Subwoofer port on my sound card stopped working

[Dellmor]

Hello everyone,

I am seeking help as the subwoofer port on my Sound Blaster Z sound card stopped working. A few days back I purchased a new subwoofer, SVS SB-1000. Previously I had some small Genius sub from 2.1 set. I have the sub paired with bookshelf speakers. It all connects to the sound card through the respective ports, so sub line out, front speakers line out and I also have my headphones connected via headphone jack. All these ports are 3.5mm jacks (I connected the jack to the SVS sub with RCA adaptor) and the all still work besides the subwoofer one.

What probably went wrong:
Everything played nicely for like two days. Until I tried hotswapping the two subs to have a feel for the immeadiate change in sound. Of course I wasn't literally hot swapping them. I turned them both off, turned the song off, swapped them, turned on the swapped sub and resumed music. I did this like three times and then suddenly no sound from the sub. This happened when I "hot swapped" from the old one to the new one.

What I tried (to no avail):

- looking if all settings are right and if all connectors are in the right holes
- trying if the old sub still plays (it doesn't) 
- changing the 3.5mm jack cable to a different one

- trying different power socket in the house (note that the power indicators are glowing on both subs)

- restarting the computer

- starting the computer without the sound card and then back with it

 

What I want to try but don't know how or fear I might mess things up even more:
- reinstalling the sound card driver
- connecting the speakers to the sub port and the sub to the speakers port and see if the sub blows the speaker port as well (lol)
- try to meassure the voltage in the ports with multimeter (I bought it today, never used one before)

Interesting note to add:
When I turn the pc off before the sub there is this loud and short bass POP. I think this is normal but the interesting part is that both subs STILL do this, even when the sub port is supposedly broken.

So... yeah. I would be glad if someone knew how to help.

Thank you.

 

[samcool55]

You can connect the subs to a speaker port if you want to. Afaik is the signal not that different so it should be fine.

Uninstalling drivers, nothing to worry about. If you know the exact model you can either download them from their website or just let windows figure it out.

[Dellmor]

16 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

You can connect the subs to a speaker port if you want to. Afaik is the signal not that different so it should be fine.

Uninstalling drivers, nothing to worry about. If you know the exact model you can either download them from their website or just let windows figure it out.

ok I reinstalled the driver - nothing.
I changed the ports and as expected, speakers don't play and the sub does. so the fault is definitely in the port and not in the subs.

[Dellmor]

Perhaps I should make myself clear as to what exactly I want to know. I want to know if this swapping caused the failure of the port or if the new sub did it. Because I already ordered a new sound card, so I don't want to make the same mistake. I personally think it wasn't the sub because as far as I know, the only powered port is the headphone jack. All the other ports carry signal only, not a significant amount of voltage, so the speaker itself cannot fry a non powered port, right?

[ShearMe]

11 hours ago, Dellmor said:

Perhaps I should make myself clear as to what exactly I want to know. I want to know if this swapping caused the failure of the port or if the new sub did it. Because I already ordered a new sound card, so I don't want to make the same mistake. I personally think it wasn't the sub because as far as I know, the only powered port is the headphone jack. All the other ports carry signal only, not a significant amount of voltage, so the speaker itself cannot fry a non powered port, right?

Speakers/subs don't put power out to the source, so it wouldn't fry the subwoofer port on the card. Even if it did, the voltage/power would have to be so large that it would damage the whole card if not the computer.

 

Your issue is probably physical if you were doing a lot of insertions in a short amount of time. Maybe you accidentally jammed it in at an angle and damaged something. Maybe the port was just a weakling from the factory.