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Hey Everyone,
It's good to be back. I was never gone actually (always reading and educating myself on here), but it's been a while since I've actually posted anything. Let's go onto the problem:
So, I just got a new monitor, called the Asus VW246H. Based on what I'm seeing on Newegg, it's an excellent deal for the price, and since I've tested and calibrated it out, I couldn't be happier. It has speakers, which are horrible by the way, but I couldn't care less, because I bought a good speaker system a couple of years ago. I didn't buy the monitor for the speakers (who would?).
The speaker sound system is Logitech's excellent Z Cinema Speakers, which is a 2.1 config and has a good woofer. The software, however, has been giving me problems in the past, especially with iTunes, to the point where it causes the application to freeze and become unresponsive. There's a particular order that I have to go through, in order to get the speakers working with the rest of my windows scheme...and I can never get it right. I think it goes like: turn speakers off, plug into computer, turn speakers on, make sure it syncs to my windows volume, hesitantly open iTunes, play a song, hope for the best. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
However, that's not the problem. The specs of my computer are below, in my signature, and since I've bought the monitor like 4 days ago, I've set it up this way:
1) HDMI connection from HDX16t to VW246H for video, with the lid down and settings so that my laptop's screen is off while everything is displayed on the huge 24' monitor.
2) USB 2.0 connection from HDX16t to Z Cinema Speakers for the best sound I can get; (admittedly, the HDX16t has pretty decent sound for a laptop, but it's nothing close to what I love/need...still a good perk).
Ok, so you think that setup would work, right?
Wrong. Remember that the monitor has those awful speakers? HDMI outputs both sound and video to the source (which usually, I find to be an amazing boon, but right now, it's ticking me off).
Well, I've been trying to play a game (tried out only 1 so far), called "X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition". And so far it's been giving me problems. I played through it once before, then uninstalled it so that my HDD still has a lot of space. Now I've been wanting to revisit the game, so I reinstalled it on my computer. It went through without a problem.
So, first time I fired up my game, the Z cinema software was in the background, and everything was working fine. Problems started. The game paused at the very first loading screen (before it even started....like before the menu and stuff) and would become unresponsive. Puzzled, I turned it off and began to fiddle around with everything. Finally, I learned that the Z Cinema software was interfering with it somehow, and that the game would load and play normally if I had the software off and the speakers disconnected from my system.
So I tried to do it another way. I loaded the game first, and then tried to turn on my speakers by alt-tabbing and opening up the Z cinema software. It didn't exactly work. What happened was that my Windows Volume Mixer would now pair the game's sound effects with the speakers on my Monitor through the HDMI, while the Windows System sounds would go to my Z Cinema speakers.
Plus, when I was actually playing the game, I would get no sound from my monitor's crappy speakers....and I'm sure of this. How? Because whenever one of the (frequent) cutscenes would play, the sound came back on, rather suddenly, to be honest, and I could hear everything. Then they went back to the gameplay and the sound turn off. Cutscene again, sound; back to gameplay, no sound.
I messed around with the configuration for a while, but I couldn't find a way to pair my Z Cinema speakers with the game. So....after this lengthy description, I ask the veritable think-tank that is notebookreview.com to help me out with this problem.
Plus, I've considered hooking my laptop up to my monitor through VGA, but I'm getting some horrible ghosting issues, and I couldn't accept or even enjoy a mistake like that. So that's out of the question.
Also...since this problem deals with Hardware, Software, Windows OS and Games....I'm not exactly sure which section of the site this thread appropriately belongs to. For that, mods, you have my apologies. I just decided to put it in my favorite section, which is the "Hardware and Aftermarket Upgrades" section.
I hope you guys can think up of a solution! I would really appreciate it. As always, comments and helpful advice is always welcomed.
Mr. Mysterious
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i really don't know but the way i would configure the audio would be in this order..
1. connect speakers to notebook and in IDT sound pannel , set the external speakers as default sound.
2. Don't install the speaker software if it casuses problems...
3. Connect monitor with HDMI and ensure in IDT that external speakers is still default sound...
this is what i would do... i think the speaker software is casuing the problem.. too many audio softwares
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Hmmm all right. I guess I'll uninstall it and give it a try. Thanks.
edit:
Does anyone else have these speakers (Logitech Z Cinema), and if so, have you had any problems/solutions with/for them?
Update: Well, deleting and uninstalling the software seemed to do the trick. The problem is, the speakers are now so loud, I'm almost afraid to use them for fear of burning them out.
Mr. Mysterious -
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very weird.. i don't know really.. try installing and running the speaker software in compatibility mode... or see if there's some updated software.. i'm really out of ideas
Problem with HDMI and Windows Volume Mixer
Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Mr_Mysterious, Jul 20, 2010.
