Sound Card help please!

[PostmanPot]

hey all!

i got the Creative Inspire 4400 4.1 speaker system today.

it has 4 satellite speakers and 1 sub.. duh.

i.e 2 front speakers, 2 rear speakers and a sub.

i set it up on my girlfriend's PC today and the rear speakers did not work. she has a Vinyl AC'97 Audio (WAVE) sound card.

i have a VIA AC'97 Audio (WAVE) and i fear that the rear speakers will not work on it either.

but may i be wrong?

can i get it to work?

do i need some drivers or something?

do i specifically need a 4.1 channel sound card? mine is a 6.1 channel i think.

your help would be greatly appreciated!

cheers!

 

[|tera|]

Check this out

http://dmzweb4.europe.creative.com/...reative.com,Case=obj(15176),Kb=ww_english_add

 

[PostmanPot]

i'll have a look now dude - shot

sound card has green, blue and pink ports if that helps!

 

[martmeister]

black and green are usually back and front

 

[PostmanPot]

ok.

i don't really understand much in that link, tera.

i have been told to get a cheap 7.1 card.

no way i can get my soundcard to play through all speakers?

layman terms please

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Are there separate cables for the sub, rears, and fronts? Or do the speakers plug into the sub which then plugs into the sound card (as a 2.1 would do)?

If there's separate cables, you can go to the speaker config in your AC'97 configuration, set it as a 5.1 channel and then plug the fronts into the green, rears into the blue and sub into the pink (or depending on how its shown). Should work, the only thing that'll be missing is the centre.

 

[PostmanPot]

hey Highflyer_GP,

all the speakers plug into the sub and the sub then plugs into the PC. it has a black and a green plug.

so i guess i will need a new sound card then, one with a black port..

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=26&product=446&nav=2

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=14189

 

[PostmanPot]

will this sound card suffice?

http://www.chaosnet.co.za/productdetails.asp?pid=427&menuid=105

what will the difference between a Genius and Creative be?

 

[|tera|]

You don't need a new soundcard, plug that green plug into the green soundcard plug, try that first

Edit: just checked mine, maybe you need a soundcard with a black port, anyone with an opinion?

 

[Highflyer_GP]

You don't need a new soundcard, plug that green plug into the green soundcard plug, try that first

Yeah but what about the black plug.

@PP I'm sure the genius would work, the only difference I see between it and the creative is that the creative supports more channels. The genius looks like it has a black and green port from what I can make of it.

 

[PostmanPot]

good lord.

i don't think it has a black..

take a look:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/geniussoundmakerlive51/

 

[PostmanPot]

by the way, hooked up the speakers using just the green, only front playing.

but it kicks ass!

damn nice sub.

 

[PostmanPot]

ok now i'm confused.

taken from the Genuis site:

http://www.geniusnet.com.tw/geniusO...t/Others/soundcard/sm_value51/SMValue51_l.jpg

http://www.geniusnet.com.tw/geniusO...PortletproductId=31203&_pageLabel=productPage

it clearly has a black port..

 

[S1ght]

You dont need a black port,plug the black cable into the blue port(rear speakers) then either change settings in speaker config to 5.1 or double click sound icon (normal volume place) & enable advanced option & check that it says that the line in port is changed to rear speakers

 

[Highflyer_GP]

You dont need a black port,plug the black cable into the blue port(rear speakers) then either change settings in speaker config to 5.1 or double click sound icon (normal volume place) & enable advanced option & check that it says that the line in port is changed to rear speakers

That makes sense, I actually just checked on mine and it seems like you don't even need to select 5.1 - you can select 4-channel and the blue port changes to rear speaker output. So yeah I'm guessing that's where the black plug should go

 

[PostmanPot]

hey S1ght,

thanks for that.

will MP3 work in the Rear speakers?

i've looked around and it won't work.

i've double clicked, and i removed the Line In tab and added the Rear Speaker tab. but the volume control for Rear is faded and not enabled.

i also right clicked the Volume icon and went into Adjust Audio Properties.. not sure where to go from there.. any advice?

 

[PostmanPot]

i enabled 5.1 sound. still no Rear speakers...

 

[PostmanPot]

ok i'm able to adjust properties for Rear Speaker now. i enabled 5.1 everywhere. but it's still not working.

annoying!!

 

[Turbo_Aspiration]

Check all the places u hav a volume setting (sounds and audio in control panel, volume in taskbar, sound card drivers in control panel and/or taskbar) and make sure the rear settings are not muted

btw, its weird that u only hav 3ports on a 5.1 sound card.. i wud expect more

 

[PostmanPot]

yo Turbo_Aspiration,

i think this is actually supposed to be 6.1!

crappy onboard cards...