I've just noticed that videos on sites such as Youtube, Gametrailers, Break, and Liveleak have suddenly gone from surround sound to stereo. No more sound coming from the rear and center speakers.

Stage6 Divx videos are working fine with surround. Winamp and games are working perfectly. Windows is setup for 5.1 channel sound.

What gives? I tried reinstalling the Flash player addon but to no avail. I'm using Firefox but IE7 is having the same problem.

* * *

This problem isn't just limited to browsers. Here's the full scoop before I pass out on the keyboard. Been tackling this all night but to no avail.

Basically, surround sound no longer works in XP. If I go to the audio settings in the control panel and play a sample audio clip such as "exit windows", it plays only through 2 speakers. I think the reason Stage6 Divx still has full surround is because of its built-in Divx player that uses its own codec and tech.

So far, I have tried the following:

-Updated the Realtek audio drivers to the latest; no change
-Put in my Soundblaster Live! 24-bit sound card to test it out. I enabled CMSS-3D and the surround sound was working perfectly in Windows and internet videos.
-Moving right along, I got rid of the Creative card and uninstalled every trace of Realtek and Creative with Driver Cleaner Pro.
-Reinstalled Realtek drivers from BFG 680i mobo CD; no change

So basically, there is something that has all of a sudden gone missing here. Something that forces full surround sound upmixing. In Creative's case, CMSS-3D.

Just to wrap up, motherboard is a BFG 680i LT SLI with the latest BIOS (P05). Speaker system is the Logitech X-530 5.1.

Winamp and WMP and games are all working perfectly with full surround.

I have no damn clue what to do next.

Here's a few screenies:




EDIT: Just adding that a system restore didn't change anything, neither did reinstalling AC3 Filter 1.46, which *should* be upmixing any 2-channel Windows sound to surround...

Forget it. I'm back to using my Soundblaster and the sound is excellent. CMSS 3D makes sure everything is 5.1.

Guess I put too much faith in onboard. My onboard audio experience remains goes from 1 for 1 to 0 for 2 \o/

Thanks for the update.

Glad you are surrounded again.

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.

http://users.tkk.fi/~renko/hag1.html

I have to find this guy when I go back to Finland. He may be a you-know-what

The inter-chapter quotes come from the book "Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai" by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, published by Kodansha International.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagakure



Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165798/

I guess that makes him a Nonja then!