Unable to install my 2.1 speakers ( XP need update? )

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Hello there. I posess Windows XP Pro with all updates installed. I bought
recently a pair of 2.1 speakers. While they don't have any malfunction i
encounter some problem when i play a game named Titan quest. The problem with
this is that as the game developers suggest i don't have configured my 2.1
speakers correctly through the "Sounds and Audio Devices>Volume>Speaker
settings>Advanced" into the "Control Panel" of Windows XP. They actually
suggest to configure them as 2.1 and that i may have configured them wrongly
as 5.1 . Well the fact is i have configured my 2.1 speaker set as "normal
desktop stereo speakers" since there is NO OPTION into "Sounds and Audio
Devices" for a 2.1 set. I mean there are all kinds of wierd options except
the one that i need : There is the No speakers, the Laptop mono speakers,
the Laptop stereo speakers option, the monitor kinds of speakers (3 different
combinations of monitor speakers), the 4.1 s, the 5.1 s, the 7.1 s ,the
surround ones, the quadraphonics but yet no option for 2.1 speakers :(

So can Microsoft maybe in a future update add a 2.1 speaker option into
Sounds and audio devices field?
 
ave74 ([email protected]) in
(e-mail address removed):
Hello there. I posess Windows XP Pro with all updates installed. I
bought recently a pair of 2.1 speakers. While they don't have any
malfunction i encounter some problem when i play a game named Titan
quest. The problem with this is that as the game developers suggest i
don't have configured my 2.1 speakers correctly through the "Sounds
and Audio Devices>Volume>Speaker settings>Advanced" into the "Control
Panel" of Windows XP. They actually suggest to configure them as 2.1
and that i may have configured them wrongly as 5.1 . Well the fact is
i have configured my 2.1 speaker set as "normal desktop stereo
speakers" since there is NO OPTION into "Sounds and Audio Devices"
for a 2.1 set. I mean there are all kinds of wierd options except
the one that i need : There is the No speakers, the Laptop mono
speakers, the Laptop stereo speakers option, the monitor kinds of
speakers (3 different combinations of monitor speakers), the 4.1 s,
the 5.1 s, the 7.1 s ,the surround ones, the quadraphonics but yet
no option for 2.1 speakers :(

So can Microsoft maybe in a future update add a 2.1 speaker option
into Sounds and audio devices field?
Click to expand...

I would consider it a task for the developers of any hardware to provide
drivers for it (and take for granted whatever Microsoft has provided in
their place).

That would be an extension or addition to XP, but not an update. :-)

Moreover, from your account I can't exclude that the makers of Titan may
have made some mistake.

And wouldn't a 2.1 set *always* be connected just like a 2.0 (as you did),
with the separation of the bass tones achieved by some tried and true
analoguous filter?
How is your set connected: one three-contact mini jack?
 
Thank you for your reply!

To answer your question how my 2.1 set is being connected, well ,to describe
it right, i have the Z-2300 Logitech 2.1 speakers model and the connection
they use is a simple connector like the one headphones use ( i dont know the
exact word for it ) that one plugs into the normal speaker port of my sound
card (the exact port that i was always connecting my old simple desktop
speakers) . This cable comes from the subwoofer . The 2 speakers are
connected into the corespondent subwoofer ports . (Its impossible to do it
wrong as it indicates even where to plug left and right speaker) So to say it
one more time. The speakers are connected into the subwoofer through separate
cables and the subwoofer is connected with sound card through a normal
headphone connector . So is not that something is wrong in the way i
connected. Other games play fine too. Music is sounding nicely.

Now to clearify some things.
First . The exact nature of the problem in Titan Quest is the fact that when
the 2.1 set is connected some battle sounds are not to be heard at all.
Second. I have also updated the game. But the answer that i must have
configured the speakers wrongly is covered into the standard troubleshooting
field of "readme.txt" that all the versions of the game contain. So i doupt
its something they will fix in future.

