Speakers & Sound Card Problem

Recently I purchased a set of very expensive Logitech Surround Sound Speakers Z-5500 and a Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer Sound Card. Unfortunately my PC Blue Screened at the very instance I rebooted after installing the Sound Card, and after further investigation it appears that my ATI Radeon HD 4850 Video Card has multiple compatibility issues (Creative Sound Cards being one of them) So I got a refund for the Sound card as they said my Main Board supports 7.1 Sound anyway, but the thing is I can only get the rear and center speakers to kick in If I choose Matrix Surround, which sounds Totally Crap with Music So is there anyway I can get ALL 5.1 to fire up without having to use Matrix Surround or do I need a Alternate Sound Card? Something like X-Fi Fatality Pro has been sugested

 

specify your motherboard or the onboard sound chip manufacturer

 

Windows Vista might be the problem - due to changes in DirectSound and sound processing APIs within Windows Vista, hardware acceleration for DirectSound audio streams is no longer supported - many players rely on this functionality to deliver sound from all the speakers while playing music in stereo formats such as MP3, WMA, Audio CDs, etc.

If you play a 5.1 DVD and still cannot get sound out of all the 5 speakers, then I would say you truly have a problem on your hands. Otherwise, it is just a Vista limitation.

 

I just reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything. Now I can't get my sound to work! Any sugestions? I don't have the software that came with the card!

Twodogs

 

Ron, Thanks for the reply.

I am running "MS XP Home" and as nearly as I can tell the sound card is a "Biostar Microtech VT8233/A AC'97" Ver. 2.04

I hope this will be of some help.

Dave

 

Here are the updated drivers from Via Arena:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1010&SubCatID=104

and if you want to update the chipset drivers of your mobo
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1070

Panagiotis

 

Thanks goes out to Ron and Panagiotis, as I now have my sound doing its job. I had reformatted my PC when I picked a pretty good virus or something nasty. I took about half of my C-drive and it could not be repaired, so I did the big clean and with the help of these guys I got it back on my own. I don't mind paying to have things fixed, but tearing it down and putting it back together is a real pain. As if you didn't already know.
Anyway Thanks guys~

Dave aka Twodogs

 

Sorry for the long delay, been on a Cruise for a few weeks Anyway, I bought another Sound card this time Creative Sound Blaster Extreme Audio, but each time I run it with Vista the Computer Loops at startup or Crashes (Blue Screen) Indeed this has to be Vista Orientated as nothing like this with XP

 

Did a quick Google using the name of your sound card\BSOD\Vista and found you were not alone. Did you d\l the latest drivers from the Creative site or just use the ones on the included disk? Or are they the same. Some of the quick reading I did seems to indicate there may be an updated Vista version.

Love their hardware ......hate their software.

 

I am running Vista with Realtek High definition audio with Logitech 5.1 surround and the realtek works perfectly. You might check to see if the Raltek HD audio is compatable with your board as it does work very well.

 

Looks like I cured it Updated the BIOS for my MB and installed updated Vista Drivers, no crash so far