Ok I am stuck.. sound not working except in 2.1 stereo?

[Malakie]

Hi,

I am stuck.. Asus Z490-f motherboard. I installed the Realtek drivers and Sonic Studio package. I cannot get anything more than 2.1 stereo out no matter what settings I change. I Uninstalled the Sonic Studio package, REinstalled the Realtek drivers and software. No change at all. Even when I set the Realtek console to 4, 5.1 or 7.1 surround, ONLY 2.1 stereo happens. And yes, I have both 5.1 and 7.1 speakers I have tried.

The only time I can get any kind of change, is if I install the Sonic Studio again but turn ON reverb. If I turn off reverb, nothing.

Suggestions as this is damn frustrating for something that should be plug and play.

[Saltgrass]

You are saying if you test the speakers after setting them to 5.1 the speakers will not test as 5.1?

That system has the SupremeFX8-Channel Definition Audio? My ASUS Z490 does not have that so our Realtek panels may look different. I believe we also have different drivers.

There was another thread recently with about the same situation. I do not think that was resolved.

This is my Realtek Console without SupremeFX.

[Malakie]

Saltgrass wrote:
You are saying if you test the speakers after setting them to 5.1 the speakers will not test as 5.1?

That system has the SupremeFX8-Channel Definition Audio? My ASUS Z490 does not have that so our Realtek panels may look different. I believe we also have different drivers.

There was another thread recently with about the same situation. I do not think that was resolved.

This is my Realtek Console without SupremeFX.

Yea my console looks about the same as yours.. And yep, I can set it to 4 channel, 5.1 or 7.1 and I get nothing out of the front or rear base speakers. front side and side speakers work. Speaker setup works fine on my other machines. Have triple checked connections in back. They initially worked but something changed and the only thing this machine has update recently is the video drivers and of course, window 10 crap.

The odd thing is, IN games that have surround, the speakers work.. But desktop and even in the app itself, no surround.

[Saltgrass]

What I am wondering is the FX8 is described as Channel Definition Audio. If that means it is what is turning your stereo into 5.1, possibly it is not installed or not working correctly. Do you see any evidence of the FX8 codec on your system? I might assume it should have been installed with the Realtek driver.

Again, since I don't have that system I can only guess.

[Malakie]

Saltgrass wrote:
What I am wondering is the FX8 is described as Channel Definition Audio. If that means it is what is turning your stereo into 5.1, possibly it is not installed or not working correctly. Do you see any evidence of the FX8 codec on your system? I might assume it should have been installed with the Realtek driver.

Again, since I don't have that system I can only guess.

I assume when I installed the drivers, both the original that came with the board and the updates, that it would install whatever it needed. Outside of that, I have no idea what is wrong or why it is not outputting 5.1 or 7.1 unless actually in a game. Which is odd.

[Saltgrass]

Just in the off chance you might be using it, the manual shows 8 channel sound is not supported with 32 bit/192 KHz audio.

If you are using it you might just try changing it to see if it makes any difference.

I watch an older video from ASUS which actually showed an FX Supreme control panel to change settings. Probably has been updated since then and no longer uses that same one.

[GettnBetter]

ASUS has real problems with their selection of the Realtek Supreme FX chipset and their complete lack of reasonable driver delivery. This has been an issue since the 390 series motherboards and there is nothing Supreme about it. I contribute much of this to the fact there are only a handful of us that actually don't use headphones. It's appalling in fact, why put six channels on the MOBO if we're not going to have the basic features we had back in the 2000's. I have nothing but problems with Realtek. Luckily there is a handy forum member dedicated to giving us the best we can hope for. Follow the guide and it should help: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?117596-DRIVERS-Realtek-Audio-(MB-Intel-2xx-3xx-4xx-5xx-6xx...

[Saltgrass]

It turns out my Z490 board has the SupremeFX 7.1 audio but uses the S1220 codec instead of the S1220A codec.

Otherwise, it is pretty much the same, so I connected my 5.1 speakers to that system and it seems to work as advertised. The S1220A is supposed to be a higher quality audio so maybe something there is keeping it from showing the 5.1 option for your speakers.

The only other thing might be the 5.1 speakers are being picked up as headphones or a communications device and revert to only stereo.