Mono Output on Sound Card

[beaver]

Hi. I would appreciate some advice from helpful people out there. I am a bit out of ideas why my sound card seems to have a mono output. I upgraded my onboard audio to Creative XFI but i kinda noticed something is not right on the sound compared when i played my CD player. The output is mono since the left and right speakers sounds the same even if i use audio test tracks wherein i'm only playing a sound on either left or right channel. i check the windows setup and physical connections and nothing is amissed. i also reactivate my onboard audio and remove XFI but the same is true. It seems the problem is the PC itself or something in it. Can someone please throw some ideas here? Thanks in advance. :confused5:

[recoveryone]

like always, lets start at the beginning:

1. what is card connected to...Headphones? speakers?
2. If speakers is the 1/8 patch cord stereo?
3. When doing the Creative sound test does the sound move from each speaker?

In most cases it should be the patch cord being mono only, specially since you get the same results with the on-board sound chip and the X-fi card.

[beaver]

i tried using the speaker and headphone and even receiver, the output is the same. The sound is exactly the same on both channels. it doesn't "move". there is nothing for me to tweak on the control panel nor on the creative audio console. I'm suspecting something deep on the motherboard since it occurs both on the onboard audio and XFi but i cannot see anything to change on the BIOS.

I'm using stereo plugs and pretty sure nothing is wrong with the cabling and physical connection. I'm quite aware of audio setup anyways. I just can't understand what's happening.

[recoveryone]

I dought that its a MOB issue, the X-fi has its own chip and does not require the MOB to help it make any sound. The MOB only gives it power. My next question would be inline with the source. Is the source (music) in a stereo format.

[beaver]

Hello. I would be sure that the source is stereo. I ripped it a lossless format as well. Besides, during the speaker test, i should have both channel working independently. I now considering to reinstall XP and start over. :-(

[recoveryone]

This just sounds so odd, for both the sound chip and PCI Card X-FI having the same problem. Its a first for me, so let us know if the re-install solved the problem. just one other note, does this happen in every program you use....I.E. MS Media Player, MusicMatch Jukebox, Creatives music player..... just one more try, Hate to see you go through a re-install of the OS its just a pain to get all the updates again and then find all of your shortcuts to programs.

[beaver]

It is the Windows that has the problem! i tried using another harddrive with OS installed and i have no problem with it all! Back to reinstallation again. :-/

[recoveryone]

Sorry to hear that, happy loading