On-board sound plays just mono

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Roymishali, Aug 14, 2013.

  1. Roymishali

    Roymishali Private E-2

    Hi,
    I have a problem with the sound on my PC,
    and I'm trying to figure out what causes the problem.

    When I connect headphones to the motherboard's rear panel sound jack, the sound comes out as mono - I hear both channels on both ears as one channel.

    Now, here's something interesting:
    If i connect an amplifier to the sound jack, and then connect the headphones to the amplifier, somehow it fix the problem and converts the sound to stereo, BUT, it flips the sound channels -
    Left audio channel plays on the right ear.
    Right audio channel plays on the the left year.

    I tried several different headphones, and it's the same.
    I tried running Ubuntu, to make sure it's not a problem with the drivers or Windows, and the exact same problem occurs on Ubuntu.

    I'm not sure what is the problem.
    What do you think?


    Here is my CPU-Z report:
    http://db.tt/dPEl13Qw


    Thanks for the help!
     
  2. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    The most obvious question is which sound jack 'colour' you should be connecting your headphones and speakers to the 'green' jack and have you tried a different set of headphones?

    How are you connecting your amp also and what kind of amp is it, 2.1-5.1, digital sound processing or is it a basic stereo speaker setup? The reason I ask this is because modern amps can re split audio into separate channels or what sounds like separate channels even though they are virtual or just a post processing effect so you need to disable everything or use a simple set of speakers otherwise you'll end up being more confused.
     
  3. Roymishali

    Roymishali Private E-2

    I connected the headphones to the middle green jack.
    And yes, I tried 4 different headphones, and it's the same.

    I was wrong when I wrote "Amplifier",
    I meant to write speakers, sorry.
    It's a simple LOGITECH Speaker 2.1: Link
    [​IMG]

    What I thought was some kind of an amplifier, is just a ported subwoofer, lol.
    Sorry for the confusion.

    My guess is like you said, maybe the speakers are re-spliting the audio into 2 separate channels.
    And maybe the problem is caused by the motherboard's on-board audio ports.
    What do you think?
     
  4. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    The subwoofer will have an amplifier inside. Your computer's audio card can't supply enough power on it's own to drive the subwoofer. The audio card will drive the satellite speakers/headphones.

    Are there no settings in Control Panel under Sounds and Audio Devices or the type of Audio you have (in my case it's Sigmatel Audio) that you can change?
     
  5. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    Go into bios and double check your onboard audio is enabled.

    Look for ANY differences in the plugs on the headphones and the plug on the speakers, there could be a bent contact inside the socket that's connecting both the left and right +, this can happen if the plug isn't inserted far enough or too much so try pulling the headphones out slightly and pushing them in harder.

    There isn't much you can test hardware wise, you've tried different operating systems so anything software is ruled out unless there's a problem with the cards firmware, tried different headphones, your using the right socket.

    Is the computer new and if not when did you notice the problem, has it worked perfectly in the past?

    Another possibility is the socket has been mislabelled, I have come across this before where they're stuck the wrong colour on the output so try connecting the headphones to all the other outputs individually and use sound positioning software or windows speaker configuration to work out which is which, you can even connect multiple sets of headphones at the same time.

    http://audio.rightmark.org/products/rm3ds.shtml

    In control panel-sound-right click your speakers and configure them as 5.1 and make sure your sound card in the default device then test each jack you might want to update the audio driver so try the latest version for your motherboard from MSI.
     
  6. Roymishali

    Roymishali Private E-2

    Rikky, you're a genius!
    I connected the headphones to the PINK port, the one supposed to be for microphones, and I can ear stereo again!!!! thank you! =D

    [​IMG]

    It's really funny how MSI messed up with the labeling of the ports. :-D

    I thought I had to send the motherboard back to the store for a repair and then manage without a computer for 2 weeks.

    Thank you so much Rikky, you really saved me. [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2013
  7. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    No problem:)
     

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