Vista - 5.1 Surround help please.

Hey guys, I purchased a Creative Inspire T6100 this summer and I got it to work with my Vista Home Prem x64 for a while, then this past week it just broke on me, what i mean is that I only get stereo quality sound (2 front speakers and center when voice chat is on.) My motherboard is the Asus P5Q-Pro and i am using the onboard sound card which is the Realtek HD audio soundcard on 6.0.1.5591 driver version.

Now i went into the settings already and configured my speaker system to 5.1 surround sound (thats what i did when i bought my system first and it worked fine.) now it wont work. when i press test however, all my speakers work, so it cant be a connectivity problem. it is just when i use itunes to play music or when i play games, or youtube or whatever, i only hear the 2 front speakers, my sub and rear 2 just dont work, only gives out staticy sounds when u listen to them.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Pic here:
http://i36.tinypic.com/21btd9y.jpg

Hey guys, I am still having this problem I was wondering if anyone had a solution?

I am not really familiar with Realtek, but check to see the system is automatically switching between the front inputs and the rear when a jack is unplugged. There is a switch in the Real Tech control panel or you can enable this in BIOS on the Asus boards.

I have just installed Vista x64 ultimate and have a SB X-fi sound card with the Creative T6100 speakers. I have the same problem front 2 and middle (plus Sub ) speakers work fully where as the rear 2 speakers are extremely low. All ifo is set to 5.1 Surround but just like 3 way stereo , How can I get it sorted to play in full 5.1 Surround .

cheers

Ade

This is because music (i.e. mp3) is only stereo not 5.1, so you only hear sound from stereo (front left & right) speakers. Also, you need to set games to use 5.1 in the sound options

This problem can be solved with creative xfi 5.1 cards by opening the the blue audio console, clicking 'x-fi cmss-3d' tab & setting stereo envelopment at 54%.
then by clicking the 'surround' option & choose 'stereo surround' to stop it sounding tinny.

My Harmon Kardon 7.1 receiver does 2.0 to 7.1. CD music is mostly 2.0 with some 5.1. DVDs are 2.0 to 6.1ES. You can get a 7.1 testing CD from most A/V shops for $30. You can test various setups with it.

Hi Kdai and welcome to Vista Forums

You probably just need to make a few adjustments to your settings. These are the settings that I recommend:

In addition, on the 'Speakers Properties' tab, check the relative levels (and balance) of the speakers.

Don't forget to check the settings on the speakers themselves.
As Michael says, you will get true multi-speaker output ONLY IF the source was encoded that way.

hey guys, i kinda have the same problem with realtek HD audio card and Genius Home-Theater 5.1 speakers. I can hear the sound perfectly from front, central and sub speakers, but rear ones are just so low, and the voice isn't going there.
Can it be somehow fixed or not?