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No 5.1 sound through pc?
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[Deleted User]
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Hello all. Can anyone please help me with an audio issue I have with my new tower? I recently purchased from Tesco Direct a new Zoostorm tower. It's cheap I know but for my uses it should be fine. The issue I have is when I connect my 5.1 speakers to the 3 inputs at the rear (line in, line out & mic) I only appear to get 3.1 sound, 2x front, center & sub. This is exactly the same configuration of phono's as with my last tower, which also only had the 3 at the rear. I've set as best I know the settings through Realtek audio manager which gives different reults again. When I do a surround sound tone test, the tone only comes out correctly for the front left. What should be the tone for front right comes out of the center & sub and again nothing from the rears. I double checked the speaker connections to make sure they are working and correct. I do run a line out to an external amp via a splitter also and I'm running on Windows 8.1. So there you have my quandty. Any helps guys in solving this would be most appreciated so thankyou in advance.
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Unless there is a second set of labels on those sockets that show which socket is L/R Front, which is L/R Rear and which Centre/Sub.
It could be that the sound chipset in the PC is only stereo and that the only sound comes out of the Line Out jack.
What is the exact model number of the PC as that will help work out what is going on.
though my 7870 tahiti le has HDMI out which goes to my AVR and 7.1 then works if I plug HDMI in.
I also have to use these settings to give me the HD audio
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/355/19048106729_d3ecaf897e_o.jpg
Took me some time to figure out LOL.
???????????????????????????????
There isn't much information about individual Zoostorm models on their website. But what little there is suggests to me that a system with 5.1 sound would have five jack sockets. Three Line Outs, Line In and Mic In.
The three line outs give you the six channels of 5.1 surround. So there is a possibility that a PC with only a single Line Out is stereo only unless the Line In and Mic In sockets are multi function and can be switched to become the additional Line Outs required to do 5.1 surround.
http://www.tesco.com/direct/zoostorm-desktop-base-unit-intel-pentium-4gb-ram-1tb/390-4188.prd?pageLevel=sku&skuId=390-4188
Unfortunately not.
The amount of detail on the Zoostorm website is possibly even less than the Tesco website! And there is no detailed specification or even a specific manual for that model that I can find.
The one and only "manual" (it barely deserves the name!) for Zoostorm desktop PCs is so generic as to be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. As I posted earlier all it does suggest is that those models with surround sound may have five jack sockets on the back.
Depending on how easy it is to whip off a side panel on the PC and what spare expansion slots are available on the motherboard it should be a very simple job to fit a soundcard.
Most modern PCs will have PCIe expansion slots these days so that is most likely what is fitted to your machine. So all you have to do is buy whatever PCIe slot soundcard fits your wallet and needs and whip the side off the PC, plug in card, put side back on PC power up and install the necessary drivers. Job done.