Windows 10: 7.1 surround sound resetting to stereo after waking from sleep or shutdown

Hello,I have an intermittent issue whereby waking the computer from sleep, or starting it up after a shut down resets my 7.1 output to stereo, it also puts the quality down to the lowest setting. I can see tonnes of forums online of other people having this same issue but there are no resolutions to the issue. It's hard to understand why Windows 11 thinks it knows best and does not lock to audio output to what was previously selected... unsurprisingly my output device rarely changes.The only slight fix - which somewhat simulates the behaviour Windows should already have of remembering your out

:)

 

5.1 surround sound

Just upgraded to latest Windows 10. Surround sound is not on audio channel menu. Only "stereo" is listed. Surround sound is also now not working on ONKYO receiver. Windows says I have latest sound driver.

All other help messages talk about realtek. I just have what came with Dell computer.

 

Windows 10 - Surround sound (VIA Audio HD)

Hi Ashish,

I was able to use 5.1 surround output, Microphone, Line IN and Stereo Mix on Windows 7. But now on Windows 10, I'm able to record sound when Windows automatically install recommended drivers, but then I can only get stereo output from my speakers and 5.1
surround sound is not working.

After I installed recommended drivers from VIA website, I got 5.1 surround output but then Microphone, Line IN and Stereo Mix are missing from installed device list, and troubleshooter list these devices as not installed and not working.

But if I roll back to Windows 10 recommended drivers, then all of these devices working as they should except my speakers.

 

Surround sound configure only has stereo

Hi, my name is Kelly, and I'm an independent consultant and I'm here to help.

To configure surround sound on your computer, you need to ensure that your sound card supports 5.1 surround sound and that the necessary drivers are installed. You also need to make sure that your speakers are properly connected to your sound card.

Once you have confirmed that your hardware supports 5.1 surround sound, you can follow these steps to configure it:

Right-click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and select "Spatial sound (Off)".

In the Spatial sound settings, select "Windows Sonic for Headphones" or "Dolby Atmos for Headphones" if you have it.

Open the Control Panel and click on "Sound".

Select your speakers in the list of playback devices and click on "Configure".

Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your speakers for 5.1 surround sound. Make sure to select the appropriate configuration for your setup.

If 5.1 surround sound is not available in the speaker configuration options, it may be because your sound card or drivers do not support it. You can try updating your sound card drivers or checking for any available firmware updates for your speakers.

It's also worth noting that not all content is recorded in 5.1 surround sound, so you may not always hear all channels when playing certain media.