No volume from speakers

I used to have a HP Pavilion 6553C which came bundled with a Pavilion M50 monitor with mounted Polk Audio speakers. My hard drive was acting up (OS 98SE) so I bought a Compaq Presario SR 1620NX (OS XP) and my other components, HP Office Jet T45, multimedia keyboard and the display on the monitor all work fine. However I can only get system sounds from my speakers (windows boot & exit, etc). I can't play a CD or an MP3 no matter which media player I choose. If I turn the volume up as high as it will go and put my ear to the speaker, I can faintly hear it. Is there a driver or something I can download so they will be compatible? I figured since HP owns Compaq, there wouldn't be a problem and customer support has been of no help.

 

To be honest, that really sounds like you have it plugged into the wrong port. I don't mean to cause any offense. Those speakers, unless USB, are dumb output devices. They don't have any driver, or plug and play capability. They merely output the analog or digital signal.

 

Nevermind, they are plugged in correctly, but they are non-powered speakers (no power of their own). They were designed to go with my old computer, which came with a built-in speaker amplifier. I traded speakers with my daughter, whom I gave the old computer to and they work fine. Her Sony bookshelfs work fine on my new computer because they plug into an electrical outlet. Problem solved. I think it's pretty crappy of HP, though, to bundle a system where the individual components cant be used with a new computer.

 

They should work with the new computer. Since they aren't powered you would plug them into the jack for your headphones. That would give you power.

 

No, hooking them up to the headphone jack doesn't give them power, either.