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General discussion

Getting speakers to work (5.1 vs. stereo)

Dec 9, 2006 7:18AM PST

Folks, thanks in advance for the help.

I'm using onboard audio on my Asus A8V mobo, using the realtek audio chip/codec.

I have a set of 5.1 speakers with male RCA ends, so I bought 3 adapters from RadioShack, part number 274-369 which are dual female RCA inputs into a single male 1/8" stereo jack.

Using those adapters, I plugged the speakers into the 3 mobo jacks and voila, only the front L/R speakers work. Switching out the rest of the speakers into the working jack prove that the speakers are good, but there isn't any signal going to them when they are plugged in the proper 5.1 set up. Additionally, the sound isn't very loud at all.

In the Windows audio settings I have volume maxed, speaker set up set to 5.1, and in the Asus/RealTek Sound Manager I have it set to 6 channel (although a speaker test also powers only the front L/R speakers).

Any thoughts?

Discussion is locked

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I use
Dec 9, 2006 10:20PM PST
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5.1 needs a digital source, not analog RCA jacks.
Dec 11, 2006 9:05AM PST

And the output from sound cards is in the pre-amp level. You'll need an amp.

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Speaker fix
Dec 14, 2006 3:12AM PST

Generally speaking whenever you have RCA type connections that usually means that it needs to be attached via some sort of amplifier.
A Motherboard does not provide any where near the amount of signal strength to run speakers directly and almost always needs an amplifier to work correctly. The way you currently have the speakers attached may burn out the motherboard's audio chip.

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Thanks!
Dec 17, 2006 12:00AM PST

Thanks for all the help guys! I had no idea about the amp requirement. I actually do have an amp though, which came with the speakers. And I can connect it through digital coax to the motherboard, and it allows me 5.1 for movies, but when using the RealTek Sound Effect Manager to test my setup, it doesn't work (shows 5.1 speakers but only plays through FL/FR).

Additionally, some games I play will only play through the center channel as well as some mp3s and videos. That is why I tried skipping the amp and plugging the speakers directly in to the mobo.

Guess I may be SOL eh?

Thanks again though, this was driving me crazy!

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I'm Having the same problem
Dec 27, 2006 1:44PM PST

I've got a similar problem. I've connected my 5.1 surround sound system to my computer using an optical cable, i also use Realtek HD audio manager and when i do a speaker test only the FL and FR speakers work.
Please can anyone help! this is very frustrating.

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HD Audio front panel connection problems
Aug 5, 2010 2:10AM PDT

This may not be the problem, but Realtek software has some setting that determine how and what is connected to the repective jacks. If only one channel is being played check the settings in the software, and ensure that the mic port is set as a speaker channel. I had a similar situation in which this occured. Wish I could remember the tabs that control this function, but I am sure that if you browse through the tabs you will find what I am talking about.

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Also....
Aug 5, 2010 2:14AM PDT

Front panel jacks can cause problems if they are incorrectly connected. IE Intel HD-Audio requires a compatable HD-Audio Dongle, where as AC97 front panel does not report some settings correctly, in this case try to disable the detection on the second port.