Channels Problem: Audigy 2 ZS/5.1 Headphones

[Jonathan Bones]

Hello, everyone.

I've been an owner of an Audigy 2 ZS and Zalman ZM-RS6F 5.1 headphones for about a year now, and for the most part, have been very happy.

Earlier this afternoon, I booted up a DVD and was surprised to only hear sound coming out of the left speakers. I switched to another DVD, and it was fine-- until I started the movie itself. Same problem. At this point, stereo sound (I tried it out in Winamp) was working fine. Perhaps the second DVD's menu music was in stereo? Anyway, after rebooting, I got sound only out of left in both modes. Upon testing, I found that I could faintly hear regular sound in the right speakers.

I reinstalled Creative's drivers/software (which I've never liked, and have had a couple of problems with). I still had the same problems. In 5.1 diagnostics/speaker settings, I had these results:

Front Left: normal
Front Center: only heard in left side
Front Right: not heard
Rear Right: not heard
Rear Left: normal

I'd begun to think that perhaps I'd run over/played with the cord one too many times, and the whole right side was gone or at least dying. But wait! Set it to headphones or 2.1, and the right center channel is fine!

After bumbling around for a while, checking this and that (I'm not much of an audio guy), I discovered that reducing hardware acceleration in advanced audio properties from "full" (the default) to "emulation only" or "basic" solved the problem. Now why would this be? I can run in basic for now, so that's good. But I want to figure out what the problem is.

If I bump it back up to full acceleration now (in 5.1 mode), here's what I get:

Front Left: normal
Front Center: sounds about 80% left
Front Right: normal
Rear Right: not heard, though got it a couple of times at about 35% volume
Rear Left: normal

And yes, I've made sure that all volumes are normalized. In fact, I haven't made any configuration changes today, at all (or since I last played/watched something in 5.1).

All I did today was install the game Anachronox and apply some fan-made patches. This is one thing that had me wondering. But the .exes only changed files in the game directory. Any idea if this could be the problem, and how I could go about detecting it? Could it have broken DirectSound, which is only enabled starting at "standard acceleration"?

One last thing, when running Creative's diagnostic program, I fail "Mixer Settings". Any idea what this means, and if it has anything to do with what I'm experiencing?

Thanks so much for your help!

Edit: I still can't hear rear right at "basic" when doing Creative's calibration. Might it force full acceleration, or something?

 

[Crysalis]

Everything was normal until you installed those patches?

 

[Slayer]

it wouldn't hurt to uninstall the patches for the game and even the game itself then reinstall updated versions of the drivers and see if that works. also have you moved your computer around lately? this isn't likely but try opening the computer and see if the card is slightly pulled out of the pci slot. if you failed diagnostic tests then it sounds like hardware problems but first try uninstalling the game and reinstall drivers. also if you have another set of speakers or headphones plug those into each of the channel ports and see if it works then...maybe it is the headphones but not likely.

 

[Jonathan Bones]

Everything was normal until you installed those patches?

it wouldn't hurt to uninstall the patches for the game and even the game itself then reinstall updated versions of the drivers and see if that works.

I don't think the game itself is the problem; it's just the only change I remember making yesterday. I've unistalled the game, but the patches have no uninstall.

What made me wonder is the fact that I only have trouble if I go above basic acceleration. Could it have done something to DirectSound? Should I reinstall DirectX? If I perform the DX tests at full acceleration, I have the center channel in the left headphone, as with the Creative tests.

----------------

I've updated my audio drivers. I'm again getting a center channel that's mostly left and a low rear right at anything higher than basic acceleration.

 

[Slayer]

did u try using other speakers to make sure its not the headphones?

 

[loopymofo]

ok. I have no info on how to help your issue unfortunetly....but i just bought the same soundcard and have the same headphones.....How do I set them up to achieve pure 5.1 sound. I am so lost on this. I would like to use them for gaming (counterstrike source and whatnot). Any info would be helpfull. I've tried the Speaker config on 5.1 and stuff and it only seems half assed.

 

[Crysalis]

lol... talk about old thread. Start a new thread and this would get more answers. People wont read your questions... they will only read the original poster's question.