Fist Time Using Onboard Sound-how Do I Get My Surround Sound to Work!?

**cheesepuff** · #1 5th May 2009, 19:12

OK, all my life i have used a sound card, but with my new build, i dont have one. so what i am using is the on board sound. but for the live of me i cant figure out how to make the darn surround sound to work!!! i set the windows sound thing to 5.1, but that didnt help. then i went to the MOBO sound software and i unmuted all channels. but that didnt work. what do i do!?

PS- before i bought my PC everyone said i dont need a sound card and the onboard stuff is good now. i have only one thing to say to all of those who told me this---I HATE ONBOARD! ITS SOUNDS LIKE POOP COMING OUT A STRAW! AND I CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO WORK IT!!!

**Bubba** · #2 5th May 2009, 20:28

So what is your onboard sound? Is it from REALTEK? If so download the latest drivers (don't do it through the Mobo manufacturer, do it through realtek) and I can walk you through from there. LOL If it isn't realtek, I dunno what to tell you..........

EDIT: The latest I have (as of a week ago) is R221.

**cheesepuff** · #3 6th May 2009, 18:04

drivers are updated. and yes, its REALTEK

**Bubba** · #4 6th May 2009, 21:26

Ok, in your toolbar, you should have TWO little speaker icons. The windows one and the realtek one. If you don't have two, then you have to go to Start/Control Panel, and find Realtek Audio HD Manager. Click it and do your thing to set it up. It should show you a screen like this:

Fist Time Using Onboard Sound-how Do I Get My Surround Sound to Work!?-realtek.jpg

EDIT: I have to admit. I LOVED my Soundblaster, but the realtek that I have used the last year because Soundblaster won't support 5.1 speakers in Vista, has been just fine. And I am VERY picky about my sound.

**cheesepuff** · #5 7th May 2009, 16:06

i have the 2 audio things.

**Bubba** · #6 7th May 2009, 19:15

OK. You have 2 audio things. Have you gone to the REALTEK one and set your sound? If not you are pissing in the wind. If you have, I dunno what to tell you. Have you tried the other things?

**cheesepuff** · #7 8th May 2009, 06:45

what exactly do i do when i go into the realtek to set it up?

**Bubba** · #8 9th May 2009, 13:57

Sorry for the delay Cheese, I was out of pocket the last couple of days.Before I " tell you what exactly do you do when you go into the realtek to set it up" let me preface my remarks.

I got a PM from Fordy about HIS realtek, and as such I did some more research. I found out that different MoBo manufacturers using the Realtek HD Audio codecs have different features and different looks. By co incidence, the user manual I found was for Gigabyte, your Mobo manufacturer, but it's from 2006. I'm gonna link that manual and as such have two questions:

1). Does your user interface look anything like the Jpeg I posted or does it look like the one in the link below? LOL I guess that was "both" questions in one shot, so really it was one question. After I made my first post, they came out with a new driver, R222. I don't get it, Realtek comes out with a new driver almost every week it seems like..............

Anyway, let me know which "look" you have and we can go from there. As you can see from my Jpeg, I also use 5.1 so if your stuff looks like mine, I can help you.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...00_0418-05.pdf

**cheesepuff** · #9 9th May 2009, 15:12

no, its doesnt look like the one in the picture u had up.

**Bubba** · #10 9th May 2009, 15:27

Ok, does it look like the one in the link?

EDIT: You have to scroll down a few pages as it's a PDF before you get to the first picture. If you are on your phone then you may have to work. if it's like the one I linked, I'm jealous, you have more features than I do.