Bizzare 5.1 problem...

[Shredwood]

I recently moved my computer from one room to another. Upon plugging everything back in its appropriate spot, my speakers are acting very funny. I have a 5.1 system and it had always been set up as such. I go to configure my sound after the move and I try setting the audio channels to 5.1. When I complete the setup, windows now tells me that "format not supported by device." It accepts being set to "stereo" but I bought a 5.1 speaker system and I want to use it. My speakers work fine on another computer in 5.1 surround mode. The problem wasnt existant yesterday and my sound worked perfectly. All it took was moving my computer and now... *sigh*

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

Perhaps when you moved your computer, your sound card got bumped a little. Open up your case, and make sure the card is seated all the way.

Also make sure that any cables are plugged in securely.

 

[Shredwood]

Unfortunately my sound card is built into my motherboard, and all of my cables are plugged in correctly. Any other ideas? Before I hooked up my computer in the new room, I hooked it up somewhere else and I plugged in a typical set of speakers (2 speakers, one plug. Stereo). Not sure if it is related or not, but every bit of info helps eh?

 

[Jonathan_King]

It sounds like a hardware problem. You can try resetting your BIOS to the default settings, but I wonder if somehow your motherboard got damaged.

Is the room carpeted? Could the motherboard have been damaged by static electricity?

 

[Aphelion]

Unfortunately my sound card is built into my motherboard, and all of my cables are plugged in correctly. Any other ideas? Before I hooked up my computer in the new room, I hooked it up somewhere else and I plugged in a typical set of speakers (2 speakers, one plug. Stereo). Not sure if it is related or not, but every bit of info helps eh?

Did you turn your computer on before plugging the surround system in?
(Oops... re-reading I see you did, therein lies the problem.)

Win-7 and HD audio drivers auto-sense the input jacks.
You could try turning off the system, plugging everything in exactly as it was before and restarting.

If that doesn't help you can try reinstalling the exact same drivers and see if it wakes up to the new configuration.

Ap

 

[Shredwood]

Well I tried Aphelion's ideas and neither of those worked. I forgot to mention it earlier but when I try to test the sound when i have it set to 5.1 surround, I get a "Decive In Use" error message telling me that the device is being used by another application. If I continue, that application may stop working. I have no idea what other application it thinks is using my speakers, every program is off.. even all but essential processes are off. If I try to continue anyway, all I get is a "failed to play test tone" message.

In regards to Johnathan_King's message, it is possible that static got in there, every room I moved my computer to was carpeted. I take it there is nothing I can do about it if this is the case? Except buy a new motherboard? Is this the excuse I have been waiting for???

 

[CommonTater]

I recently moved my computer from one room to another. Upon plugging everything back in its appropriate spot, my speakers are acting very funny. I have a 5.1 system and it had always been set up as such. I go to configure my sound after the move and I try setting the audio channels to 5.1. When I complete the setup, windows now tells me that "format not supported by device." It accepts being set to "stereo" but I bought a 5.1 speaker system and I want to use it. My speakers work fine on another computer in 5.1 surround mode. The problem wasnt existant yesterday and my sound worked perfectly. All it took was moving my computer and now... *sigh*

If the only thing you did was move the computer... i.e. disconnect everything then hook it all back up... the first place I'd go is connections... Are the jacks in the right places... are they pushed all the way in... are the connections clean... etc. This sounds like it's not sensing your connections after the move and that's usually a matter of poor connections or dirt. (You'd be amazed how much havoc a single hair in the wrong place can cause... )