speakers will not work with laptop

bgalin · Joined: Apr 16, 2007 Posts: 8

I just recently got a new Acer Aspire 6920 laptop. I wanted to use my Altec Lansing VS4121BLK speakers with the laptop. However, when I connect my speakers the computer recognizes my only 2 speakers as background speakers. Therefore I don't have any main left and right speakers. I've tried to correct this through the control panel but I've had no luck.

I also tried to use control panel>hardware and sound>sound>configure. When I do this it gives me the option of 'stereo' or '5.1 surround'. Whenever I select stereo it only gives me access to my built in laptop speakers, and when I select 5.1 surround it gave me the same problem as before.

Finally, my operating system is Vista. If I was unclear about anything just ask, thanks in advance.

goretsky

Hello,

Are you certain the Acer Aspire 6920's audio output connectors are compatible with the audio inputs on the Altec Lansing VS4121BLK powered speakers? Perhaps you need to use a bridge or converter to connect the two devices together.

From looking at this manual for the Aspire 6920 notebook, it looks like like you may need to use S/PDIF or HDMI to connect to the speakers. Unfortunately, the link to the Quick Setup manual for the VS4121BLK speakers on Altec Lansing's web site is broken, but perhaps you can verify what types of input are supported on the speakers if you still have the printed documentation which came with them.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

alphanumeric · Joined: Jun 02, 2004 Posts: 624

My father just bought an Acer laptop and had the same problem. As far as I could tell the output is set to Dolby Surround Sound which is Digital, by default. You need to change the "output device" in the audio properties from surround sound to "speakers". I don't remember the exact path at the moment but I downloaded the manual and it told me where the setting was. Buy the time I called my father he had it solved by a different method. He told me he just disabled the 5.1 surround and the speakers then worked. I assume he disabled it in device manager. It then defaulted to the only other option listed for sound output, speakers.