AMR130 Setup Problems

[Tom Nichol]

I've just bought a Polk AMR130 6-piece computer speaker system. I've hooked it up to my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, which has 5.1 capability. I've double-checked my connections, and they all appear to be correct. The front and center speakers and subwoofer are working to perfection--BUT--I'm not getting ANY sound out of the rear channels at all! I've double-checked my sound card's software control settings, and they all appear to be correct. I know that the jack for the rear channels is working, because I had my stereo headphones plugged into it (as the manual specified for headphones), and it was working the last time I checked. Any suggestions on how to proceed or what to check next? Thanks in advance.

[Tom Nichol]

A bit of follow-up: I've installed the latest drivers and patches for my soundcard. I still don't seem to be getting any sound out of the rear channels, however. I've tested it with a classical organ CD which is encoded in Dolby Surround--the original version, not 5.1--and I still don't seem to be getting any rear channel effect. Just to cover all the bases, I'll try playing a DVD or two that I know has Dolby 5.1 and see what happens.

[Tom Nichol]

A further bit of follow-up: After downloading and installing the latest diagnostic software from Turtle Beach, I determined that the rear channel connector on my sound card had somehow gone bad. I therefore had no real choice but to purchase another Santa Cruz card. This time, only the left rear channel failed to function. I'm checking into a possible bad connection or two. I'll post the results here.

[Tom Nichol]

I'm not quite sure why, but this afternoon, all channels, front AND rear, are now operating correctly! Maybe the system just needed to settle in and get acclimatized to my apartment and computer system--I don't know. Any comments or insights would be more than welcome!