Solve : Soundblaster card only outputs on one jack...?

1.	Solve : Soundblaster card only outputs on one jack...?
Answer» I have desktop computer in tower configuration running MS XP Home with all the latest patches. It is using a 2.5 Mhz PENTIUM 4 processor and has a SoundBlaster Audigy 5.1 sound card. The video card is an nVidia with 128MB of video RAM (I believe it is a 6700, but I'll check). I have had the system about two years. For the first year or so everything was fine. Then we moved. I powered down the system, unhooked everything, and drove it to our new place cushioned in the back seat of my car. When I hooked everything back up, I could only get sound to come from one jack on the sound card. There are five JACKS on the back of the card. As you look at the back of the computer they are from LEFT to right: Black out, green out, pink out, blue in, orange out. (I will double check this evening, but that is how I remember them). In any case the only jack that works is the second from the left (which I believe is green). I tested each jack with a set of headphones and that is the only one which gives off sound when I play system sounds in the Sounds tab of the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties of the Control Panel. I have switched PCI slots on the card, and Windows correctly finds the card as new and installs the drivers. I have gone to the Creative Labs site and run their update wizard. It correctly finds the card and updates the drivers. When I look in the Device Manager, I do not see any conflicts. The only change to the system before this problem occurred was the addition of a 2.0 USB card, but sound continued to play fine after it was installed.. Since the problem started the only changes have been moving the sound card to a different slot as mentioned above and replacing the hard drive. The only sound that I get from the system other than from that one jack is a beep from the system speaker on boot up. I have run out of things that I know to look at. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :-? Thanks-- AlMake certain Windows isn't set to use the Line-in as Rear-speaker out and Mic as Center/Subwoofer. Perhaps your soundcard features other capabilities as well. You can control this from the Advanced button in the Sound configuration table. Also; you should have removed drivers from your previous soundcard before installing a new one.Are you talking about the "Advanced Audio Properties" where you pick the speaker configuration from a drop down? I have played with selecting different configurations, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I am not seeing anything where I can explicitly set the line-in and mic (but I did plug my headset inito each jack...). I believe that I removed all of the sound drivers when I removed the card and reinserted it in a new slot, but I can try that again. Thanks for the suggestions!I actually had a hard time finding it myself, I thought the Mic port was destroyed, but it turned out to be converted to a CTR/SUB jack. I found the options under: Start Settings Control Panel Sound and Audio Devices Advanced button under Device Volume Advanced under any of slides available It may or may not be there, I think it depends on the type of soundcard installed/selected or perhaps on the type of drivers installed. Thanks, again I don't remember an Advanced button under the slides, but in checking it on my work PC (which doesn't show such a button) I see that there are some options as to which slides actually show. I will check that out as well as look for an advanced button under the slides. Isn't there also a setting somewhere to choose between 2.1 and 5.1 output? Maybe that got changed somehow? control panel / sounds and audio devices / speaker settings / advancedYes there is. That is a drop down. I tried most (if not all) of the options in that list but with no luck. Did you install the original drivers or did you let Windows install drivers for you?Before my drive died, I had just reused the ones that I had. However, when I lost the drive (which was well after this problem started), I discovered that I did not have the drivers for the card. I went and let Windows find the drivers and then I went to the Creative Labs site and let their automatic update software PROVIDE me with the latest drivers for the cards... For better or WORSE, they installed with no problem.So you have access to a SoundBlaster configuration menu, yes?Well, I might, but I've never used one. I just went to their website and let their "Software AutoUpdate" figure out what I had. Then I just installed what it gave me. There may have been a configuration utility in the download. I'll check when I get home...It may have come with an Audio Wizard that allows you to test all channels.I'll look around and see if I can find such a thing.Let me know how it works out.You could also boot a Live Linux CD and see if the card is functional under that O/S, or try it in another machine to see. although there are no moving parts, sometimes there are failures. It would either rule in or out a hardware issue. I assume if you have onboard sound it is disabled in BIOS?

