Windows 7 - No bass with 5.1?

My new external sound card arrived today (Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 External Sound Card) and I'm basically running into problems from the start. I have 5.1 speakers, but the subwoofer is not working at all. The strange thing is that in Windows Sound; when I click configure it detects the subwoofer and plays a note, confirming that it works. However in Creative Control Panel I cant get anything. What gives?

PS - Ive tried searching for Creative problems on their website but its hopeless there =/

do u have the latest driver for you external sound card? Does the sub woofer work with the onboard sound card?

When you play a media file, is there any bass?

Hi thanks for the replies.

My onboard sound doesnt work with 5.1; reason why I got an external card in the 1st place.

No, the audio comes out in all the speakers bar the subwoofer when I use WMP or ITunes.


PS - yes drivers are up to date.

Is there some kind of control with creative sound card that directs the bass ( say below 120hz ) - either to all speakers, or all speakers+sub, or just to sub.

Not familiar with that card , but that's how proper hi fi usually works