Topic: What am I doing wrong?*FIGURED IT OUT*

[stirinthesauce]

OK, here is my problem.  Was given a pair of boston digital ba735 2.1 speaker setup made by boston acoustics for my desktop.  Should be an improvement over the ultra crappy speakers I had before.  But I cannot get them to work.  I use a m-audio transit as my soundcard and it has a optical out.  So I ran opti out through c02 into speakers.  No luck.  I research.  Seems peeps have had this problem with win xp.  Also read that these speakers were designed(I could possible be wrong, just what I read)for gateway as an speaker upgrade and were used with the soundblaster live! soundcard that came with it.  Well, I have a soundblaster live! card laying around so I put it in.  Computer recognized it, I updated the drivers, rebooted, and still cannot get these speakers to work(the standard plugs Two RCS speaker cables, one 9-pin mini-din digital control cable, one 1/8-inch mono to RCA digital cable all seem to be fine).  My computer is not a Gateway.  Will this pose a problem since these were supposedly designed for Gateway's?  So, can anyone shed some light on this?

[jpschust]

in the windows control panel in sounds and setup- whatever it is called- do you have the playback set to that card and not the internal card?

[stirinthesauce]

yup

[jpschust]

for the m audio, in their weird ass control panel have you played with that to make sure it is doing the proper send to the digi out and not the coax or rca outs?

[stirinthesauce]

Well, not really.  Got it unplugged at the moment, trying to see if the soundblaster will work but when I did have it plugged in, I checked and it was set at 2in2out, 8000 to 48000

[dnsacks]

why not run the soundcard's digital out into your ua5's digital in and see if the ua5 is picking up a signal. 

[stirinthesauce]

ehh?  Plugged the opti in on the ua5.  What am I looking for.  How am I gonna check for a signal(sorry if this seems like a stupid question, brain fried from staring at computer screen all day)

[jpschust]

ehh?  Plugged the opti in on the ua5.  What am I looking for.  How am I gonna check for a signal(sorry if this seems like a stupid question, brain fried from staring at computer screen all day)

the blinking lights

[stirinthesauce]

Well, I don't see any blinking lights.  Would I?  Don't have an svu so I wouldn't be able to check levels.  But I do believe I had trouble once passing a signal through the opti out taping once trying to give a digi patch.  Couldn't get a signal so this could be the problem.  Now, any suggestions on why I can't get this other soundcard to work that I just installed?  .  I kno I am so close, that is why it is so frustrating Thanks for the patience in bearing with me +t guys!

[dnsacks]

you could also check for levels on a dat/jb3 hooked up to the ua5's digital output (or sound out of its headphone jack)

basically, trying to isolate the problem -- is it the soundcard (if it's passing a digital signal to the ua5, it's likely doing its job) or the speakers (or the co2)?

Do you have a dat deck with a coax out?  if so, you could also use that to try feeding the speakers and see if they recoginze its digi-out.

[stirinthesauce]

Yeah, I have a dat.  Unfortunately it is at prodigital for a tuneup   Guess I can't do anything there.  Guess I need to check to see if I can get this soundblaster card working.  It is possible that I could have plugged it in wrong though everything seemed correct.  Guess I'll take it out here shortly and re install it.  This is getting perplexing.  You would think that these speakers would not be this difficult.  Then again, it is probably something I am doing wrong.

[stirinthesauce]

PITA!!!  But, it IS working now   Here is the problem.  Apparantly these speakers do not work with windows xp.  Something to do with the new os and soundcards, they don't want to pass a digital signal to these.  So, after much hunting and reading, downloaded an old driver fix for this.  Installed it, going through all the odd hoops they requested and it still didn't work but I also read that if THIS fails to work, unplug the speakers and re-plug after 30secs and it resets the circuits or whatever.  It worked.  Damn, all day trying to get some crappy monitors to work on my computer.  Oh well, at least these crappy monitors sound better than the ultra crappy alternative I was using.  Anyways, thanks for ya'll bearing with me and offering some advice and help.

[BobW]

Stop touching yourself
(that's what the answer is to anyone in our shop that asks "What am I doing wrong"   

Sounds like you've got the answer already

Good luck !