Answer»

I have desktop computer in tower configuration running MS XP Home with all the latest patches. It is using a 2.5 Mhz PENTIUM 4 processor and has a SoundBlaster Audigy 5.1 sound card. The video card is an nVidia with 128MB of video RAM (I believe it is a 6700, but I'll check). I have had the system about two years. For the first year or so everything was fine. Then we moved. I powered down the system, unhooked everything, and drove it to our new place cushioned in the back seat of my car. When I hooked everything back up, I could only get sound to come from one jack on the sound card.

There are five JACKS on the back of the card. As you look at the back of the computer they are from LEFT to right: Black out, green out, pink out, blue in, orange out. (I will double check this evening, but that is how I remember them). In any case the only jack that works is the second from the left (which I believe is green). I tested each jack with a set of headphones and that is the only one which gives off sound when I play system sounds in the Sounds tab of the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties of the Control Panel.

I have switched PCI slots on the card, and Windows correctly finds the card as new and installs the drivers. I have gone to the Creative Labs site and run their update wizard. It correctly finds the card and updates the drivers. When I look in the Device Manager, I do not see any conflicts.

The only change to the system before this problem occurred was the addition of a 2.0 USB card, but sound continued to play fine after it was installed.. Since the problem started the only changes have been moving the sound card to a different slot as mentioned above and replacing the hard drive.

The only sound that I get from the system other than from that one jack is a beep from the system speaker on boot up. I have run out of things that I know to look at. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :-?

Thanks--

AlMake certain Windows isn't set to use the Line-in as Rear-speaker out and Mic as Center/Subwoofer. Perhaps your soundcard features other capabilities as well.

You can control this from the Advanced button in the Sound configuration table.

Also; you should have removed drivers from your previous soundcard before installing a new one.Are you talking about the "Advanced Audio Properties" where you pick the speaker configuration from a drop down? I have played with selecting different configurations, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I am not seeing anything where I can explicitly set the line-in and mic (but I did plug my headset inito each jack...).

I believe that I removed all of the sound drivers when I removed the card and reinserted it in a new slot, but I can try that again.

Thanks for the suggestions!I actually had a hard time finding it myself, I thought the Mic port was destroyed, but it turned out to be converted to a CTR/SUB jack.

I found the options under:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Sound and Audio Devices
Advanced button under Device Volume
Advanced under any of slides available

It may or may not be there, I think it depends on the type of soundcard installed/selected or perhaps on the type of drivers installed.

Thanks, again I don't remember an Advanced button under the slides, but in checking it on my work PC (which doesn't show such a button) I see that there are some options as to which slides actually show. I will check that out as well as look for an advanced button under the slides. Isn't there also a setting somewhere to choose between 2.1 and 5.1 output? Maybe that got changed somehow?

control panel / sounds and audio devices / speaker settings / advancedYes there is. That is a drop down. I tried most (if not all) of the options in that list but with no luck. Did you install the original drivers or did you let Windows install drivers for you?Before my drive died, I had just reused the ones that I had. However, when I lost the drive (which was well after this problem started), I discovered that I did not have the drivers for the card. I went and let Windows find the drivers and then I went to the Creative Labs site and let their automatic update software PROVIDE me with the latest drivers for the cards... For better or WORSE, they installed with no problem.So you have access to a SoundBlaster configuration menu, yes?Well, I might, but I've never used one. I just went to their website and let their "Software AutoUpdate" figure out what I had. Then I just installed what it gave me. There may have been a configuration utility in the download. I'll check when I get home...It may have come with an Audio Wizard that allows you to test all channels.I'll look around and see if I can find such a thing.Let me know how it works out.You could also boot a Live Linux CD and see if the card is functional under that O/S, or try it in another machine to see. although there are no moving parts, sometimes there are failures. It would either rule in or out a hardware issue. I assume if you have onboard sound it is disabled in BIOS?

Solve : Soundblaster card only outputs on one jack...?

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