Setting up surround sound

[AD-15]

hello,

I have the Creative G500 5.1 speakers, and they are proving a nightmare to set up.

I have tried talking to SCAN for ages, no results, I still can't get them to work properly.

The problem? Although the wiring is spot on (trust me, it is ), whenever I test them in the creative console, the front speakers work fine, but when I click on rear left, sound comes out of the front left speaker, and when I click on the rear right channel, sound comes out of the front right speaker, albeit, it sounds somewhat centered when compared to clicking on the front channels, but there is definetly NO sound coming out of the rear speakers.

When I press upmix on the speaker remote control, there is a different result. Now, whenever I click on a channel, sound comes out of ALL the speakers. For example, when I click on front left, sound comes out of every speaker, but mostly out of the front left one. However, clicking on rear left results in sound coming out of every speaker, albiet mostly out of the FRONT left speaker.

I've tried adjusting volume controls, settings on the console, 3Dmidi, swapping wires, everything, but to no avail.

Wierd or what? What could the problem be?

Thankyou so much!

EDIT: I'm using the X-fi elite pro, and Vista 32.

[Tetras]

but when I click on rear left, sound comes out of the front left speaker, and when I click on the rear right channel, sound comes out of the front right speaker, albeit, it sounds somewhat centered when compared to clicking on the front channels, but there is definetly NO sound coming out of the rear speakers.

I'm gonna ask the obvious here but from rear left coming out of front left and rear right out of front right and when you upmix sound comes out of all speakers it sounds rather like something somewhere is still set to stereo sound. Have you set 5.1 speakers in Windows speaker configuration?

[AD-15]

Yup, I have set everything I can to 5.1. I've also tried all the other speaker configurations!

[Tetras]

Well only other obvious possibility I can think of is you have the three jacks in the wrong ports but you say your confident about that so....

[AD-15]

Any one have any other ideas? This is a nightmare!

[Tetras]

I know you say your very confident about the wiring/jacks etc but are you absolutely sure they are right? The colour coding between manufacturers doesn't always match (and there are subtle differences in colour sometimes that may indicate more than you might think, like orange as yellow or pink).

[AD-15]

hello,

Thanks for your input Tetras! However, I may have a breakthrough. I decided enabling the onboard audio, went into sound inthe control panel, tested under 5.1, and there you go! It worked fine! When I went and tried the sound config under the x-fi, I only had mono and stereo options. I spend £200 and I get this???

Anyway, I'm going to try and find new drivers, and a solution. In the meantime, and more input would be hugely appreciated!!!!!

[AD-15]

OK, I have it working in the control panel. It turns out SCAN used old drivers, I'd be surprised if they used any at all. I just had to download the Vista 32 drivers from the net.

However, although I finally have surround sound in FSX (flight simulator), and in the control panel, ie, when I click on each satellite I get sound ONLY from the correct one, when I try to do so in the creative console, I still have the same problem.

Worth fretting about? I think so, it means there is a problem.

What do you think?

[Tetras]

If it works in your games then I'd just ignore it, might be a driver bug.