Thinkcentre XP odd audio setting mystery [attachment warning

[doctor bloomquist]

I'm admitting defeat on this one, and could use some help. I'm running Windows XP Pro, up to date, on a Thinkcentre machine type 9374. All of a sudden, the master volume balance control has disappeared, replaced by a strange little submenu for 6 channel output.




I'm using the standard onboard stereo out socket, and XP Audio settings in the control panel are set to stereo speakers. What's going on here? I can fiddle with all the options, choose defaults, nothing seems to make a difference.

[RealBlackStuff]

In Control Panel, go to: Sounds & Audio Devices/Properties/Audio/Sound Playback/ Advanced button
Select your speaker system, which probably inadvertently was changed from Desktop stereo to 5.1 speakers.
You may need to reboot.

[doctor bloomquist]

Thanks for replying, it's the wierdest thing - its already set to desktop stereo!

[Majestic]

I would suggest going into Windows Device Manager and uninstall your audio. Then reboot, let Windows reinstall the audio and then see if the problem is corrected.

[doctor bloomquist]

Son of a bee-sting, it's still there after uninstalling and reinstalling the audio drivers!

[RealBlackStuff]

Saw a button "Restore Defaults" above, what happens if you hit that?

[Majestic]

Saw a button "Restore Defaults" above, what happens if you hit that?

That will reset all the audio levels to there preset settings.

[Majestic]

Son of a bee-sting, it's still there after uninstalling and reinstalling the audio drivers!

You by chance have a sound card installed in addition to the on-board audio?

[doctor bloomquist]

RealBlackStuff, clicking the defaults button moves all those 6 channel audio sliders to roughly the middle of their range. Majestic, There's not really much space in the Thinkcetre for extras, I'm using the onboard Soundmax audio, no additional soundcard in the PC. It's just baffling

[Majestic]

I downloaded your drivers and from my understanding of the included documentation you really don't have a problem. Apparently the audio driver download includes an option for Virtual Theater Surround. In other words on a two stereo speaker system the audio control panel will automatically create a virtual surround sound using the two speakers you have. That would explain why you are seeing multiple speaker option under your Volume Control. Look to see if you have that option to disable it on your system.

Here is part of that documentation......

"Virtual Theater™ Surround
If you are watching movies with a multi-channel soundtrack and do not have a 4 or 5.1 channel speaker setup, the Control Panel will automatically create virtual speakers through your stereo speaker setup. If you do not want the Control Panel to automatically create virtual speakers, simply check the 'Disable' check-box. "

[doctor bloomquist]

Thanks for this clue, the thing is it was normal before, and I don't play around with audio settings. There's nothing in my soundmax control panel about virtualsurrond. I've looked at the soundmax helpfile, but it makes reference to AudioESP:

"You turn AudioESP on or off through the AudioESP settings.

In the Control Panel, click the Preferences button and select the General tab.

Once at the AudioESP settings, check the Enable AudioESP box to turn on AudioESP, or clear the check box to turn it off. "

But there's nothing there in the soundmax control panel about ESP, virtualsurround, or anything.

[Majestic]

A good puzzler indeed. Did you reinstall Windows XP recently? A reinstall may have used an updated driver that included the new volume control. Also check your Windows Update history. Possibly Microsoft updated the audio drivers for you.

[doctor bloomquist]

It's a weird one all right. I blanked the hard drive and installed windows from scratch when I got the desktop, which was a couple of years ago. The driver dates from 11/12/2007. I could swear blind that this odd control appeared out of no-where very recently. Ah well - one of those things.