Realtek HD Audio 5.1 only outputs 2.1 in Windows 7

Hello Everyone,

I have just recently upgraded from Windows XP 32bit to Windows 7 64bit, I am now receiving this problem as i notice many others have gotten also. Previously my sound was working perfectly although when i downloaded the Windows 7 64bit Version of Realtec Audio Driver/Manager the whole interface was new, and when i run the Speaker Test it outputs sound in all speakers, But when i try play music/games the sound is only 2.1, I have managed to get sound on the rear / center speakers but only on poor quality by setting unwanted settings, Such as Sound Environment, Speaker Fill etc.

I am running driver version '6.0.1.5485', I have noticed people on Win XP just reverting to an older driver version. I don't think that is quite possible for Win 7, Has anyone solved the problem on Vista/Windows 7?

All feedback/help would be greatly appreciated,
Future.

Thanks for your reply kg4icg, Though i did notice this but the quality of the sound is not like it was on Windows XP, also in Windows XP it played 5.1 with no environment select.

I have tested all the environments on Windows 7 in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, and the clearest one i can notice is "Room" although the rear speakers output isn't that great.

Well it seems to be the only solution, Just was hoping for better quality. Previously in Windows XP when i had the Equalizer on 'Powerful' the rear speakers were as good quality as the front, Where as now they seem soft pitched, Thanks for your help and time.

I have the same problem as Future.

I have a creative sound card and 5.1 logitech which worked brilliantly in windows xp but since I upgraded to windows 7 my sounds playback is really dodgy. The sound first of all sounds choppy especially when I'm doing smething in the background and I got 4 gig ram so I don't think that is the problem. I've tried every concievable thing to try and change the sound settings so it supports all 5 speakers but only the 2 front ones play. When I run a test all the speakers work but during playback only two work.

What do I do.... revert back to xp but loose the brilliant new features of windows 7?

Please help

Yep, another one here - seems common.

All drivers up to date (tried various!), all settings to 5.1, test works fine in Windows AND Realtek Sound Manager but no apps want to play anything except stereo.

Can't find a fix anywhere and I've literally spent 2 days on it. Guess may have to await a driver fix unless anyone has any other ideas?

After a week searching for a definitive solution, just like most everyone, I was forced to give up trying to find a way to make Windows 7 send music to all speakers with same quality. And since I'm not willing to pay $30 for Creative software (see: http://social.technet.microsoft.co [...] 3e03541cd), I guess I'll have to wait for Realtek to provide a solution, as its 3DSoundBack, which is supposed to do the same as Creative's ALchemy, did not solve the problem either.

The only workaround I've found was in this post:
http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-a [...] s-fix.html
Neilsouth explains how to change Realtek output assignments through the registry:

In addition to his post, I found that in my PC these settings were in a different key (I suppose it's because of the driver version), so you might want to go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\" in regedit and do a Ctrl+F for "DevType_" and find the correct key for your version.
Also, in my version (R236) the "Pin01" controls only the rear speakers, and the "Pin03" controls the side ones. The "Pin02" was not present, but I add it and worked fine.

I set all output jacks to "Front speakers", this way I managed to get good quality sound from every speaker. The bad thing about it is when you want to play games with real surround sound, for all speakers would just play the same thing. My solution was to export 2 registry keys, one with the original configuration, and one with all jacks set to front ( or what suits you best), then just click the .reg files to switch between "real" and "fake" surround. To avoid having to restart the system every time for the changes to take effect, follow these steps:

1) Close every app which may be using the audio device (such as media players).
2) Apply the desired .reg file.
3) Go to Device Manager, select "Sound, video and game controllers". Right-click on the Realtek device and select "Disable" (if no app is using the sound you should not be prompted with the restart message).
4) Right-click it again and select "Enable".

That's all. I hope I could help some of the troubled people like me. I searched day and night everywhere and I was getting sick of this. At least now I have an alternative to this issue.

So long.