cant get 5.1 sound in Half-Life 2

carl4286 · April 29th, 2005

I just installed half life 2 on my new PC, and for some reason, I can't get 5.1 sound. If I have it set to 5.1 sound and I look away from someone in-game that is talking, instead of hearing them behind me, their voice trials off and I hear nothing. But when I set it to 2 channel sound, I hear clearly, but only form my front speakers.

Under "sounds and audio devices" in control panel (Windows XP Pro), it is set at 5.1 surround sound, and in the utility provided by giga-byte (i have integrated audio on a giga-byte mobo), it is set at 6 channel sound. Also, in the giga-byte utility when I test the sound, as the speaker in the diagram lights up, the corresponding speaker on my desk makes a little "ta-dah" noise, and all 6 speakers work perfectly.... but for some reason, none of my games (ST: EF2 and HL2 mostly) wont recognize that I have 5.1 speakers.

Any advice?

***nf1n1ty*** · April 30th, 2005

mmm...don't know about the compatibility with gigabyte integrated sound....what sound chip is it?
and always make sure you have the latest drivers installed...
but hey..I remember also having that problem some time ago...don't know how I solved it...guess it was gone after a reinstall...or driver reinstall...don't know
but I'm using an Audigy2 so that's a whole different story

carl4286 · April 30th, 2005

Well, the driver is a Realtek AC97 driver. Can't figure anything els out about the type of integrated sound.

We have a Sabrent 5.1 sound card laying around that we ordered for our old P3 whose sound card had failed, then the computer failed. So I can use this sound card with my new computer... the only thing is, it was $12 on newegg.com and probably is of half the quality of my current integrated sound.

So if anyone can recommend a good sound card to me that is under $30 shipped (im already in debt just under $200 to my parents from buying my computer), I would appriciate it. Or more importantly, if you can think of a way to solve the problem without me buying a new sound card it would also be appriciated.

carl4286 · April 30th, 2005

Can anyone help??? This is really pissing me off. I bought a $100 speaker system just for HL2, and I can't even use it.

73h Ub3r |337 M4573r · April 30th, 2005

Hmmm well you could always contact the manufacturer of your speakers. That's all I can think of for now.

carl4286 · April 30th, 2005

But when I run the speaker test in the Giga-byte utility, all 6 speakers work.

I just played an hour or so of Counter Strike, and 5.1 doesn't work there either. The center channel and sub-woofer work, but the front and rear speakers don't.

***nf1n1ty*** · May 1st, 2005

now that's really weird...only center and subwoofer...
you didn't answerd my remark about drivers, though
do you have the latest drivers installed on your system? if not, get drivercleaner, clean the AC97 drivers (...I think I remember seeing that in the list), reboot, install new drivers, reboot, try if it's working then

carl4286 · May 1st, 2005

Accually, I just found a FAQ item on steam's website that adresses this problem. Apparently there were numerous other people with integrated Realtek audio complaining of this problem. It is an issue with the Realtek driver, and apparently, they just released a driver to fix the problem a few days ago but there servers are overcrowded with HL2 users trying to get the update, so I'll have to wait awhile to get the updated driver.

Consider the issue resolved... thanks for the help.