A7N8X (almost) no sound in rear speakers

[owl]

Hi,


I've read a number of threads here and on technical help forums and
similar websites but still I can't fix my problem.

The thing is that I have no sound in my rear speakers and in center one if
I install the newest Realtek's ALC650 chip soundcard drivers. If I install
the drivers supplied by Nvidia (the newest ones) I have sound in center
(which is OK) speaker but the volume of rear speakers is very low, so it's
almost unhearable (rear right is a bit louder).

I've tried using the FPAUDIO jumper trick, older drivers, reinstalling
Windows XP, everything is set up correctly (center speaker is plugged to
Mic In, rear are plugged to Line In, same thing in Volume Control advanced
settings). Speakers are working (checked them on another computer). NVswap
is not helping as well as speaker configuration wizard in Nvmixer.

I have A7N8X rev.1.04.

Can anyone help?

Owl

 

[Paul]

Hi,


I've read a number of threads here and on technical help forums and
similar websites but still I can't fix my problem.

The thing is that I have no sound in my rear speakers and in center one if
I install the newest Realtek's ALC650 chip soundcard drivers. If I install
the drivers supplied by Nvidia (the newest ones) I have sound in center
(which is OK) speaker but the volume of rear speakers is very low, so it's
almost unhearable (rear right is a bit louder).

I've tried using the FPAUDIO jumper trick, older drivers, reinstalling
Windows XP, everything is set up correctly (center speaker is plugged to
Mic In, rear are plugged to Line In, same thing in Volume Control advanced
settings). Speakers are working (checked them on another computer). NVswap
is not helping as well as speaker configuration wizard in Nvmixer.

I have A7N8X rev.1.04.

Can anyone help?

Owl

The Light_Blue is the top jack. Lime colored is the middle jack.
Pink colored is the bottom jack. Here is the table in the manual,
rearranged to correspond to the connectors going from top to bottom
in the connector stack.

Connector Headphone/2 Speaker 4-Speaker 6-Speaker

Light Blue Line In Rear Speaker Out Rear Speaker Out

Lime Line Out/ Line Out/ Line Out/
Front Speaker Out Front Speaker Out Front Speaker Out

Pink Mic In Mic In Center Speaker Out,
Sub-woofer

Since one speaker of the pair is weak, that suggests to me that your
rear speakers are plugged into the Center/Sub jack.

Otherwise, if all the wiring is correct, then all you can do is visit the
Mixer panel, and check for an error there. I thought a lot of the
speaker wizards had test buttons, so you could click a speaker and
hear a sound come from that speaker.

HTH,
Paul

 

[owl]

The Light_Blue is the top jack. Lime colored is the middle jack.
Pink colored is the bottom jack. Here is the table in the manual,
rearranged to correspond to the connectors going from top to bottom
in the connector stack.

Connector Headphone/2 Speaker 4-Speaker 6-Speaker

Light Blue Line In Rear Speaker Out Rear Speaker
Out

Lime Line Out/ Line Out/ Line Out/
Front Speaker Out Front Speaker Out Front Speaker
Out

Pink Mic In Mic In Center
Speaker Out,
Sub-woofer

Since one speaker of the pair is weak, that suggests to me that your
rear speakers are plugged into the Center/Sub jack.

Otherwise, if all the wiring is correct, then all you can do is visit the
Mixer panel, and check for an error there. I thought a lot of the
speaker wizards had test buttons, so you could click a speaker and
hear a sound come from that speaker.

HTH,
Paul

All connectors are plugged in correctly (in the way you described).
I know about that testing option. Doing as you said I noticed that
front and center speakers are working correctly and the rears
are giving almost no sound.

Any more suggestions? Maybe that's a hardware issue? Settings in BIOS other
than enabling onboard sound?

 

[Paul]

All connectors are plugged in correctly (in the way you described).
I know about that testing option. Doing as you said I noticed that
front and center speakers are working correctly and the rears
are giving almost no sound.

Any more suggestions? Maybe that's a hardware issue? Settings in BIOS other
than enabling onboard sound?

Well, from an electrical viewpoint, the drive characteristics of
the outputs differ. The Line_out signals typically can drive 1Vrms
into 32 ohms, suitable for driving a headphone. The other two jacks,
for rear L/R and center/sub, usually are only good for 1Vrms into 600 ohms.
That signal is only suitable for plugging into an amplified speaker
or an amp with 10K ohm input impedance. The 600 ohms tells you that
if a 600 ohm load is connected, the output signal is cut in half,
and that condition is called "matching the load". So, a 600 ohm drive
represents a weak driver, much weaker than the Front L/R signals.

Perhaps there is some setting in the Mixer that is doing this.
Like maybe you should disable "Rear Speaker Phase Shift" or one
of the other surround effects.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/LO_20021002_6443.html

Checking on the forums at nforcershq.com, there are some posts
there about problems with rear speakers:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40364&highlight=nforce2+rear+speaker

Ben's FAQ here, recommends Forceware 4.24 drivers for Win2K/WinXP.
Perhaps a different set of drivers will fix your sound problem:

http://www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html

Paul

 

[Sune Storgaard]

owl mumbled his insignificant opinion in:
opsbpovha1pywxec@owl

Any more suggestions? Maybe that's a hardware issue? Settings in BIOS
other than enabling onboard sound?

Im in exactly same boat as you (with an a7n8x-x board,using 4.31 driver),
the rear speakers are very low.

I was playing around with it, running thru speaker wizard for the N+1th
time, i can hear noise in all 4 speakers, but what ever is connected to rear
(line/blue socket) is very low.. However this time i was playing some music
meanwhile, and i noticed something strange..

After i was done with the noisetest, and came to the "which encoding method
sounded best" (freely translated), that gives you option for clone etc, the
miracle happened! From being very weak and without bass, the volume gained a
bit, still not "full power" more like 25%, but the bass was now noticeable.
Yay ! Finally i thought and clicked continue. I got to the page that
displayed the setup, and pressed "complete"....and then things switched back
to the normal weak output

Just wanted to share, would be interesting to see if you experience the
same.

Be carefull not to play music too loud, the white noise from the wizard is
10 times louder

Another thing i noticed is that when i play music and goto the nvmixer and
look at the VU metre. Even in clone mode (no delay), they dont play the
exact same (front/rear wise), nothing big, but there is obviously a little
difference ?