No sound from subwoofer

Krydolph · May 7, 2023

I have a set of Logitech z-5500, I have not used them for years. Now I wanted to use them for a home theater setup I am working on. I am no big audiophile, and figure they will do more than adequate for a while.

When I test them in windows, I get sound from all 5 speakers, but it is completely silent when it is supposed to play from the sub.

On the remote for the speaker set, there is a test button, and sub works fine here - so I am guessing it is some kind of software problem?

I have gotten drivers from the motherboard page, I also tried getting some directly from realtek, as it is z170 board with an i5 6600, so not the newest. but no luck.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong, or what I can try?

bonus question: Since YT don't support sorround anymore, is there anywhere I can go to download a video or program or even just audio file that test all the speakers? Not some "experience" but just something where it sends to each speaker individually, like it does in the driver.

freeagent · May 7, 2023

If there is an enhanced stereo type mode I would try that. Also make sure your speakers are set to small in the control panel. Multichannel sound on PC is pretty sucky.

cmndr · May 7, 2023

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/subwoofer-not-working-with-realtek-hd-on-windows/8ed5319f-df4f-4a3c-890b-b0f43432be26

Someone said they had SOME luck with setting the sound to stereo. See if that does anything for your set up, just as a troubleshooting step.

Worst case scenario (if it's a normal subwoofer) consider figuring out where the crossover point is (in Hz) and get a splitter cable and just split the L+R signal over to the sub. If it's something more budgety without those options, that'll be harder.

BuzzingBee · May 7, 2023

Try set all 5 speakers to small, enable Bass Management and if you still can't hear it, increase subwoofer level by 10dB on Room Correction.

Krydolph · May 11, 2023

I tried all troubleshooting from the post. I tried several different drivers, I tried switching jacksticks on the motherboard - everything I can think of. I can't get it working.

However, on my main PC... I just tooled around for 5-10 minutes and it worked - not really sure what did it, tried going back to the other PC to recreate it, but no luck.

I am not sure what setting it to stereo would accomplish (though I tried) I am trying to get surround sound to work, that guy only had a 2.1 system, where the sub decided to chime in on stereo.

There are some solutions here I am not sure how to go about trying... "Setting speakers to small" has been mentioned a few times, I have no idea how I would go about that. I feel like I have been in all audio settings I can find, several different in windows, and the drivers (realtek audio console) and nowhere have I found a setting for speaksize.

BuzzingBee · May 12, 2023

On 5/11/2023 at 6:46 PM, Krydolph said:

I tried all troubleshooting from the post. I tried several different drivers, I tried switching jacksticks on the motherboard - everything I can think of. I can't get it working.

However, on my main PC... I just tooled around for 5-10 minutes and it worked - not really sure what did it, tried going back to the other PC to recreate it, but no luck.

I am not sure what setting it to stereo would accomplish (though I tried) I am trying to get surround sound to work, that guy only had a 2.1 system, where the sub decided to chime in on stereo.

There are some solutions here I am not sure how to go about trying... "Setting speakers to small" has been mentioned a few times, I have no idea how I would go about that. I feel like I have been in all audio settings I can find, several different in windows, and the drivers (realtek audio console) and nowhere have I found a setting for speaksize.

Although partially my bad for mixing up Realtek and Windows settings, disabling full-range speakers is the same as setting speakers to small. This is what my settings look like to get bass working: https://gyazo.com/5237c05fb4c8674b2ae97569932e6f3a

Incase you may ask since the name is confusing, full-range/large speaker sends whole audio frequency to your speaker including sub-bass, but nearly all speakers can't play sub-bass. Unticking full-range / change to small speaker would enable cut-off bass frequency, then enabling bass management would redirect that cut-off frequency and below to your sub, therefore allowing crossover between your sub and speakers.
Most people should do this, although there are some reasonable exceptions like AVR with built-in crossover feature for HDMI audio. In this case allowing full-range speakers would act like passthrough so that AVR can do the crossover job instead.

Also, for your bonus question: https://www.demolandia.net/downloads.html?id=48882118