Issues with nForce drivers: 5.1 sound

[Kuu]

Ok, for a start, I've been using a surround sound setup on my computer for quite some time, using the same speakers with nforce drivers + NVMixer and I have been really happy.

Recently, one of my case fans was dying so I had to unplug my computer and so I had to turn it on/off a lot of the time to check which one it was. I assume it tried to boot into XP most of the time and a system file got bugged, so I had to manually switch to a restore point which was only from 3 days earlier, so really no settings were changed.

After I fixed the problem, I plugged all my cables in correctly. Started playing some games... and well, I discovered I wasn't getting 5.1 sound anymore. Infact, regardless of what I was doing (games, music, movies) absolutely NO sound was coming out of the rear speakers. JUST the front two and the sub.
The settings in windows were fine, the settings in nvMixer were the same. Nothing was changed at all. Yes, I plugged the cables into the correct ports.

Here's the weird part. The only way I could hear sound out of my rear speakers was using the preset things in NVMixer: Surround Settings, Delay, Preset and by selecting different things from the drop box. Not all of them worked though.


So I got annoyed and installed the RealTek drivers. Initially they did the same thing, but when I actually selected 6 channel, sound was coming out of all speakers and working correctly.
The problem is, the utility is rather bad. Can't change individual speaker volumes for a start. But the main problem is, with these RealTek drivers, all of a sudden there would be horrible crackling noises coming out of my speakers. It goes away randomly but it's still a huge issue.

So yeah. I then tried uninstalling RealTek and reinstalling the nForce audio drivers again to see if that would help. Nope... same problem as in the first place. Just 2 channel sound regardless of what settings I use (selecting 5.1 doesn't change anything).

I've kept uninstalling and installing these two drivers, but the same problems occur. I can get 5.1 with RealTek but the UI of the app is horrible and doesn't offer the features I want, plus there's horrible static crackling noises randomly when playing games/listening to music which I never got before this problem. I can't get 5.1 with nForce but I've never had a problem with the quality while using their drivers.


For the record I'm using ALC850, AL'97


I just don't know what to try next. It's possibly a registry issue.

[Fernando 1]

Have you already tried to disable your motherboard speakers? This often solves the crackling noise you get from the "normal" speakers.

[Kuu]

Yeah, doesn't help

[Kuu]

Any other suggestions guys? It's very annoying