Solved 4.1 audio only coming out of rear right speaker

As above.

I have a 4.1 surround system that I've been told can work with just the 3 port motherboard sound (red-green-blue ports), but the only sounds are coming out of the rear right speaker. Which is still screwy because it's activating RR when it should be coming out of RL.

I believe I have it set up correctly:

Green jack => Green port (front speakers)
Black jack => Blue port (rear speakers)
Red jack => Red port (subwoofer)

This is what it looks like from the Speakers properties window:



I do have "Disable front panel jack detection" marked, so it shouldn't be trying to play the front speakers through the headphones jack. But I'm thinking that might be the problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Do you have the speakers configured in the Sound Panel/Playback? Click to highlight your speakers and then click the Configure button in the lower left of the panel.

In my setup, 4.1 is not an option, and may not be in yours so the 4.1 may never work completely right. 5.1 (or 7.1) is what is normally used, not the older 4.1 systems.

Click on the Levels tab and see if the speaker volume is turned up. There's also a Balance level for front and rear speakers. You may have to scroll down to get to the speakers.

Ditto what Fireberd says also. Forgot about the Configuration.

fireberd said:

Do you have the speakers configured in the Sound Panel/Playback? Click to highlight your speakers and then click the Configure button in the lower left of the panel.

In my setup, 4.1 is not an option, and may not be in yours so the 4.1 may never work completely right. 5.1 (or 7.1) is what is normally used, not the older 4.1 systems.

Click to expand...

I checked, and I set it to Quadraphonic.

carwiz said:

Click on the Levels tab and see if the speaker volume is turned up. There's also a Balance level for front and rear speakers. You may have to scroll down to get to the speakers.

Click to expand...

Speaker volume is up to 100% across the board.

Now instead of just the RR giving off RL output, ALL sounds are going through RR speaker. So when it tests the speakers, L, R, RL, RR all get outputted from RR. And each at different loudness too.

Screwier and screwier....

Are you certain the speakers work? Do you have a radio or other device to test them?
What is the configuration of your speakers? Is the subwoofer on a separate plug or part of a front/rear set (2.1)?
Remove the plugs and re-insert. Make sure they are going in all the way.

carwiz said:

Are you certain the speakers work? Do you have a radio or other device to test them?
What is the configuration of your speakers? Is the subwoofer on a separate plug or part of a front/rear set (2.1)?
Remove the plugs and re-insert. Make sure they are going in all the way.

Click to expand...

Yes, I know they work. The backstory is that I had an audio card (Creative Xi-Fi, or something along those lines) and the speakers worked fine. I got a new graphics card, but it's a double-wide (GeForce 560 Ti), so now there's no room for the sound card because otherwise it'll be right on top of the video card. Hence the move back to onboard sound.

The configuration (I'm no expert on speakers, so please bear with me) is that the 4 speakers (R, L, RR, RL) all plug into the subwoofer. From there, the subwoofer plugs into the computer with a red, green, and black cable.

Check your BIOS. Some motherboards require the on-board audio to be "enabled".

Then Configure your sound as 5.1 and disable the Center channel. Quad is four speakers. The subwoofer may be confusing the setup.

Some system specs would help.

carwiz said:

Remove the plugs and re-insert. Make sure they are going in all the way.

Click to expand...

This seems to have solved it. I don't know why, but I unplugged EVERYTHING and plugged it all back together. Maybe the computer just needed everything to be reconnected to recognize it. I'm not sure.

The other thing I did was uninstall all the old Creative drivers and programs, which didn't make a difference until I reconnected everything, but perhaps that helped.

Also, the system is now set to 5.1 Speakers.

Thanks for all your help!

Glad you have it working.

Sometimes it's the simple things that give the most trouble.