Third.I have also installed the sound blaster live 5.1 sound controls and
there the 2.1 speakers are supported . I mean there is an option in the
control panel of the Creative>Audio HQ to set the speakers as 2.1 (the exact
option is demonstrating as 2/2.1 ) And of course i have it set like this from
there. So i find it a bit wierd that the creative sound control program is
not "inflating" with the Sounds and Audio Devices into the control panel for
this option only, although whatever other option you make in there, it
inflates with the Sound and Audio department of XP. For example if you set
the tremble or bass to a certain value through the creative sound controls
you will see the exact change taken place into the XP Sounds and Audio
Devices department. The only thing that is not correspondinfg is the 2/2.1
speaker set option. That is why i set the 2.1 as normal 2 speakers in the
first place.

Fourth. I found some kind of solution. I noticed that if i configure the 2.1
speakers as "surround sound speakers" i can hear the battle sounds although i
have the impression they are sounding slightly lower than should but it maybe
just my impression. (well for that i just lower the music and dialogue volume
from the game settings)

I just want to ask. What is the correct thing to do? Is the normal setting
of the 2.1 to be set as 2 normal desktop speakers or is better to have them
set as surround sound speakers? I don't notice any other sound difference
when listening to music or doing other things with the speakers set as
surround sound speakers instead of the normal desktop speakers option. (well
apart from the fact that the specific Titan game sounds much better (fixes
its problem) with the surround speaker seting) .

So i want to ask if the surround seting is suitable seting for a 2.1 speaker
set or am I losing some sound quality like this? (to my ears i haven't
noticed any difference but its maybe only my ears)
 
ave74 ([email protected]) in
(e-mail address removed):
i have the Z-2300 Logitech 2.1 speakers model and
the connection they use is a simple connector like the one headphones
use
Click to expand...
Now to clearify some things.
First . The exact nature of the problem in Titan Quest is the fact
that when the 2.1 set is connected some battle sounds are not to be
heard at all. Second. I have also updated the game. But the answer
that i must have configured the speakers wrongly is covered into the
standard troubleshooting field of "readme.txt" that all the versions
of the game contain. So i doupt its something they will fix in future.

Third.I have also installed the sound blaster live 5.1 sound controls
and there the 2.1 speakers are supported . I mean there is an option
in the control panel of the Creative>Audio HQ to set the speakers as
2.1 (the exact option is demonstrating as 2/2.1 ) And of course i
have it set like this from there.
Click to expand...
Fourth. I found some kind of solution. I noticed that if i configure
the 2.1 speakers as "surround sound speakers" i can hear the battle
sounds although i have the impression they are sounding slightly
lower than should but it maybe just my impression. (well for that i
just lower the music and dialogue volume from the game settings)
Click to expand...

I think I can clearly see the problem now, but I'm not too familiar with the
solution, simple though it must be.

My experience (off-topic):
In my living room I have a DVD player with connectors for 5.1 surround. I
have these connected to a 7.1 Creative speaker set. But, using splitters, I
have also connected the front left and right outputs to my television.
I have set up the DVD player for 5.1. I tend to use the 7.1 speaker set only
when I expect that to be useful, and use the television speakers when there
is little to be gained.
I have the special extended edition of Pete Jackson's movie "Lord of the
Rings": six DVDs for the actual movie, six for the appendices ("the making
of"). These appendices play nicely over the television, but the chapters
about soundscapes and music score then don't show the commentary.

My non-experience (on-topic):
I once had a Sound Blaster Live in a computer that soon broke down, so I
hardly have any experience with it. But I do remember that getting the sound
out was a tricky bit of configuration: what connectors to use, what settings
to activate these very connectors.

So it would be up to somebody else than me to find the definitive solution.
 
You see now? That is why i wrote in first place that it seems that the Sound
and Audio devices department of Windows XP needs an update or an add on, so
to cover the (many) people that use the 2.1 speaker setting. (i could buy
the 5.1 set but i didn't want to mess up my room with cables ,screws in the
wall etc... All i needed was just some bass amplification into my sound)
Thanks for your time.
 
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