The Area-51 m15x sound issues (Please help!!)

nix

Ok so i recently purchased The Area-51® m15x gaming laptop, Everything is fine and dandy except the sound.

I purchased an external sound card when i bought the laptop but much to my dismay it doesnt seem to give surround sound.

The sound card i upgraded to with them is: External Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=16642

Now the product detail above says it gives surround sound, but i cant find any setting on my laptop which enables it, just give me the options for headphones or speakers. Which leads me to believe it can only have surround sound if you purchase and use the Speaker Docking Module which can be seen at the bottom of the page in the link provided.

But that would mean id need to get a new pair of headphones with 4 jacks ( i use sennheiser 165's which only has two jacks, sound and mic) and also put up with a massive yoke sticking out of the side of my laptop.


So i seen that i could also purchase: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=10769

Which seems to do everything i expected my other sound card to do, and it will also save me having to buy a new headset and do without the docking module.

But im uncertain if this sound card would be compatible or even slot into my machine, as the design differs from the one i currently have.

Can someone delve into my machines speccs and see if this product would work with my current machine ??

Tech specs for laptop here: http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_detail_pages/area-51_m15x/area-51m_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M15X-FC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT


Can someone please help ? As you can tell im not very good with this stuff

Any help is greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance !

Nforce

Do you want to connect the laptop to a surround sound system? If so just connect the spdif (optical out ) tio your sound system using an optical cable.

nix

Hummm after talking with friends it turns out the soundcard i have is capeable of delivering surround sound, im just too dumb to know how to set it up

But basically i just wanna hook my headphones up to the system for surround sound, im using sennheiser PC165's. Dont really have a need for surround sound speaker set, or room for that matter

awhir

enable suround sound via the x-fi software.


you using vista or xp ?

nix

I'm on vista, im in work at the moment so im running from memory of what ive tried.

But im pretty sure when i tried to turn on surround sound and ran the test it still only came through the left and right speaker, when it went to test the other twospeakers or whatever the lights flashed on screen but no noise came through headset

TomCo

How can you expect to get surround sound on a stereo headset?

Are you trying to get your headset to act like two speakers in conjunction with two desktop speakers?
I dont think that's going to work.

AlmightyCushion

The headphones only have two speakers, surround sound needs 5 speakers and a sub woofer.

Voodu Child

Your X-fi sound card has virtual surround sound. If you play a source that has surround audio, it'll process the channel in such a way as to give 'pseudo surround' using your headphones. Im sure the instructions for making sure this is turned on are in the devices manual.

However, you can get the same effect with the standard card in your M15x (which is a plenty good card, I don't know why you'd need to buy an external one) and the right audio decoder. The ffdshow decoder has a virtual surround option (they call it headphone virtual spatialization) and its sounds ok.

nix

Thanks voodoo, ill try the on board one out too

And yes i found the option in the creative menu, sounds kinda weird still =(