Vista - Problems with HD Audio in Vista Ultimate x64

Hey guys, this may or may not be a vista issue im not sure. I get sound fine from my 2.1 speakers and even my home theatre for most of my stuff. But when i go to set up the optical spdif properties, it doesnt let me choose 5.1 speakers even after ive checked off dts dd and wma pro. If i hit test on any one of these it cycles through all the speakers properly. I dont understand why it wont let me select 5.1. My mobo's hdaudio program is called soundMAX blackhawk and its the same way. Its very frusterating as i want to set my speakers in COD to 5.1 but it says i have to change my default audio to do it and its already set to spdif default. Someone have an idea?? Oh and im pretty sure it was working with blurays for 5.1 properly also. Still wont let me select 5.1 tho.

I am fighting with audio issues too (but with 5.1 analog 3.5mm outputs).

Make sure you have Audio enabled in your Bios. Press 'Del' key when your system is booting. There should be a setting in there to 'Enable' HD Audio.

Also, download the latest audio drivers for your motherboard (they should be on the CD that came with it, but also check on-line because there may be newer ones out there).

I saw someone say in another post to install the audio deivers twice....once removes the old one, the second time installs the new one (reboot after each install).

But your post is a bit confusing.....you refer to your 2.1 speakers & then home theater. Do you have dedicated 5.1 PC speakers, or are you running a cable from your PC to a A/V receiver and using home theater surround sound for your PC? Sounds like you are using Optical digital cable (TOSLINK square connector)....do you see the red light shining from one end when the other is plugged into your soundcard? Also if you are plugging into a receiver, make sure that you are plugging it into a Toslink 'input' jack & then setting the receiver to the correct input (like set it to 'Aux' if that is where you just plugged the Optical cable into).

I have 2.1 PC logitech speakers for just regular music hooked up via 3.5 mm jacks. I use the Optical Out in the back for a spdif to the 5.1 reciever that is hooked up to my home theatre speakers. I have HD Audio enabled in BIOS and have removed old and installed new mobo drivers :S Luckily it at least works with movies now but im still having a hard time getting it to recognize 5.1 in windows vista and in games. Only thing that seems to recognize the 5.1 is PowerDVD

Oh and Yes there is red light [signal] coming from the toslink cable as im currently getting sound no problem via the toslink, that isnt the issue. It was getting vista to recognize that the toslink is connected to a 5.1 reciever and therefore enable 5.1 speaker setup. I do have it into the SAT optical input in the back of my reciever and it is on the correct input, hence the sound i currently get. Im almost 100% positive its a vista issue or i wouldnt have posted it on here. The audio dirver the mobo uses is the ADI2000B driver it might be an issue with that as most hd audio on mobos is some form of the realtek ALxxxx codecs. Vista may simply have overlooked the codecs that are used on the P5Q-e,

I would say unplug the 2.1 speakers (who knows maybe that is throwing off the 5.1 detection). Install the latest HD audio drivers for your MB, reboot.

Go into the audio software and see if you can choose 5.1 there.

Already tried it

OK.....try this....

Optical is uncompressed 2.0 only, but passes compressed dobly digital and dts fine; so you just need to set your optical out as your default output device from the control panel under sound settings.

If you want 5.1 sound in games and such - you need dolby digital live or dts connect support(and you also need to set your speakers as the default output device from the control panel).

Turn off all the decoding options in the sound control panel and let the audio pass through using the ac3filter

when you play games or use the desktop you use the "Speakers" option.
when you watch movies change it to "Realtek Digital Output".

If it says something like: in ac3 filter it says 'spdif disabled:spdif output is not supported'.....then make sure that you uninstall ALL old (dell or whatever) audio drivers and get the realtek HD codecs from Realtek's site.


I'm using PowerDVD to play DVD, BluRay and HD-DVD films. It outputs DTS and DD through my S/PDIF no problem. For gaming I just use the analogue outputs, but, if you want 5.1 output through your S/PDIF for gaming you'll need a card that'll encode the 5.1 analogue channels in to a digital signal. I also use Windows Media Player with FFDshow and Haali Media Splitter to play other formats like .mkv's, which can also be setup to output the digital signal through the S/PDIF.

Okay this is news to me. Um would it work better for me to use a Digital Coaxial Cable for my spdif?

Right now i have the spdif via optical as my default device in control panel.
Ive used both optical and coax in my ht for numerous other inputs and never had a problem with my reciever auto detecting. What and where are the settings to get my onboard to send the signal to my reciever properly vis spdif?