Need help installing speaker system.

A

Antigan15

New Member
Hello all,

I recently built my first computer, and I bought Creative Inspire S2 speakers to go with it. The trouble is these aren't plug-n-play, and I don't have the know-how to fix it.

The speakers have power, and they're on, but my computer won't register them. Creative's support page told me to buy a sound card, which I have, but it rubs up against the graphics card's fan, so I left it out.

The question is, how do I get these speakers to hook up to the motherboard's sound card? And if that's not possible, is it bad for the card to be literally touching the graphics card's fan? If it isn't I guess I can install the sound card.

But I'd rather use the sound card on the motherboard. It says it's a Realtek card, but I can't for the life of me find how to connect the two.

Any help is appreciated,

Antigan15
 
- What motherboard do you have?
- What operating system do you have?
- Do you have the vanilla Creative Inspire S2 (link) or the wireless version (link)?

Vanilla Inspire S2

The back of your computer should have some of these connectors, the most important ones are 6-11.

asusp6tocpalmdeluxeangl.jpg


The jack you'll use is among the 3.5mm or 1/8" jacks on the right (connectors 6-11). You can either use trial and error to find out which jack(s) to use or you can check the motherboard's manual.

For the motherboard's integrated audio to work you have to install the necessary drivers. Have you done that?

Wireless Inspire S2

Place the speakers within 1m (3ft) of the computer and put the Bluetooth transmitter in a USB connection. The operating system should automatically identify it and install the necessary drivers. You may have to change the operating system's audio output device to the Bluetooth USB dongle (should show up as Creative Bluetooth Audio D1).
 
My motherboard is a MSI 760GM-E51.

It had two drivers available to install and I mounted the realtek one, which was the chip I had installed on the motherboard. It also says in the manual to attach it to the green ring, labeled 'Line Out' I did, but when I go to manage audio devices, or manage devices, the speakers aren't there.


These are just the vanilla Inspire S2 wired speakers.

http://us.store.creative.com/Inspire-S2/M/B002NFVE8W.htm

Also, my motherboard has two audio driver options. One is the Realtek HD Audio Driver, and the other is ATI HDMI Audio Driver. Which one should I be installing? I installed both, but neither seemed to register the speakers, so I deleted the ATI driver in favor of the Realtek.


Thank you for your help,
Antigan15

EDIT: I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate.


EDIT2: It now registers the speakers, but only as a line-in jack. So they're there, but my computer doesn't know what they are, and I can't set them as the default speakers. Realtek is still the default, but all it can do is make beeps. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
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You should be using the Realtek drivers.

Since the speakers use a 3.5mm jack they shouldn't show up as "Creative Inspire S2" or anything specific like that.

Go to Control Panel -> Hardware And Sound -> Manage audio devices.

There should be an item in the "Playback" tab called
Speakers
Realtek
-----
Click to expand...
or something like that. If the last line (the one with 5 dashes) says anything else than "Default Device", then you should select that item and click the button that says "Set Default".
 
Audio Devices:

HD Audio HDMI (Not plugged in)
Speakers
Realtek

No matter what jack I plug the speakers into, it still says they aren't plugged in.




Also, about the sound card, is it safe to have them touching? The fan has a case so it would be hitting against the sound card but I'm worried the fan might transfer the heat from my graphics card to my sound card. Thoughts?


Thanks once again,
Antigan15
 
The integrated audio (Realtek) may be disabled in the BIOS, so you should check that.

1. When you turn on the computer press the Delete button at the POST screen
2. Go to the section Integrated Peripherals
3. Make sure the item HD Audio Controller is set to Enabled
4. Go back to the main menu and use the Save & Exit Setup option

What graphics card and sound card do you have? I wouldn't install the sound card if it is interfering with the fan (blocking airflow or touching the fan in such a way that the fan slows down or stops altogether). I assume the sound card is a PCI card and you should be able to install it in the lower PCI slot and not have it touching the graphics card.
 
The HD Audio Controller was enabled already.

I have a Radeon 5750 Graphics Card, and I took out the sound card.

Another, recent problem is Empire Total War. My program has well above the max requirements for the game, but it has disabled anything above medium graphics, and it plays choppy, even in the smallest games.

I figured I should just add this to here rather than making a whole new thread.

Any ideas?

Thanks all, I do appreciate the help. Who knew building a computer was such hard work! :D

Antigan15
 
So you have the speakers connected to the green 3.5mm jack, the Realtek audio drivers are installed and you have chosen the correct output device, yet you still have no audio? That's weird. Have you checked the settings in the Realtek HD Audio Manager software (should have been installed when you installed the Realtek audio drivers)?

Have you connected the 6-pin PCI-E power connector to the graphics card and do you have the latest drivers?

Building a computer for the first time can be a bit frustrating when you might not know about all the drivers and software you have to install. I had some issues getting my first computer to work when I had assembled it.
 
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