Ack! Down to 2 speakers instead of 5.1

[Wombat]

If anybody can offer some insight as to what's going on, it'd be appreciated. Somehow my computer has decided that it will not play 5 channel audio. I have an Audigy, with SPDIF to a Cambridge 5.1 setup, with its Dolby Digital converter in it. Things used to work fine.

Now, if I watch a movie, I only get sound from the Left and Right front speakers. Also, if I tell Windows I have a 5.1 speaker setup, I also only get sound from those two speakers, as if the game is preparing the center channel, but it's not being sent. Games are manageable since I now told Windows I only have 2 speakers, but that doesn't help the movies.

The speakers aren't shot, since if I just play music on them or something, the decoder box blends the music to all five speakers (pseudo-surround).

I've tried the latest drivers from Creative, and even a repair install of XP, but nothing has helped so far. Anybody else have a clue?

[mutz]

...dunno, but I have PowerDVD and you have to set in there too. You may also need an update or upgrade for your player...

[Wombat]

No, it's not the player. I've tried WinDVD and PowerDVD. And WinDVD went from working to not working, without me changing anything in it. I've also tried the "AC3 music sample" on Creative's CD, and that was just silence. Also, the Creative Speaker Test fails all but Left and Right.

[DentyCracker]

does it work in analog?

[mutz]

...it's usually something simple. Did this happen out of the blue, or have you made some software or hardware changes, even if you don't think they are remotely related?

My only connection to the speakers is the digital out. My DVD drive is connected to the Audigy only digital. The Surround mixer is set for only digital out.

If you have the Audigy front panel, make sure all those connections are secure too.

I seem to remember I had something like this when first setting it up, but everything was fine after making everything digital. Also after which, any greyed out settings changed to black and some things showed up that weren't there in analog.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

is the speaker output set to digital out in the creative mixer?

[The PIT]

Samething happened to me. I fixed it by uninstalling and then re-installing the drivers. But that hasn't worked for you. Since Creative have a crap uninstaller which leave shit all over the place a clean install maybe the only option. Alternatively you can uninstall again and then run regcleaner (Not regclean by microshaft) and remove all the Creative entries and then re-install.

[K6-III]

It is possible the Dolby Digital decoder has gone on ya....I've seen it happen...

[Wombat]

Yeah, that's a possibility, but I don't have any other equipment to check it with unfortunately.

Denty: this speaker setup only takes a digital signal.

Everything is set for the digital output.

I have a Live! in the closet, but I'm loathe to have two sets of Creative crap on the computer.

[K6-III]

Do you have a DVD player you could run coax-out into the speaker set???

[Wombat]

Nope. All my music equipment is stereo-only, and I don't even own a TV.

[DGhost]

hav you tried going into the Creative Mixer, going under the advanced options, then the speaker options, and making sure its set to 5.1?

[K6-III]

Oh yeah....make sure your DVD player software is set to SPDIF out...

[mutz]

...double Dolby decoders/decoding?

[Wombat]

Well, I took out the Audigy, uninstalled the drivers, and ran RegCleaner. Then I reinstalled the Live! and let XP install its default drivers. It still doesn't work. It's really starting to look like the decoder box is broken.

Blah. The speakers and sub are fine, just the box is broken. It's a Cambridge DTT2500. Anybody have suggestions on a minimal cost repair/replacement?