Either a Sub-Woofer or Audio Card Problem

[Alexyboy123]

ok, my central speaker isnt working on my Creative P580 Inspire 5.1 speaker system. By a process of elimination I know it isnt the speakers themselves or the Jacks connecting it into by Audigy 2 ZS. So thats leaves either the audio card or the subwoofer. Is there anyway I can determine which on it is?

 

[Vigilante]

You say the "central speaker" isn't working. And it's 5.1? The center speaker isn't the subwoofer. The woofer is the ".1" part of "5.1".
You should have 5 speakers AND a woofer.
So what isn't working? The center speaker (5th speaker) or the woofer? Or both? Or maybe you are missing part of the system?

I suppose you've played around with the settings in the AudioHQ program? If you don't have that program, you may need to reload your Creative drivers in order to get it.

Anyways, give some more specifics.

 

[Alexyboy123]

You missunderstood me about the Subwoofer. I have all 5 speaker, up till recently they all worked. All the speakers work when swapped around unless they are plugged into the central speaker socket at the back of the Subwoofer. (there are 5 sockets in all, left, right, rear left and rear right as usual). The central speaker has its own cabel connecting it to the audio card (accroding to the setup diagram). Switching these around has no effect. I have also gone through deafulting all my settings using the various tools that creative has supplied as I have never fiddled with them. I also have installed the latest drivers.
If its not any of the Speakers, setting or the Cables, imo it must be either the central speaker socket on the subwoofer where you plug the central speakers in, or the sockets that connect the audiocard and subwoofer together. Unless you can think of another idea.

In summary im pretty sure one of the sockets on my audio card or subwoofer have gone

 

[Vigilante]

OK, makes more sense, but you still didn't say whether you have SIX total speakers. Meaning front-right, front-left, rear-right, rear-left, center, and sub.
I'm just guessing you DO have 5 speakers (front, back and center), and ALL 5 of those work from your testing?
And also your SUB works too, as in, makes sound?

So in other, other words All SIX of your speakers work, but NOT from the center speaker port?

Ok, then answer this, how does the sub connect to the PC? Is it through one digital cable? Or multiple cables?

If it's digital, single cable for all channels, then there is no good way to test really, I'd probably say the output on the sub has gone bad. Because it would be very hard for a sound card to mux up just one PART of a multi-channel signal over a single cable.
My gues is the port on the sub is bad, I've seen it before.
But really you can only test 100% with another set of speakers. Or test your entire set of speakers on someone else's 5.1 channel output.

Sorry about the confusion, just trying to get a mental picture here.

 

[Alexyboy123]

uh huh, 6 Speakers as you said, 5 little ones and a Sub. Its analoge, so mulitple cables. A bit of confusion over the sub-working, in the THX Setup Centre, a tool to test whether you have the speakers in the right place the Sub makes no noise even with the bass turned up to maximum, but when playing music it definently is working. Just a weird minor point. Sorry about the confusion earlier.

OK, next step find a person with a 5:1 sound system

 

[Alexyboy123]

OK, makes more sense, but you still didn't say whether you have SIX total speakers. Meaning front-right, front-left, rear-right, rear-left, center, and sub.
I'm just guessing you DO have 5 speakers (front, back and center), and ALL 5 of those work from your testing?
And also your SUB works too, as in, makes sound?

So in other, other words All SIX of your speakers work, but NOT from the center speaker port?

Ok, then answer this, how does the sub connect to the PC? Is it through one digital cable? Or multiple cables?

If it's digital, single cable for all channels, then there is no good way to test really, I'd probably say the output on the sub has gone bad. Because it would be very hard for a sound card to mux up just one PART of a multi-channel signal over a single cable.
My guess is the port on the sub is bad, I've seen it before.
But really you can only test 100% with another set of speakers. Or test your entire set of speakers on someone else's 5.1 channel output.

Sorry about the confusion, just trying to get a mental picture here.

Hmmm I think it may be the card now.

By using a single cable I connected one audio card socket with one subwoofer socket.
I then ran Creative Diagnostic to see which speakers worked.
I then changed which subwoofer socket I was testing.
Once I'd tested all 3 subwoofer sockets I changed the audiocard socket and repeated till I tried all 3 audiocard sockets with all 3 Subwoofer sockets.
I then repeated the experiment using a different cable just to be sure.

For 2 of the sockets, which form the installation diagram I believe provided either right & left, or rear-right and rear-left I always got rear speaker or front speaker noise but never centre. This of course is to be expected. For one socket, which from installation I believe provided Centre and Sub-Woofer, I got no noise at all. This to me implies that that socket on my audiocard has got damaged?

I'll try speaker system on a friends machine after the weekend just to be sure.

 

[Vigilante]

That's very possible.

I suppose this setup has worked before and now has gone bad?

Well, still can't rule out either. I've just seen far more speaker systems go out, then individual sockets or signals from the sound card. That would be a pretty unique problem, if true.

Sounds like both the speaker system OR the sound card would be a bit of change to replace, so, might as well get the 3rd party test out of the way.