Only stereo sound available in Win 10

terenz

Estimable
Aug 1, 2015
42
0
4,590
I upgraded my TV-connected PC to Win 10 from Win 7 late last year. UG went fine and I even had 7.1 sound and the Dolby Access demo even worked very well.

I tried it (Dolby) a few months ago and now see that only stereo sound is available (all the other options are grayed out). Under sound properties, it shows only 2 channels available.

System is

Dell Vostro 220 running Win 10 x64
ATI HD5450 video card with HDMI output connected to
Sony 770 AVR

As I said, this worked with 7/1 / Dolby Access for HT until something happened.

Any ideas how to fix it, barring a reinstall?

Is it a Win 10 problem?
 

stdragon

Proper
Apr 5, 2018
94
0
160
Go to Device Manger, find the Sound controller and delete it. Now re-scan for new changes and it should reinstall itself. Hopefully with settings back to defaults.
 

terenz

Estimable
Aug 1, 2015
42
0
4,590


Tried that. Also tried the Realtek driver (not sure if it's required as I don't use the audio connections off the MB) - but have no DAC to test if this works. Tried reinstalling the latest ATI legacy drivers (15.7.1 or some such).

Should I reboot after disabling and deleting the old sound drivers?
 

terenz

Estimable
Aug 1, 2015
42
0
4,590
MERGED QUESTION
Question from terenz : "Computer now only has Stereo (used to be up to 7.1)"

I upgraded my TV-connected PC to Win 10 from Win 7 late last year. UG went fine and I even had 7.1 sound (and everything inbetween) and the Dolby Access demo even worked very well.

I tried it (Dolby) a few months ago and now see that only stereo sound is available (all the other options are grayed out). Under sound properties, it shows only 2 channels available.

System is

Dell Vostro 220 running Win 10 x64
ATI HD5450 video card with HDMI output connected to
Sony 770 AVR in turn connected by HDMI to the TV (pass through)

As I said, this used to work with 7/1 / Dolby Access for HT until something (update?) happened.

Any ideas how to fix it, barring a reinstall?

Is it a Win 10 problem?

Tried to un/reinstall AMD/ATI driver, Realtek driver, sound driver in Device Manager etc..

Spatial sound shows Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos for Headphones, not HT
 

issachar1943

Commendable
Oct 4, 2016
2
0
1,510
Same here.

I'm using nvidia 1080ti, Dolby Atmos was working just fine, I suspect it's build 1809 caused the problem.

The problem now is the speaker icon at tray icon now shows a red cross and it says "The Audio Service is not running."

I checked everything in Services, as well as dependencies, they are running.

Speaker Setup shows only 2 speakers enabled, Dolby Atmos for home theater is selected. Optional speakers setting cannot be saved, there's no error, I can check all Optional speakers, but the setting just wont save. When I open the Speaker Setup, only 2 speakers are enabled.

Default sound format and Spatial sound is selected as Dolby Atmos for home theater.

Reinstall nvidia driver, sound troubleshooter of coz is useless.
 

Stewart_2

Estimable
Oct 28, 2015
2
0
4,510
Windows 10 and surround sound is broken. and I guess will never work properly. My set up us a AMD R9 280x graphics card with HDMI out to my Onkyo Atmos AV. I also have a couple of other computers and they have the same issue

ALL HDMI CABLES ARE HIGH QUALITY 4k (HDMI v1.3 cables will not work)

HDMI audio drivers are built into the graphics card drivers so that provides all the choices. My AV is set up for 5.1.2 with rear over head Atmos speakers (not really there JBL Control One but there better than anything labelled Atmos that costs 3 times the price).

If I want Atmos in Windows 10 I have to set my speaker settings in windows 10 to stereo !!! I have Atmos Access but it NEVER works properly so I never bother since it works sometimes and sometimes not but when set to stereo it works all the time.

STrange thing was all games always work fine, just (browsers) youtube that was my issue.Even when it was set to Atmos youtube was always only stereo now its set to stereo youtube is in surround !!

The only other issue I have is that when set to stereo for atmos the volume takes a massive hit !! BUt it can get very loud even with noise correction set to on in both windows and on the amp

I have read loads of reports about atmos only being available for Microsoft edge or google stripping out atmos from chrome, all rubbish. ATmos works fine for me in all browsers, but only when windows is set to stereo and my amp is set to atmos

NOTE
In the sound control panel select the properties option (bottom right) for your AV amp and enhancements and set loudness equalisation to on so as to get the center speaker to work properly. I know this all might sound a little strange, it is. BUt I have spent hours messing and this is the solution I have found that works

 
Dec 9, 2018
1
0
10


i went here as well, but instead of uninstalling it i just updated the nvidia drivers and it brought back the 7.1 and 5.1 options, the realtek driver said was the latest.

 
Dec 17, 2018
1
0
10


I'm running an RTX 2080. Spatial was working fine for a while. I only noticed it wasn't the other day, a while after I had upgraded to 1809. Reinstalling the nVidia drivers, doing a clean re-install, deleting and redetecting the devices... none of that helped.

I was going to try removing all the nVidia drivers, restarting, and then reinstalling. I got through removing the 3d vision and one other that was unrelated, plus the HD audio driver. After removing the audio driver Windows stated it needed to restart. I went ahead and restarted.

After the restart it installed a Microsoft driver for the audio device on the video card. Now the supported audio formats for the audio device show Atmos again and I'm able to successfully select and enable it.

I know there were some changes to the driver framework with 1809. Perhaps nVidia still needs to work on those changes with some of their drivers.
 
Dec 23, 2018
1
0
10
after the 1809 update i have no 5.1 sound anymore. nothing helped, i thin i have to wait till ms or nvidia or dolby updating there software :(

Nvidia gtx 1080, dolby atmos TV and 5.1. receiver.
Before the upate I had 5.1 sound, now just stereo.

Updated already all drivers.
 

terenz

Estimable
Aug 1, 2015
42
0
4,590
OP again. The problem seems to have solved itself.

One of the things I changed was the receiver, from they Sony 770 to a Denon 750. The computer may change back to stereo but 5.1, 7.1 + Atmos are available. Sometimes have to power cycle the receiver.

Further change of computer (to a just as old 3-core AMD Phenom with a Nvidia 1030 card to support 4K) and it seems the sound setting sticks to 7.1 as set.