No "Bass" Whatsoever Since Installing Vista (5.1 Surround Speakers)

Motherboard (which my speakers are connected to) - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2551


I've just installed Vista Home Premium (x64).

I have a 5.1 surround sound system with a subwoofer, but songs I'm listening to are producing absolutely ZERO bass. It sounds as if I don't even have a subwoofer installed. In XP the bass was working great, but on Vista something must have changed because it sounds like the sub isn't even plugged in, although I don't know what it could be.

I included a screenshot of my current speaker setup, so maybe you can figure out what the problem is from that, I'm not sure though.

There's no bass in games, Windows Media Player, Youtube or anything which is a real annoyance, because the added Bass is one of the best features of having a 5.1 surround sound system.

I know it's probably something extremely simple, but I just can't think of what it might be. In the screenshot below you can see an option to test the sound coming from each individual speaker, and whenever I test the subwoofer sound, it seems to be working perfectly (I hear an extremely loud & LOW bassy sort of noise, which I guess is expected from the subwoofer), but ONLY in that test thing, nowhere else. This means that it's plugged in for sure, but I don't have any idea why it's not working when listening to music etc.


Speakers Setup - http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/1/2/f_SpeakersSetm_6174802.jpg

Bass Test Screenshot - http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/3/1/2/f_Untitledm_acd6fc3.jpg

Thanks in advance.

 

Hmm, just a shot in the dark here as I'm Vista x86, perhaps you're missing the proper codecs? Since your bass works in tests then that may be it but that doesn't sound right either. (no pun)

 

LOL @ "no pun"

Anyway, I'm not quite sure which codecs I could be missing. Are there codecs out there specifically for Bass? Surely Youtube doesn't require specific codecs in order for Bass to be present, and Youtube is another place where the Bass from my sub is non existant

 

Have you un/re- installed your card's drivers yet, may be as simple as that. Or just uninstall them and let Vista find and install them again. Ya, no codecs needed for youtube! What was i thinking?

BTW, unplug your sound cable connections to your amp/subwoofer in and out, turn it off, reconnect and turn it on.

 

Meh, just to clarify that last post of mine:

Turn the amp off
Disconnect all wires coming in from the sound card, may as well do the output too.
Wait a few minutes, and reconnect everything.
Turn the amp on.

Hope that everything works.

 

Right, I had a mess around with the speakers and I'm fairly certain the problem has something to do with the location in which they are plugged into the motherboard.

As you can see from the screenshot, my motherboard has SIX different locations where I can plug an audio device in to (in this case, 5.1 surround sound speakers). I have THREE wires coming from my speakers. One is connected to the Front Left & Front Right speakers, One is connected to the Rear left & Rear Right speakers, and the third is connected to the Centre & Subwoofer. Therefore this means I need to find the THREE correct locations to connect these three wires.

The audio connector locations on the motherboard say "Centre/Sub", "Rear" and "Side". I connected the Subwoofer to the "Centre/Sub" location, the Front speakers to the "Side" location and the Rear speakers to the "Rear" location. This seems to be working perfectly when I do the TEST located in the speaker settings. I click sub & sub works, I click front left/right & they work, I click rear left/right and THEY also work.

So why is it when I listen to a song or whatever, the bass is non existant?

I then had a FURTHER mess around with the speakers, and moved the Subwoofer wire from the Sub jack into the GREEN jack below it and guess what... Bass appeared all of a sudden. I then thought "great" so went back to the Test thingy, to see if it'd all work out properly, but now when I click SUB in the test, no sound comes out. So what does this mean? I now have Bass in my games, music, videos etc but when I click the SUBWOOFER icon in the Test area, no sound appears. It's like I can either have Bass in the Test or Bass in games, music, video etc. Why won't it just work in both?

It's pretty frustrating tbh.

Pic of my Mobo audio jacks - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Image/motherboard_productimageback_ga-p35c-ds3r_big.jpg

 

Orange should be your sub/center, black rear/out and green for the front but check your manual, that's your best bet