I've just built a rig which includes A8R32-mvp deluxe motherboard and Asus radeon 1900xtx and logitech z-5500 speakers.

I was getting all sorts of error messages on bootup and turning off- I discovered it was my audigy 2nx sound card so I reverted to the onboard sound (realtek), and uninstalled the audigy (for now)
When I do the tests with the onboard gizmos all the speakers work fine so we are connected and they are functioning correctly. The drivers are up to date.

But when I play music and games the rear speakers don't work, depsite the diagnostics telling me they should. I don't understand why they are not working.

Any ideas? I've googled but have not found a solution.

When you say onboard gizmos you mean the Realtek control panel on your system, right?

If so, then maybe you just need to set the configs for your games and media player(s) to make sure they're outputting a 5.1 surround. That's usually in the Options>Audio/Sound menu for most games.

In Windows Media Player it seems to be Options>Devices Tab> choose Speakers then hit Properties> select Audio device and press for Advanced settings ... then it opens the control panel for the sound device - for me this WAS the Realtek Control panel where I again hit Advanced under Speaker Settings then I have to choose my speaker config from a drop down menu. So I chose 5.1. You can correctly test your 5.1 speakers and still have a 2 speaker setup selected here, so you need to make sure it's right.

Also - I had a harder time getting getting WinAmp to do the same thing the first time I tried. But recently installing WinAmp on a clean WinXP install for the first time it just seems to work. I think as long as you choose Preferences>Plugins-Output>DirectSound Output then it should just default to the control panel settings.

Try those things first if you haven't already anyway.

I could aks you some more questions too. Such as - what connection are you using for your speakers? Digital hopefully (either optical or coaxial will do). Just make sure you didn't just connect one analogue stereo cable where you'd need 3 for the full surround signal.

Though, if you've done a successful Realtek control panel software test on all your speakers then it should be connected properly.

On the other hand if you did a Logitech speaker test from your speaker's remote - then that only shows that you've hooked the speakers up to the amplifier correctly and doesn't say anything about the connection between your computer and your speakers.

Apologies if you've done all this. I don't mean to treat you like a newbie if you're not!!

o.k AFAIk onboard does not use upmix technology so unless you are using surround sound you will only hear from the stereo speakers. in the games that you play make sure that you set it to 5.1 sound if it has the options. valve games have this so if you have hl2 then try it with them. music is stereo so you will not hear surround unless the speakers have upmix tech and it is switched on.

tell us what games you are using and if it has the option of surround sound.

No problemo- I am a newbie!

So newbie-ish I did not realise music's only in stereo and the reason you get music on 5+ speakers is because of sound card technology! I'd uninstalled the audigy 2 nx because I had originally blamed IRQ conflicts on it. As it turns out it's smartdoctor's fault! So i'll uninstall SD and reinstall the audigy asap. so I can get all speakers online.

Thanks to all for your time and expertise and for pointing me in the right direction.

Actually I'm almost certain that your Z5500's would have a Dolby ProLogic II setting which would upmix a stereo signal to 5.1 (either on Movie mode or Music mode) with just the one stereo cable connected.

But, yeh, you'll get a better result from your soundcard for music. Especially your Audigy soundcard!! And try to find native 5.1 sound output for your games and DVD's.

I'm a perpetual newbie in many areas too!

I've sorted the conflicts and re-installed the audigy. Mega bliss. Amazing sound. i've played these games numerous times but its like starting new.

Music that is recorded in stereo has 2 channels. There is multichannel music that has 6 channels; most of them are on DVD-A format.

2-channel upmixing to 5+ matrxied channels does not come with software discs of every sound card, but Creative does offer it with their CMSS solution. However, there are plenty of freeware upmixing algorithms you can download online, all very similar to CMSS, although may be a bit lighter on the reverbs. In that respect you are not limited to Creative solutions if you want upmixed sound. Also, Logitech's Z-5500 has both digital input as well as its own upmixing solution, making it very useful for owners of onboard DDL soundcards, and somewhat less useful with analog soundcards.

In the home theater market, most receivers can upmix stereo to a matrixed 5.1/6.1 solution, through either the Dolby Pro Logic II/x or DTS:Neo6 algorithms. Upmixing algorithms are fairely arbitrary, so they might sound good with some things but badly with others, and there's certainly nothing discrete about front channel sounds playing from the rear channels.