Can you hook 5 1 Channel speakers into a computer with Realtek High Definition A

According to this picture, you only need to plug in the connectors to the designated audio ports at the rear panel.



Set the Realtek HD control panel to 5.1 and check whether or not the speakers are recognized on every port.

Simple answer is yes.

Done that, actually. The bee buzzes around, but goes silent to the rear. so it seems the rear speakers are not being recognized.

What I do notice, however, is that while there are five outputs on the LFE (for the 5 speakers) there are only 3 inputs coming from the computer. Is this the way it should be?

Thanks, by the way, for the responses!

You should be able to see whether or not the rear speaker is recognized by confirming the designated audio output port as the rear speaker. Are you certain that you've set the speaker setting on both the Realtek and Windows audio at 5.1 speaker configuration? 3 out of 5 speaker functioning is most likely caused by incorrect setting.

Could you post the settings? Better yet, the screenshot of the control panel settings.

I *think* I know the problem here: Do the speakers connect via RCA, or are the dedicated PC speakers?

I ask, because RCA uses 1 audio channel per jack, where pc audio (AC97 standard) carries 2 channels per jack. That might explain the hookup problem...If the speakers are AC97, they should be color-coded...

Also, one minor note: AC97 and other audio standards (Dolby/DTS) define the second set of speakers differently. AC97 defines the side speakers as being the second pair, where Dolby/DTS defines the rear speakers as the second pair. This can sometimes mess up an audio setup. A work-around is to set windows to 7.1, and disable either the side or rear speakers as needed.

Worse case, you can try a 7.1 test, just to make sure the speakers are plugged into the right connector.

Ok, thanks. damasvara: I believe the settings are right. Just in case, I have a PDF with screenshots of both setups, but I don't see any way to upload it into this thread.

gamerk316: the pc audio (what I call miniplugs, or pinplugs) plugs are, indeed, 2-channel, and they are plugged into their color coded jacks. The speakerconnections to the rear of the woofer are RCA.

Worse case, you could try each speaker set one by one by connecting to the front (Green) output, just to make sure they are getting a signal.

Best answer selected by graydog909.

Eh, Voila! Read the manual. I was trusting the color-coding, and the blue plug for the rear speakers going NOT into the blue plug-in on the Dell fooled me. It goes into the black plug-in, as the manual says. Thanks!

And thank YOU for the VOTE! Cheers with audio equipment!

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey