Re: Realtek Audio : have lost my stereo sound; quad, 5:1&7:1 still ok ... driver prob ? HELP!

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:32:44 -0700 (PDT), alec
<alecalgo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Jaime,
Many thanks for your continued help,
You said :-
<<<In Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, go to the Audio tab. In
the "Sound Playback" section at the top, is there more than one choice
in the dropdown box? If so, choose the one that it isn't at the
moment. (this would be a sign that the new driver has installed
alongside the
old, instead of replacing it - post back if this seems to be the case)

---
MY SETUP HAS a 'SOUND' Dbox .... reached by the following route.
CONTROL PANEL>SOUND (ANY 3 OF THE 4 OPTIONS THERE)> = THE 'SOUND'
Dbox. which has 3 tabs :- Playback, Recording & Sounds - THERE IS NO
AUDIO TAB. Nor is there a "'Sound Playback' section at the top" ....
at the top of where ?

Okay. Now, unfortunately for the diagnostic process, this means that
the driver for your sound card has molested the standard Control Panel
for Sounds and Audio into something different from normal... so I'm
flying blind. We'll see if I hit a mountain!

----------o(PLAYBACK TAB)o-----------
The most important TAB of the 3. It has two icons .... (a) the top
one (tickboxed) is 'Speakers' Realtek HD Audio ...Working. The
second Icon (b) : Realtek Digital Output ... (Not
tickboxed) ...Working.
---
ICON (a) : this has a sound-level indicator next to it. On the
CONTROL PANEL I now set the 4 item 'drop-down' box (on the 'Speaker
Configuration' Tab) to STEREO .... and then set Media-Player music
playing. RESULT .... no sound from the speakers plugged into 'Rear
Speakers Out' socket.
Yet the sound level indicator on the playback Tab shows the music
output. The music is also coming through the earphones. (When on
Media Player the earphones do not cut the speakers out when the
earphone jack is plugged into the front panel..... but with all the
TEST sounds sometimes they do and sometimes they don't .... weird !).

Agreed! Hum. So, does this mean everything works fine *if* you use the
front panel socket for stereo, whether headphones or moving the
speaker jack to the front?

APOLOGY ... in yesterday's post I mistakenly wrote that since
installing the new driver I had lost
the lot .... Quad & 5:1 & 7:1 ...as well as Stereo. From the above
Jaime you will see that I still have Quad & 5:1 & 7:1 ... just no
STEREO, which is the original problem .... nothing more, nothing
less ....

Phew! Good to know I didn't spend all that time persuading you to
break it.

I think my mistake stems from the fact that when on Media Player the
earphones do not cut the speakers out when the earphone jack is
plugged into the front panel..... but with all the TEST sounds
sometimes they do and sometimes they don't .... at the time I must
have been on TEST sounds).

Special...

-------------more on Icon (a) ...on Playback Tab---------
Click on ICON (a) : = 4 Tabs = (1)GENERAL (2)LEVELS (3)ENHANCEMENT (4)
ADVANCED
(1) - Nothing much on this Tab ... though the properties button leads
to 3 tabs ... one, Driver details, says the driver is 01/12/2006
vintage
(2) - Nothing much on this Tab ... merely Audio levels
(3) - Nothing much on this Tab ... esoteric 'environment'stuff ....
bathroom sounds and the like
(4) - Nothing much on this Tab ... something to do with 'bit' rate ..

Is it set to 44.1kHZ (same as an audio CD)? It probably won't matter.

-----o0o------
To finally finish with the PLAYBACK tab .. a RC on it gives us a 6
item menu : (1) Configure Speakers
(2) Test (3) Disable (4) Not relevant 5) Not relevant (6) not relevant
(7) Properties
---
(1) - Important .... very similar to the sound test facility on the
CONTROL PANEL ...you can test sound all the speakers individually ...
one by one ... when selecting, in the AUDIO CHANNELS box, either
STEREO or QUAD or 5:1 or 7:1.
For me exactly as before, as when doing the same thing on the CONTROL
PANEL ...no sound out of my twin speakers when on STEREO ... but I get
the test sounds through them when on QUAD or 5:1 or 7:1.
(2) - TEST ... also a good quick option ... by clicking on TEST you
can sound-test the speakers and see the sound rise and fall on the
ICON (a) scale.
(7) Properties .... see (1) - above
----------o(Recording TAB)o-----------
Nothing ... just shows AUX connections etc
----------o(SOUNDS TAB)o-----------
Nothing to do with the problem .... just the sound themes listing.
---

Okay. That all sounds reasonable.

You said<<<From the way you've written the above, I'm not clear if
what you say in 2a/b is now, or in the past? If it's now, then what
you need to do is find the switch that chooses between activating the
front panel ear socket, the back panel one, or (if you're lucky!)
both.

There does not appear to be a front panel earphone on/off
switch ...... will it be an on/off tickbox somewhere ? .... a job for
another time perhaps ?

I was thinking of a software setting switch, not a physical one. But
I'm not sure where it would hide, given you've just lead us through
the whole Audio panel.

I do think that what has happened is that the rear L/R socket has been
switched off, in preference for the front L/R headphone socket. The
ability to do that isn't rare.

Now, one thing does niggle: you said that having the headphones in the
front *sometimes* disables the rear outputs? I wonder if there's a
physical switch in there that senses you have something in the 'phones
socket, and it's got stuck or gone unreliable.

If you plug in and out of the front headphones socket, does that
reliably change the other speakers on/off, or not?

------o(Last item)o---------Just so we know what we are talking about
CONTROL PANEL (icon on taskbar)(RC for menu ... then click Sound
Manager).
The main default 'live' TAB is SPEAKERS .... which has the SPEAKER
CONFIGURATION Sub-Tab with the drop-down AUDIO CHANNELS box, again
giving the 4 options : STEREO or QUAD or 5:1 or 7:1. ... with the
TEST BUTTON alongside.
The other 3 Sub-Tabs, which don't seem to be relevant to the problem,
are : Sound Effects; Room Correction; Default Format.
------

Default Format might be interesting - does it have a "set everything
to default" button?

And there we go ! ... i don't know about you, but to me it feels as if
we have got to round 10 ... when is the knockout blow coming ...?

Soon, I hope!

Cheers - Jamie
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