surround sound gaming problem

[Uli]

i've got a multichannel onboard sound card (realtek AC'97) which is connected to my AV 5.1 receiver setup via digital audio out (S/PDIF) and also 6-channel analog audio out. S/PDIF is set to digital ouput only. all seems to be setup fine, AC3 movies are being recognized, all speakers tested with the audio multichannel manager software.

problem is i don't get my PC games to put out surround sound. i am currently playing COD2 and FEAR. both games are EAX 2 enabled and my AV receiver is set to 6channel analog input. but the games only output 2D sound. strangely, at one time, i could switch "HW sound mixing" on and off in FEAR and while enabled it actually worked and i had true 5.1 sound in the game. now this option can't be switched on or off anymore, it's fixed set to ON but the surround sound is missing again. i'm pretty clueless!

any idea what's wrong? any help is much appreciated!

[Hohum]

Could try reinstalling your soundcard drivers, or updating them.

[Uli]

Could try reinstalling your soundcard drivers, or updating them.

already done.

also, i've set the S/PDIF to output both digital and analog audio. but nothings changes.

[EvilBoris]

You shouldn't have EAX on unless you have a creative sound card that supports it.

[Uli]

You shouldn't have EAX on unless you have a creative sound card that supports it.

are you sure? if it's not supported then why can i switch it on and off? there's also "EAX HD" in the sound menu which can't be selected and is set to OFF. anyway, didn't help.

btw: what exactly does "HW sound mixing" do?

[mid]

If your sound isn't an nVidia SoundStorm (and if it just says Realtek AC97 it isn't) then you'll need to wire up the six analogue outputs. Your sound system can pass the digital bitstream from your DVDs, but it doesn't have a Dolby Digital realtime encoder to do the same with game sounds.