Realteck 5.1 (6 channel) sound problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Squeezy99
  • Start date Start date
S

Squeezy99

Hi,
I have finally got round to connecting all my speakers up to my fairly new
PC. I have a Soundblaster desktop 5.1 speaker system and my new mobo, aa
ASrock N68PV-GS, has 3 rear connectors for the onboard Realtek ALC662
system. I connect up my 3 cables, Front Green to Green on the mobo, middle
black/blue and the centre/bass pink/orange to the mic in. The Realteck
control panel objects to this mic connection. No matter what I try I get
everything via the two front speakers. All is set up to 5.1 in the control
panel, I have checked all my cables are well seated and in good condition.
I have installed the latest drivers so what am I missing please.

Thanks in advance,
Dave.
 
R.click the speaker by the clock,select "open volume control",make sure the
volume isnt muted with a check in the box,edit the others.Click on the
options
box,see if playback is set.Otherwise,go to run,type: DXDIAG Run the
Direct X audio tests.
 
Hi Andrew, thanks for the reply. Tried your suggestions but all OK.
Every setting in control panel sounds are as they should be for 5.1 - I have
run through them many times tonight.
The Realtek panel is also all correct but shows this connection problem. I
suppose I will have to check the mobo cables and connections for the sound
system.
Cheers,
Dave.
 
Squeezy99 said:
Hi Andrew, thanks for the reply. Tried your suggestions but all OK.
Every setting in control panel sounds are as they should be for 5.1 - I have
run through them many times tonight.
The Realtek panel is also all correct but shows this connection problem. I
suppose I will have to check the mobo cables and connections for the sound
system.
Cheers,
Dave.
Click to expand...

This is purely a guess. Your front panel audio header, has two interfaces
on it. It has "Mic In" and "Headphones".

The manual mentions a setting of

"Please select Front Mic as default recording source"

It could be, that once you're selecting "Front Mic", the rear microphone
input can be redefined as an output.

A similar issue might arise, if you attempted to select "Line In" while
in 6 channel mode. I doubt the driver would like that either. You have
to "clear the decks" of all input modes on the rear jacks, to get 5.1 mode.
By selecting "Front Mic" as the sole input source, the rear jacks should
all be outputs.

The manual mentions another setting...

"Disable Front Panel jack detection"

HDAudio uses isolated switches on the side of the jacks. When a plug
is inserted in the jack hole, the body of the plug presses on a switch.

Up to four switches are combined together in s sensing tree. Using two
sense wires, the audio chip can sense the state of eight switches. The "Disable
Front Panel jack detection" is disabling that function. The reason for
this, is the majority of computer cases lack the correct wiring for
that function. The computer cases are usually wired for AC'97 and not
for HDAudio.

I have an ALC662 on my current motherboard, and I don't see any
symptoms of having jack detection on mine. I just plugged in three
audio cables to my rear jacks, and the audio control panel didn't react
at all. On my Soundmax audio motherboard, the Soundmax software would
say something cute like "what did you just plug in". The Soundmax has
impedance sensing, and it can detect a 10K ohm amplified computer speaker,
or can detect a 32 ohm set of headphones. At least on my ALC662 right now,
it doesn't notice when the plugs are inserted. So it may not have
impedance sensing as a backup system to the "isolated switch inside the jack"
thing.

That is why in my answer above, I'm focusing on the conflict between
jack definitions. By telling the audio chip, that you're using a front
microphone, it is going to stop thinking about the rear jack as a
microphone. It doesn't matter that no microphone is plugged into
the FP_Audio header on the motherboard. It's more a matter of fooling
the chip into thinking that is where the microphone is located. If
the chip had impedance sensing, it may have been able to determine
you were telling a lie :-) I actually hate the hardware notion of
jack sensing, because more often than not, it conflicts with a
user's ability to get things done. It is automation without purpose.

HTH,
Paul
 
Hi Paul,
thanks for the help I spent a few hours going round in circles after
checking the front panel cables etc. My mobo book first talks about multi
streaming but that was a dead end. I finally found an article explaining
this. Then I managed to find an article that explains about the "Disable
Front Panel jack detection" that you mention so I tried this once again and
it turned out to be the answer. he problem is there are so many
combinations of settings and it is difficult to find the place to "start
again" each time.
Many thanks.
Dave
 
Back
Top