Subwoofer not working but detected?

[MGreen]

I am using a sort of ghetto 4.1 surround sound at the moment. I have 4 speakers connected to my amp and my amp connected to the line in (green)  on my PC.  I have also connected my powered subwoofer to the sub woofer port on my pc (orange)  as my amp has no sub port.  

 

When I right click and test it on windows playback devices the sub works completely fine. HOWEVER when I play any type of music or sound on my PC  nothing plays through the subwoofer?  

 

Any ideas?  I'm so confused ? 

[rhyseyness]

So it sounds like your motherboard is only outputting from the line OUT on your motherboard (capitalised and bold because I assume that's what you meant to say in your original post).

You'll need to go into your audio driver/utility settings and tell it to use the "subwoofer" output port too.

Depending on what the audio solution on your motherboard is, will change how you do this.

 

An alternative would be to get a 3.5mm (assuming this is how you're connecting) splitter and just plug this into your line out (green), then connect to your sub and amp.

I.e. connect both your sub and your amp to the line out...

In fact, saying this, this is what you should do.

I'm assuming your subwoofer is active (has an amp (and hopefully crossover) built in)?

In which case, it should just take a line in signal anyway.

 

If your subwoofer isn't active (highly unlikely since you say you can hear it with the windows test tone through it), you're going to need to plug it into an amp, because your motherboard won't be able to drive it.

 

Hope this helps

It was kind of a quick and dirty explanation so feel free to ask if you want more detail about anything I just said

[MGreen]

2 hours ago, rhyseyness said:

So it sounds like your motherboard is only outputting from the line OUT on your motherboard (capitalised and bold because I assume that's what you meant to say in your original post).

You'll need to go into your audio driver/utility settings and tell it to use the "subwoofer" output port too.

Depending on what the audio solution on your motherboard is, will change how you do this.

 

An alternative would be to get a 3.5mm (assuming this is how you're connecting) splitter and just plug this into your line out (green), then connect to your sub and amp.

I.e. connect both your sub and your amp to the line out...

In fact, saying this, this is what you should do.

I'm assuming your subwoofer is active (has an amp (and hopefully crossover) built in)?

In which case, it should just take a line in signal anyway.

 

If your subwoofer isn't active (highly unlikely since you say you can hear it with the windows test tone through it), you're going to need to plug it into an amp, because your motherboard won't be able to drive it.

 

Hope this helps

It was kind of a quick and dirty explanation so feel free to ask if you want more detail about anything I just said

Cheers mate, can you give me anymore detail on how to enable my subwoofer on my mother board via the audio driver/utility? I think I'm using realtek audio drivers.  ✌️

[rhyseyness]

2 hours ago, MGreen said:

Cheers mate, can you give me anymore detail on how to enable my subwoofer on my mother board via the audio driver/utility? I think I'm using realtek audio drivers.  ✌️

What motherboard is it?

Is there any kind of audio software included with it?

If so, what's it called?

You can normally find it by going into the system tray, right clicking whatever is in there labelled with something audio-y, then clicking "open" or "maximise."

[MGreen]

2 hours ago, rhyseyness said:

What motherboard is it?

Is there any kind of audio software included with it?

If so, what's it called?

You can normally find it by going into the system tray, right clicking whatever is in there labelled with something audio-y, then clicking "open" or "maximise."

Its a GIGABYTE motherboard, B85-D3H or something. I believe I have realtek drivers. 

[johnt]

What you need to understand is that the subwoofer is an independent channel. It is supposed to receive a separate signal and function by itself. The channel is commonly referred to the LFE channel, or Low Frequency Effects.

 

However, output devices will mix the front channels and the subwoofer together because most speakers are not capable of producing bass less than 35 to 200 Hz. There is a frequency where the output device will mix anything below that frequency to the subwoofer channel. This is commonly referred to as the crossover frequency. Some motherboards will allow you to adjust this, however, all your other speakers must be set to "small," and you need to enable "bass management" in the audio software.

 

For additional clarification, music is typically mixed in 2 channel stereo. They do not include additional information for a subwoofer channel. So it needs an output device, like your motherboard or a receiver, to process the signal and force feed your subwoofer during music.

 

Your system is working properly from what you describe, but it might not be setup completely for music.