Realtek sound cannot detect Rear speakers in 5.1 Surround.

[hpsound]

Hi everyone.

I have an issue when trying to connect my 5.1 surround speakers to my on board sound card, the Rear speakers (black hookup) do not work.

In the windows sound settings the speakers show up as Side speakers (gray hookup) and so when I perform the windows sound test the rear speakers not not make a sound.

I have tried many things, updating sound drivers from Realtek, uninstall install.

Updating drivers from HP and updating from Windows update.

Tried plugging and unplugging cables to see if Windows would recognize them differently.

The speakers work I tested them with a different desktop and also when I plug in the Rear (black) cable into the Side (gray) cable then I have 5.1.

I also changed the Hz format from 44 - 192.

When I try to go into the sound configuration the only available options to check off are with Front Center Side and Rear is grayed out with 5.1 but when I check 7.1 I can check and un check all speakers.

I have spoke to HP and I have spoke to Microsoft many times. Time to reach out to the forums!

I have had this issue on this desktop twice already on two different desktops. The first time I automatically upgraded to Windows 10 which I then blamed the sound issue on, or faulty hardware on the motherboard. So I went and got a identical desktop so it is a brand new desktop first start up and same issue.

-------------Sorry for the long post but I am really frustrated and I know its a simple configuration issue somewhere


My specs are

Windows 8.1

Intel Core i7-4770 Processor

Integrated audio
Audio Codec: ALC892-CG
7.1 channel audio with jack sensing

Nvidia GTX 745

16 GB Ram

Speakers
Logitech Z906

 

[Miky5983]

Try updating the Realtek driver: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Have you tried the other 3.5 jacks (if you have any)

 

[hpsound]

Yes I tried installing the newest Realtek driver, and I also tried the other 3.5 jack which is the actual one for the Side Speakers with the Rear Speaker connector and it works. But thats not a proper connection. And I connected head phones to that Rear Speaker jack and same thing no sound.

 

[Paperdoc]

MAYBE you've been caught by a feature in many Realtek systems that allows port re-assignment. Mine does this, and it confused me a lot until I found out.

Start this way: unplug the rear speakers from wherever they are. Now reboot your machine. Get set to reconnect AND to watch your screen. Plug the rear speakers back in (I think it's the Grey port) and watch your screen. On my machine this would cause a little window to pop up saying it detected some new device plugged into an audio port and thinks it might be (something) - maybe it even guesses rear speakers correctly. YOU MUST ANSWER this window. If you miss it, or simply ignore it because it seems to have the right answer already, it will NOT send anything out of that port! You must tell it that what you plugged in is rear speakers. Then it will send that signal out that port. In this way you are allowed to re-assign which things are powered by which port.

 

[hpsound]

You are correct that is definitely my issue but when I unplug my jack I get the notification on the lower right corner nothing else. When I select it nothing happens. There has to be another way to designate the jack as you stated.

 

[Paperdoc]

You said, "when I UNplug my jack...". Did you mean the pop-up shows when you PLUG IN a speaker?

There may be another step. In the Realtek sound configuration app you said you don't really have an option available for 5.1 sound because it does not believe there is a set of rear speakers available. So, maybe AFTER you connect the speakers and tell the pop-up what they are, you should go back to the sound configuration app and try to choose the 5.1 speaker system. THEN maybe it will use the rear ones, too.

 

[hpsound]

The pop up that I was talking about is just in the task bar as a notification. It does nothing when it is clicked.
Here is the link to the issue that I have in sound configure.

http://imgur.com/a/t9pxx

 

[Paperdoc]

Maybe try unclicking the Side Pair, ensuring that only the front pair and the center/sub pair is connected, then reboot. Now plug in the Rear speaker pair, see if you get a pop-up, then check sound configure to see if you can click on the Rear Speaker pair. Make sure, of course, that 5.1 Surround is checked.