Comp under construction, need assistance.

Enchantermon on 29/8/2009 at 17:18

Have you installed the latest drivers for your graphics card?

LancerChronics on 30/8/2009 at 01:04

K, that worked. Next problem....

The motherboard comes with onboard audio (Realtek)
I also got a sound blaster X-fi card.
Speakers are plugged into the X-fi and sound great.
X-fi has been set to the default.
Speakers have no headphone jack.
Headphones plugged into front port on case, but doesn't seem to work.
Does seem to work when realtek is on default.

Is it somehow possible to keep the Xfi on default, but have them turn off and make the headphones the primary when headphones are plugged in?

EvaUnit02 on 30/8/2009 at 01:53

Uninstall the Realtek driver and disable the onboard audio in the BIOS setup. It sucks and it's utterly redundant since you have a quality add-in card.

Plug the case's front panel audio connectors into your X-Fi if you can, not your motherboard. Xtremegamer and Titanium series should support this.

Bjossi on 30/8/2009 at 02:02

The X-Fi is still not going to deliver very strong signals though, so unless your headphones have low impedance (like <25 ohm) they will feel powerless and maybe less bassy than otherwise. When I plugged my headphones into the jack of my Logitech Z-2200 system after having used the X-Fi headphones jack for a while it made a world of difference, though unfortunately the pair in question (Sennheiser HD 595) has pathetic bass and can only cope with moderate volume before they crack and pop so I don't get to enjoy the improvement all that much.

(OT: Unless I hit a bad pair I can safely say that Sennheiser are overrated)

LancerChronics on 30/8/2009 at 02:20

Eva: I have the realtek disabled, so there is no worries there. I tried to do specifically what you just said. But I've seemed to misplace the HD osund cable somewhere in the mess of power wires and case wires. I probably could find it if I pulled all the wires out but I'm not keen on doing that since everything is running so nicely atm....

So I've come up with a lazier option, but not sure if it will work: Headphone splitter jack. Plug headphones into one socket, speakers into the other, shut off speakers when I want to use headphones.

Bjossi: Doesn't some companies like logitech make headphones for USB ports?
That might work too, but I think USB bypasses the sound card, so I would lose its benefit while the headphones are plugged in. not to mention the expense...

It really would just be nice if I could just find the cable. If I pull out the X-fi card, and put it directly back in, I shouldn't have to reinstall any drivers or the like, right? I just wish the damn thing was plugged in where it was suppose to be. Must've gotten pulled off the motherboard while I was trying to squeeze in the massive graphics card.

Bjossi on 30/8/2009 at 04:36

Quote Posted by LancerChronics

That might work too, but I think USB bypasses the sound card, so I would lose its benefit while the headphones are plugged in. not to mention the expense...

It really would just be nice if I could just find the cable. If I pull out the X-fi card, and put it directly back in, I shouldn't have to reinstall any drivers or the like, right?

I'm not sure how USB headphones are fed with audio signals internally, but you won't get any sound without a sound processor being involved, whether it is the X-Fi or the integrated chip. So if the onboard chip is disabled in BIOS and you hear sound anyway, the X-Fi is definitely not bypassed.

As for the latter, if X-Fi drivers are installed, then replugging the card in shouldn't cause any side-effects on the software front.

Brian The Dog on 30/8/2009 at 09:33

Quote Posted by LancerChronics

So I've come up with a lazier option, but not sure if it will work: Headphone splitter jack. Plug headphones into one socket, speakers into the other, shut off speakers when I want to use headphones.

This is the way I used to do things, it works fine. The only thing you need to alter when switching between the two is your speaker configuration in Windows if you have surround-sound speakers.

Quote Posted by LancerChronics

Doesn't some companies like logitech make headphones for USB ports?
That might work too, but I think USB bypasses the sound card, so I would lose its benefit while the headphones are plugged in. not to mention the expense...

Yes, you're right, these heaphones have a soundcard built in to the heaphones themselves and it completely by-passes the other audio devices. When you plug them in, they become the default audio device in Windows. So you'd need to buy one with a decent sound-card in it. My Logitech G35 work well compared to my onboard SoundMax things, but it probably wouldn't be worth it if I had a proper soundcard.