How do I get 5.1 audio from onboard sound in Rampage IV Gene?.

[Conin]

Hi guys:

Recently I had to uninstall my dedicated soundcard from an ASUS Rampage IV Gene because I slapped two VGA's inside my build, so, against my will, I'm forced (at the moment) to use the onboard sound of this mobo, but I can't get it to give me 5.1 channels.

In the mobo's website (link here) it clearly says:

"The SupremeFX III™ onboard audio solution is an 8-channel HD audio..."

...but when I go to either Windows' Playback Devices or Sound Blaster's Console, it only gives me the option of 2/2.1 channels:



What am I doing wrong?. By the way, I'm connecting the onboard audio to an ONKYO receiver via SPDIF.

Thank you very much in advance for any advice and guidance.

Regards.

[kkn]

optics = stereo only
if you want 5.1 you have to do it whit minijacks to phono and to amp.

[Conin]

kkn wrote:
optics = stereo only.

Strange thing is: the soundcard I had before trying to use the onboard sound was able to give me 5.1 audio through the SPDIF cable, it is an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series.

[kkn]

Conin wrote:
Strange thing is: the soundcard I had before trying to use the onboard sound was able to give me 5.1 audio through the SPDIF cable, it is an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series.

the problem whit spif out on the motherboard is that it only gives out stereo on the optics, ive tested it back and forth and no go.
if you want 5.1 out of the motherboard it self its only mini jacks to phono the way to go.

[DummyPLUG]

To get 5.1 via optical, you need dolby digital live or DTS connect (it just a software/driver). ASUS hardly include them, other manufacturer most likely iincluded.

google for dobly home theater, you may find useful info.

[martyn]

Few things to check here.

Bios .... Check Azalia HD Controller is enabled, Front Panel Type set to HD and set the SPDIF output type..... SPDIF or HDMI

Drivers .... Your Screen Capture shows only Realtek Devices with No SoundBlaster Output and yet you also display utilising the SoundBlaster X-Fi MB 2. Which device have you loaded drivers for? One or Both? Did you in fact load any drivers for sound? You state previously using the X-Fi Titanium Card, has that been uninstalled correctly?

I think your using windows 7, you fail to say but check the following please.
Control Panel.....Device Manager.....Sound, Video and Game Controllers .....Check for missing drivers marked with yellow warning mark for hardware, whilst in Device Manager ensure no other hardware issues highlighted. Also to check at this point is any with a black down arrow by icon showing disabled, there are sound settings also located under system devices here.

In windows open Realtek HD Audio Manager settings to ensure it is in fact set to output to 5.1 (it is capable of 7.1) Icon should be located taskbar bottom right

[Conin]

martyn wrote:
Bios .... Check Azalia HD Controller is enabled, Front Panel Type set to HD and set the SPDIF output type..... SPDIF or HDMI

Yep, I enabled it after uninstalling the dedicated soundcard.

martyn wrote:
Drivers .... Your Screen Capture shows only Realtek Devices with No SoundBlaster Output and yet you also display utilising the SoundBlaster X-Fi MB 2. Which device have you loaded drivers for? One or Both? Did you in fact load any drivers for sound? You state previously using the X-Fi Titanium Card, has that been uninstalled correctly?

One weird thing with this mobo is that you are requested to install the Realtek drivers, and after that, you must install the X-Fi MB 2 utility: as far as I know, the Rampage IV Gene does NOT have a proper Creative SoundBlaster chip, it is actually a Realtek, and then the X-Fi MB 2 utility gimmicks some of Creative's features. Yes, the X-Fi Titanium's drivers have been completely removed along all of its utilities.

martyn wrote:
I think your using windows 7, you fail to say but check the following please.
Control Panel.....Device Manager.....Sound, Video and Game Controllers .....Check for missing drivers marked with yellow warning mark for hardware, whilst in Device Manager ensure no other hardware issues highlighted. Also to check at this point is any with a black down arrow by icon showing disabled, there are sound settings also located under system devices here.

You're right, I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate x64; there are no missing sound drivers inside the Device Manager and no devices are disabled.

martyn wrote:
In windows open Realtek HD Audio Manager settings to ensure it is in fact set to output to 5.1 (it is capable of 7.1) Icon should be located taskbar bottom right

That's one more weird fact: there is no Realtek Audio Manager or somwhere to set it to either 5.1 or 7.1 channels, there's only a small and basic Realtek Control Panel, but it only shows the volume bars, thats all.

Thanks a lot for the comments.

[martyn]

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/RAMPAGE_IV_GENE/#support

Have you looked there? Under Audio is listed three Realtek drivers, the oldest listed is only a very small file for some reason with the newer releases much larger. Perhaps try this one Version 5.10.0.7022&6.0.1.70 an oct 2013 release or alternatively look on your installation cd for full software as I think perhaps something is missing there although I could be entirely wrong.

[bonafide]

I have recently gotten this board and I still can't get this Sound Blaster 5.1 to work at all.

I am using Windows 8.1 64-bit though.

I uninstalled the SB drivers because the only thing that worked in it was the VOLUME control. Nothing else.

I am using the 3 rca jacks to a Logitech 5.1 THX system, and I can see the individual controls for the speakers in the windows playback devices manager (rear, subwoof, center, front) etc.

I am not entirely sure if the problem is with the realtek base driver or the soundblaster xi-fi mb2 software because I haven't gotten 5.1 to work on this board...

and I did alot of googling and others have this problem but there is no resolution?

I would have very much liked to use the Crystalizer and so on gimicky features but none of that even works, 5.1 or not, it just does not have any effect on the sound. The equalizer does not work either. As a matter of fact, in the SB MB2 software, it shows up as 2.1 stereo and there does not even seem to be an option to change any of that (I looked in every square corner and crevice of the application).

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling various driver versions from both realtek taiwan and asus support and they all boil down to the same problem of no functionality enabled. I've tried all the latest ones recently and still no go.

Displeased with this aspect of the board.:mad:

There has to be some reason why the MB2 software is not in the least functional?

[kkn]

to get that you have to pay for it, its creative who "owns" it.