RE: No stereo sound

Sounds like you know quite a bit about computers.

Check out the Balance levels on all the software. Start with the small
little speaker at the bottom right of the screen/monitor. Make sure the
slider is in the center. Once you are confident all sliders in all software
programs are centered you can player around with the one in the lower right
hand corner for further debugging. I'm forever turning down volume in one
program and a day or two later wondering why the heck there is no volume in
another.

Also are your speakers a satellite system with the bigger floor unit and
then two or four smaller speakers? If that is the case then the smaller
speakers would hook up to that unit and only 1 speaker wire from the computer
to the floor unit. That one would hook into light green port. Your cables
should be color coded for easier hookup. Just match the colors to each other
for the correct connection.

Also check for any knobs on one or more of the speakers for adjusting the
balance.

AV Rack might actually have a menu where it literally guides you in making
the correct connection. Once it senses a speaker plugged into the correct
jack it says so and shows it so, but it might take some poking around with AV
Rack to figure it out, IF it has this feature. An older version of mine had
this feature but the present on doesn't.

"Paul MR" wrote:

The bottom-line is that the desktop computer plays only the right stereo
channel. No music comes through the left channel from any source: CD,
DVD, wave file, the speaker test program, nothing. I inherited this
unbranded machine from my brother and I know very little about
computers, as you will be able to ascertain. If this is not the correct
group, please forgive and point me in the right direction. My gut
instinct says that it’s a hardware problem. I don’t know enough to even
do much troubleshooting. Nonetheless, I have done the following (longish):

Windows XP Home with service pack 2. There are enough jacks in back to
plug in five speakers, but I use only the jacks for front left and
right. I have tested the speakers, speaker wires, and plugs and they
are all ok. But I suppose the left channel jack itself could be faulty.
I have checked the volume controls through control panel and
everywhere else I ran into one, and nothing is muted and all the sliders
are centered. I looked at the Control Panel: Device Manager. The only
thing with a yellow question mark is named “Promise SATA Console
Processor Device”; I don’t know what that is or whether it is relevant.
The D:\ drive is a DVD reader. The E:\ drive is a DVD writer. I was
able to copy a CD which played properly on my other stereo system, so I
conclude the D:\ and E:\ hardware are both ok and that burning the disc
bypassed the problem somehow.

The software programs that seem to do with sound are Microsoft Media
Player, AvRack, Intervideo WinRip, WinDVD4 Player, WinDVD Creator, CD
Burner XPPro 3, and IMGBurn. I have only slight ideas about what any of
these programs do, and I suspect they duplicate many functions. They
all seem to be working properly as far as I can tell. There is also
something named Adaptec AVC-1200; I am not sure whether this is the
metal box plugged into one of the USB ports or whether it is software.
When I used it to convert a VHS tape to DVD, nothing from the left
channel source came through and the right channel source played back in
monaural sound through both speakers on the television.

As far as the hardware itself, I don’t know where to begin to
troubleshoot. A major problem is that when I try to use help screens,
things are identified by brand names or meaningless initials and I have
no idea whether the thing is hardware or software or what it might do.
I have never opened a computer case for fear of destroying something,
but I’m willing to learn. Can anyone suggest the best way to proceed
from here?

Paul in San Francisco

.

Relevant Pages

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