Question I need advice about creative stage V2 2.1 sound bar and desktop pc

[parsimonius]

Recently, I lost the audio on my pc; I think due to a very quick electrical outage (spike?). My pc rebooted fine, but I lost audio on my speakers (external power two plus subwoofer). The built-in speaker on the monitor continued working. The speakers were plugged into the AUX port of the mobo. The monitor is connected via HDMI. I hooked up a dukabel USB to 3.5mm Jack Audio Adapter to my pc and regained two of the three speakers.

At this point I'm deciding what to do but don't have a clear picture in my mind. If the loss of audio had not happened, I would have replaced the speakers sooner or later anyway. However, I don't know if the Realtek audio chip on the mobo itself is toast. In Device Manager, the entry for Realtek Digitral Output shows it is working properly (audio inputs and outputs) as does Realtek Audio (Sound, video and game controllers). Even if the audio chip is working properly, I'm also concerned about the phyiscal condition of the AUX port on the back panel.

I've read reviews and think the Creative Stage V2 2.1 sound bar would be a good fit with my needs but still have doubts. I have a MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk mobo. It uses a Realtek audio chip. The back panel has outputs for DisplayPort, HDMI, AUX, optical S/PDIF out, 2 USB 2 ports and 3 USB 3 ports (type A) and 1 USB 3 port (type C). The Creative Stage V2 2.1 soundbar ad says it has connectors for USB, TV (ARC), optical, AUX, bluetooth. I use wire to connect my devices, so bluetooth is out. HDMI doesn't seem feasible because I'm using the only HDMI port on the mobo to connect to my monitor which only has one HDMI port on it for input. The AUX port is questionable. Would using the optical port work if the Realtek audio chip is not working? I am thinking that I can use the USB adapter rather than the AUX connector on the mobo, but wonder if it might be better in the long run to buy a sound card to plug into the mobo instead.

My questions then are

1. is my Realtek audio chip working?
2. is the AUX port on the back panel working even if the audio chip is not? What use is AUX if the audio chip is toast?
3. Does the optical S/PDIF output from the mobo work?
4. Does optical S/PDIF require the mobo audio chip to be working?
5. Do I need to connect the S/PDIF to a DAC before the speaker in order for the speaker to play music and sounds?
6. Will continuing to use the USB adapter be a reasonable alternative to the mobo's audio chip over the long term?

FWIW, I use my pc to listen to music casually in the background. I like listening to music but am not an audiophile. I like playing games but absolute fidelity is not critical for my enjoyment.

Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

is my Realtek audio chip working?
You will need to go into Sound Manager and enable the audio output to your Realtek audio device and perhaps use a pair of headphones(that are analog/stereo, not ones for a phone) and see if you get audio out from the port indicated in red(L-Out/Line-Out);

Perhaps try and reinstall the latest audio drivers for your motherboard, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

Do I need to connect the S/PDIF to a DAC before the speaker in order for the speaker to play music and sounds?
No. Connect one end of the TOSLINK cable to SPDIF on the back of motherboard and the other end to the sound bar's rear end.

 

[parsimonius]

is my Realtek audio chip working?
You will need to go into Sound Manager and enable the audio output to your Realtek audio device and perhaps use a pair of headphones(that are analog/stereo, not ones for a phone) and see if you get audio out from the port indicated in red(L-Out/Line-Out);

Perhaps try and reinstall the latest audio drivers for your motherboard, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

Do I need to connect the S/PDIF to a DAC before the speaker in order for the speaker to play music and sounds?
No. Connect one end of the TOSLINK cable to SPDIF on the back of motherboard and the other end to the sound bar's rear end.

Thanks. I'll try to do the uninstall and reinstall of the realtek audio driver. MSI's instructions are pretty involved and their site was not friendly regarding a d/l of the Realtek drivers.
I don't own headphones, so I won't be able to try that suggestion.

Let me make sure I understand about the S/PDIF, because I do not own that type of cable but will buy one if it would work. So I can connect the mobo S/PDIF port directly to the corresponding port on the sound bar using an ordinary optical cable, and the sound bar will play the music and sounds. That's what's been bugging me when I read Creative's description. I was worried that the signal available from the mobo's S/PDIF was in a digital format and still needed to be decoded (DAC) before the speakers could play it..

 

[Lutfij]

This;

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-102763-Premium-Toslink-Digital/dp/B0029Y803Y/

though please be wary of the length of the cable you're going to need from the source(motherboard) to the (rear of the) soundbar.

You could likewise follow the manual for the soundbar;
https://files.creative.com/manualdn/Manuals/TSD/14269/NAB0j9IUxH/QSG Creative Stage V2 Rev C.pdf
and look up bullet point #5; TV (ARC) / Optical / AUX Connectivity .

You might also want to try and update the motherboard's BIOS. Lastly, I didn't mean you will need a headphone to try what I suggested, you can use just about any analog stereo audio output device to test out if your audio chip is damaged or ruined due to what you're referring to as "a very quick electrical outage (spike?) ".

 

[parsimonius]

Thank you for the links.
My confusion is that Device Manager reports the chip is working properly, but the speakers I have no longer play sound when plugged into the AUX port of the mobo. The built-in speakers on the monitor which is connected to my computer using HDMI will play music and sounds. I confirmed that the speakers work. Logically, that means to me that there is a problem either with the mobo's audio chip or with the AUX port of the mobo. My understanding is that .wav, .mp3 and .mp4 among other file formats are digital files and that the Realtek audio chip performs the digital to analog conversion of those types of files into a signal that the speakers can play as music and sounds.

If the problem is that the audio chip is not working, then it seems to me that I need to bypass (replace) the audio chip with a sound card or find a speaker system that includes the DAC function as part of the speaker system.

If the problem is that the audio chip is working but that there is a physical problem with the AUX port of the mobo, then I wish to look at other ways to connect the speakers and the computer.

The Creative Stage V2 2.1 seemed to offer the flexibility to connect to my pc and fit my desk. But Creative's replies to my questions were frustrating. I asked Creative that my mobo's audio chip might not be working and if I needed a soundcard to use the Stage V2 2.1 soundbar, Creative said "not necessarily".

My question about S/PFID might be based on wrong assumptions on my part. I assumed that the output of the mobo's S/PFID was a pass thru of the binary data after the audio chip does DAC, which would mean to me that the audio chip needs to be properly working. I assumed that the Creative Stage V2 2.1 had the capability to perform DAC. I assumed the S/PFID on the Creative Stage V2 2.1 was to connect from the mobo to the soundbar. The schematic in the Creative manual shows the S/PFID on the soundbar linking to the monitor, not the computer.

The reply from Creative said the USB cable they provide is nearly 4 feet long, so that should be sufficient reach.