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need some seperation

L

LouP

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
82
Hi All,

I just recievd a new PC with a Creative X-Fi Titanium card and am having some sound and recording issues. I figure I would solve one issue at a time as the problems may be related without me realizing it. First, when I run the test for 5.1 sound in the creative console, the fronts, center, and sub all come on when they should. However, the "rear left" and "rear right" seem to be coming from the same point behind me with no seperation. I am using Windows 7 on this machine. I would think that the rear speakers would not wotk at all if I had them plugged into the sound card incorrectly.

Thanks,
LouP :confused:
 
How are the speakers connected? Is the sound coming out of both speakers at the same time, or does it just appear that way because you say it "seems to be coming from the same point". You should be able to tell by listening from physically close to the speakers whether the sound is coming from both at the same time (so both rear left and rear right make sound when the test is on rear right, for example).
 
Thanks for getting back, the speakers are connected via 4 mini-jacks in the back of the audio card. The sounds are coming from both the left and right rear speakers equally regardless of which it should be coming from so it sounds like a rear center speaker for both channles.

LouP
 
Maybe a physical problem with the cable? Have you tried switching the front and rear speakers to see if it persists?
 
Forceman wins lol. I unplugged and re-plugged the connections on the back and when I tested it, nice seperation between left and right rear now.

So here's my next issue and this one may be tougher. I am getting feedback (humming) through my speakers from my microphone. I really think it's software related because it was not there when I first got the machine. I was installing a silly program (switchball) and it blew away my sound somehow. I reinstalled my drivers and the sound came back, but that's when the feedback issue also started. Another reason I believe it's software related is that the feddback changes depending on what mode I am in. It is loudest when I have the creative card in gaming mode and quiets down in the other two modes but never completely goes away.

Here is the fly in the soup, when I grab a hold of my monitor, the feedback almost goes away completely (very confusing). I am using a set of Tritton 5.1 headphones with an attached mic during all of this and they are also connected in the back of the card via a series of splitters. I really hope I can cure this one as it would be very annoying for other people when I use the headphones.

Oh, and also, I am hearing myself speak through my speakers when using the mic now and it was not doing that before. I don't have the listen through this device box checked but when I check it, it sounds like there are two devices passing the sound through.

Thnx,
LouP
 
Is there a way you can turn off the mic when you're not using it?
 
The hum is possibly due to a ground problem and the first thing I would do to test is pull your splitters and connect directly to your sound card.
 
Hi Laird,

I am suspecting a ground problem also but am in work and can't test it. Is there any way to ground the PC other than the three prong plug? The PSU on this machine is very close to the sound card and it's a 1000 watt PSU.

Lou
 
Are all of your attached components on the same grounded receptacle? If not, make it so they are. Then it's a process of elimination, begin with everything disconnected and start hooking things up until you get the hum back.
 
No sure about the Creative card, but the Auzentech based on the X-Fi (the Forte) has a known grounding problem. Might be something similar happening - I found some threads here that addressed the issue and fixed my problem with the Forte.
 
Thanks Forceman, I'll look into it as I disconnected everything but the headphones and the hum was still there. I am thinking this will be a tough one because the sound card is sitting in between a 1000 w PSU and a GTX480. I seemed to be causing more problems moving things around last night so I gave it a break after I tested just the headphone connection and disconecting a few things. Man, there are a lot of wires back there already :(.

LouP
 
Hi LouP,

To confirm, all the devices connected to your computer (monitor, printer, HD's, etc.) are plugged into the same grounded receptacle? Also, do you have another pair of headphones to test (ie: stereo, no mic)?
 
Hi Laird,

All of my computer equipment is plugged into the same APC battery back-up that is plugged into the same wall socket. I actually thought that this might be what was causing the problem at first as I have so many things leading into one wall socket. But it turns out that this may actually be a good thing. But you did make me think of something. One of the things I changed after I initially set up my headphones was to plug a usb connection into the APC. When I first set them up, I did not hear the humming. I also added a PCI USB port with four connections. So I should eliminate those items to see if they may be the problem. I hate to take that PCI card out as it seems that whenever I fool around with this stuff, something seems to break :(. But I have to do it.

LouP
 
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