel > Sound and make sure your speaker configurations etc are all set up properly there.

Rozbeef

thanks for the reply cornbb. they worked fine before when they were all in random places. i'll try swapping the cables around this evening when i get home, but i'm pretty sure i've tried that before.

i will check the configuration aswell. cheers.

could it possibly come from the sound card itself?

cornbb

Its possible alright, the thing is the problem only occured after you moved the speakers around the place, not after you were tinkering with the internal workings of the card. Thats what makes me think maybe some cables are frayed or something, although thats pretty unlikely too.

Rozbeef

hi cornbb, checked out the different cables last night and no luck. tried fiddling about with the settings aswell but every time only the 2 front speakers worked.

not sure what more i can do ??

irlrobins

If the Creative test software plays the sounds out of each speaker then the cables are correctly connected.

The problem more that likely exists with the software config.

Check in your DVD player software that it's set to use sourround sound and not just stereo (my DVD player software does this from time to time)

Also check that the windows sound settings are correct: Start->settings->control panel -> sounds and audio devices. Under speaker settings click on advanced button. Make sure its set to 7.1.

See if that helps.