Surround sound speakers not working

[jools182]

I bought some 5.1 surround sound speakers from Aldi a while ago and can't seem to get them to work properly
I don't get anything out of the centre or rear speakers.
I have tried changing the settings on my machine and I did make sure the CD playing was in surround
Any ideas?

 

[es84]

hi
Whats is the sound card on the system , Is it sound blaster /
THere are several things we need to check , load the latest drivers for the card,
Connect the spekaers to a different sound source and check if the SUB is working or not , check the bass levels ,does the sound card ssupport 5.1 digital audio , or is it an analog card ?

 

[the bacon]

There is probly 3 connectors going to the suround sound system make sure all of them are connected to the corresponding plugs on your computer.

Please provide system specifications especially your sound card and motherbord specifications

 

[jools182]

Hi

I am not very computer literate and not sure how to find out what sound card and mother board I have!

There are 3 connectors which are colour coded which I connected to the corresponding sockets

 

[the bacon]

ok do this

start-> control panel-> system, hardware (tab)-> device manager-> (expand) sound, video, and game controllers

then list everthing it says under there

 

[jools182]

I have XP so I think the control panel is different, but this is what I found under Sounds and Audio Devices
Realtek high definition audio
Unimodem half duplex audio device
audio codecs
legacy audio drivers
media control devices
legacy video capture devices
video codecs

thanks

 

[jools182]

anyone got any ideas why I don't get sound from the rear or centre speakers?

 

[stevenazari]

you have a half duplex sound card, you need a full duplex card not only for multi playback and editing, but all cards that support 5.1 surround is full duplex.

you can find out what your card supports by a number of ways, first of all you should have enough sockets in your sound card for all the connectors from the speaker system to connect to, these sockets are USUALLY black,green and orange, if your card has none of these you dont have a 5.1 card and need to buy one (they are cheap enough)

if you see colours green pink and black its just a regular card, pink is for microphone (gay huh) green is for your speakers (stereo ) and black is for line in

best cards you can get are the sound blaster range (most popular) but you can get budget cards although I dont recommend it, sound cards dont upgrade so often unlike graphics cards and you will find yourself using a great card for a good year or 2 maybe even 3