I dont get it

mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
edited July 2004 in Hardware
Some of you may have read how I was having problems getting XP onto my SATA drive. And then how I had somehow messed up the sound somewhere after the fresh install to where I had everything where I wanted it. Well anyway it was sounding awesome right after I installed XP and drivers. Thats it. By the time I had gotten done with the M$ updates and other programs I had lost my rear speakers. There was slight sound coming out of them but not much at all. The signal to the sub was also screwed at it was not up to the usual performance of Z-560s.

So I said **** it and reinstalled XP from the ground up. It was back to the way I wanted it. I installed each and every M$ update on its own, one by one with a reboot. Still fine after that. That was right before the LAN. So like the day before the LAN I installed all my programs and Games. Somewhere in the process it went back to what it was before. No rear speakers and just crap. I didnt have time to mess with it because I was headed out to the LAN the next day and I was just going to use my headphones anyway.

Its been like that until today. I turned them on and was going to play Running Blind by Godsmack for my roommate and low and behold they are back to their good ol' selves. I never changed any settings. The rear speakers are noticable louder and the sub has more umph to it.

I dont even want to reboot to put my RMAed WD HDD back in that I got today.The nVidia NForce Control Panel still shows no Rear speakers much like it did before. Picture shows what I mean.

Anyone have this happen to them or have an idea why it happened?

Comments

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    IT LOOKS like the nForce Control Panel THINKS it has 5.1 sound going. Subwoofer and rears can share a channel for one side of rears with 5.1 sound. Why??? Do not have one here to play with, but looks like the dang thing is wired for 6 channel and control panel thinks it has 5.1 sound hooked to it and is showing subwoofer in place of boht rear speakers. Do any of the tabs have a sound mode selector that lists 5.1 and 6 channel options??? If so, does selecting 6 channel break things, or if now on 6 does selectign 5.1 change display and break sound??? Possible GUI is mishooked....

    Tearing hair out here, has to be abstruse enough to be DUMB coding mistakes, two, in oppostion to each other, not user error, unless cord has a ground short somewhere in the rear speaker channel wiring, speaker connectors, internal to speaker, or sound player not running in digital mode and silly GUI defaulting to a 5.1 mode display.... But since sound physically works, I think it is driver DISPLAY issue or a selector or mode issue tying into display only. COULD even be that when you plugged things in and out as far as speakers that some minor corrosion got scraped off... THAT has happened, with computer gear, lots of times. That is why simply reseating RAM is a good idea now and then (every few MONTHS), even if not loose-- you scrape small amounts of corrosion off doing so.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2004
    On the Speaker Setup tab there is an option for 4 speakers or 6 speakers. I have neither really. I have 4 sats and 1 sub so I have 5. The SoundStorm hardware generate a center channel which sounds better than the 4 speaker setup.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited May 2004
    thats an odd setup ... is there even such a thing as 4.1 surround sound? might be why it's giving you hell
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    mmonnin wrote:
    On the Speaker Setup tab there is an option for 4 speakers or 6 speakers. I have neither really. I have 4 sats and 1 sub so I have 5. The SoundStorm hardware generate a center channel which sounds better than the 4 speaker setup.

    OK, set the tab for 6 speakers in the nVidia stuff, see what happens, leave your sound storm specific as is. If that breaks it, I think it is the nVidia stuff playing HAVOC as far as what is displayed. Four channel has no center channel display, 5.1 DOES, 6 does. Rears could go to center channel plug, in theory, that jack will be ignored if 4 channel is chosen. Does that help at all???
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    entr0py wrote:
    thats an odd setup ... is there even such a thing as 4.1 surround sound? might be why it's giving you hell

    Yeah. It was all the rage until 5.1 came out. My Alienware-toting roommate got some of these with his rig two years ago.

    I would set it to four speakers and the sub will probably still work. That's assuming that there wasn't some kind of dark voodoo going on, which there seems to be since your speakers/soundstorm have acquired a mind of their own. Could it be the wiring possibly? I know that the software was showing that no signal was going to them, but it's the only thing I can think of. My reciever stops sending the signal to both rears if one gets unplugged, so it just made me think of that.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    Ive had nothing but problems putting XP on SATA drives and A64 machines therefor i tried 2k w/ SP4 goes in smooth and no problems. Which wa suprising since XP i had sound and video problems and 2k none at all Might wanna try that as a last resort
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    Gargoyle wrote:
    Yeah. It was all the rage until 5.1 came out. My Alienware-toting roommate got some of these with his rig two years ago.

    I would set it to four speakers and the sub will probably still work. That's assuming that there wasn't some kind of dark voodoo going on, which there seems to be since your speakers/soundstorm have acquired a mind of their own. Could it be the wiring possibly? I know that the software was showing that no signal was going to them, but it's the only thing I can think of. My reciever stops sending the signal to both rears if one gets unplugged, so it just made me think of that.

    OR, the driver display is mis-interpreting or not getting the right signals due to some interlinkage issue between hardware and software. That is why I wanted to see what happened with a 6 channel setting-- as an experiment.
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    I've had very similar problems with my Z-680s on my soundstorm. Specifically, this problem occured with my Shuttle FN-45 before I got rid of it. Some speakers would work, some wouldn't, and it never mattered how I hooked anything up. I'd upgrade drivers, downgrade drivers, and nothing would have any effect. I was never able to find out a set cause for the problems, but I was thinking it had something to do with the Soundstorm and the mobo, but I could never proove it.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2004
    I have it on 6 speaker now. Thats what its been on since I got my NF7-S. Sounds great like that when its working right.

    I had real light sound coming out of these speakers when my system consisted of a KX7-333 and a Live! sound card. I dont know how or when it happened but I ended up getting all speakers with about equal volume. I know the rears are usually quieter but they were too quiet.

    I have tried uninstalling the drivers and installing them again but it made no difference.

    The hard drive problem I had was more of a dumbass mistake of mine than anything and is now fixed.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    pseudonym wrote:
    I've had very similar problems with my Z-680s on my soundstorm. Specifically, this problem occured with my Shuttle FN-45 before I got rid of it. Some speakers would work, some wouldn't, and it never mattered how I hooked anything up. I'd upgrade drivers, downgrade drivers, and nothing would have any effect. I was never able to find out a set cause for the problems, but I was thinking it had something to do with the Soundstorm and the mobo, but I could never proove it.

    MIGHT be the wattage levels and resistance values the SoundStorm wanted, and how much total it could output. IF it is total, higher resistance lines and any corrosion could play havoc with speakers fed "last" by circuit.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2004
    I reinstalled XP right before I left for Brians on Thursday and when I got back I found out what the **** was causing the above problem. I started installing my programs back and after each one I checked the sound. To my amazement it was WINAMP! Winamp was causing me to loss my rear channels and screwed everything up. I am never going to install it again. EVER.

    Now I just need to figure out how to make WMP minimize into its own little bar next to the system tray. It tells you how after you install it but I never read it.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited July 2004
    to make wmp minimize to the task bar, you need to right-click on any empty space in the taskbar, then go to toolbars, and make sure Windows Media Player is checked. That's all you need...
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2004
    Awesome thanks!!
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2004
    Well I found a way to fix the problem while browsing the Abit forums.

    Winamp setup tips - To use all speakers in Winamp, Select Options > Preferences > Plug-ins > Output > Direct Sound output > Configure > set it to NVIDIA(R)nForce(TM)Audio.

    http://www.lvcoyote.com/soundstorm.htm
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