z-5500 surround problem

[Akubane]

yo, they came in yesterday. had them up and running, everything worked great.
fought with keyboard and mouse drivers all day today and finally got them working. but now the surround speakers (center, left rear and right rear) wont output any sound.
I just redownloaded and installed the new x-fi drivers to see if that helped. nope
I also made sure 5.1 is active in the creative audio console.
I also made sure 5.1 was selected and active in control panel > sound.

6 CH direct is selected on the z-5500's just like yesterday, surround is turned up. the cables are all plugged in correctly, as they should be since i never unplugged them from yesterday to today.

any ideas?

 

[Oreo]

Looks like when you were messing around with your keyboard and mouse drivers you deleted some kind of driver which enables 5.1 surround or something ? im not sure such a driver exisits, and if it did wether the X-Fi one would replace it. It's worth checking though, have a look on google.

 

[Akubane]

yeah took an hour of friggin but i got everythign to work again. after a system recovery.
i have to install drivers in a particular order lol.
g15 keyboard > razer mouse > x-fi soundcard. plus i gotta reboot after each even though it doesnt prompt. if i don't, one of these 3 wont work properly, depending on which order. what a pain lol. all workin now though.

and holy crap this subs pretty powerful :S i threw on some woofer rest tunes just for fun and stuff started falling over. had to shut it off before it shook lose the compnents in the pc lmao (dunno if it would but dont wanna chance it ><)
impressive overall sound too. can go super loud with 0 distortion at all. just wish mp3's were all 5.1 lol.
ordered the last katatonia cd/dvd combo. they rereleased their last album in full 5.1 XD cant wait till it gets here.

 

[Oreo]

Yup they sure are loud. How high have you cranked the volume up ?

I got to Boost 7 and pussied out because of distortion and the inability to even here the ringing in my ears

You can take the grill off the subwoofer if you wish, get a screwdriver and push it into the edge of the grill were it meets the frame, and gently lever it out. You will here cracking but thats the glue peeling off the body of the sub. Looks great

 

[Akubane]

boost 7 huh? Is there a break in perdiod where you need to worry about blowin em out? I know my old kenwood home stereo could be blasted right off the shelf. dunno is pc speakers any different.
i've only gone to boost 2 XD just got em the other day, wasn't comfortable going any higher.

 

[Oreo]

You'll here the subwoofer slapping if it reaches it's maxium throw distance. Don't worry, it's a very noticeble sound. Not one you could mistake for a bass sound or music.